The Identification of Baptism

Col 2:11  In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, Col 2:12  having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Col 2:13  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

Rom 6:3  Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Rom 6:4  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Rom 6:5  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 

We notice in the above passages that we are baptized into Christ.  Whether we are speaking of our spiritual baptism when the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ or water baptism where we publically identify with Christ it is all about union and identity with Jesus as Lord and Savior.  I have spoken with Covenant Theologians who baptize by sprinkling and pouring and who baptize babies.  One argument used to support sprinkling and pouring is the above passage in Col. 2:11-13.  This person said that when the Spirit baptizes us he comes down upon us so sprinkling is an appropriate symbol of this. 

That might be true but it is fundamentally flawed since we are not baptized into the Holy Spirit but by the Holy Spirit.  Also we are never said to identify with the Holy Spirit but with Jesus Christ.  Again, notice the absence of the mention of the Holy Spirit in the above verses.  He is there but behind the scenes.  The Gospel is about what Christ has done for us in his death, burial and resurrection.  Paul preached Christ and him crucified.  When we are baptized we are proclaiming that we have been saved by Christ’s work and we are now followers of Christ because we have been given new life; the life of Christ.  Our baptism is not a picture of how the Spirit came down upon us.  Baptism is a picture of us being joined to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus; we are followers of him, not the Spirit.  Christ said take up your cross and follow me, not the Spirit.  I am not trying to play down the Spirit’s role but he is given to lead us into the knowledge of Christ and to glorify Jesus, not himself.

One passage that I think drives the point home is found in Acts 19. 

Act 19:1  And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. Act 19:2  And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Act 19:3  And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” Act 19:4  And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” Act 19:5  On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

We see that when you were baptized by John you did so in repentance professing to believe his message about the coming Messiah.  You identified with his message.  The reason Paul tells these believers (they were already converted) that they needed to be rebaptized was they were to identify with Christ, not John and not the Holy Spirit.  This shows that baptism doesn’t save since they already were believers and it shows why only immersion is proper baptism because it alone illustrates Christ’s work.  We are not baptized to point to the Holy Spirit. 

Our Real Enemies

Num 13:30  But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 

Num 13:31  Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 

Num 13:32  So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 

Num 14:1  Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 

Num 14:2  And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 

Num 14:3  Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 

We are all familiar with the account of the 12 spies that spied out Canaan and only two came back and encouraged Israel to take the land while the other 10 said it would be impossible to take the land.  The verses above reveal part of the problem these 10 spies had.  All these men could see was the size of their physical enemies.  They never once mention the power of God or the fact that the Lord had already told them that he was going to give them the land.  In Num. 14:8-9 we see Joshua looking at this from spiritual eyes, “If the LORD delights in us, he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land that flows with milk and honey.  Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the LORD is with us; do not fear them.”   Clearly he and Caleb feared the Lord more than a few giants.

The 10 spies like the majority of Israel throughout their history did not have regenerated hearts and so could not see the glory of God; they could only see the glory of physical things.  Their problem throughout their history was that they never could identify their real enemy.  Their enemy and ours is never that which can destroy the body but that which can destroy the soul.  It is interesting that they were afraid of the size of the Canaanites but not afraid of the gods of the Canaanites. 

We see why in this account.  To them the giants of the land appeared more fearsome and stronger than Yahweh.  Their enemy wasn’t the Canaanites but the idolatry of their own hearts that refused to honor the Lord but instead only cared about the ease and pleasure of the flesh.  As in vs. 2 above, every time food or water got a little scarce and they were forced to rely on the providence of God they balked and started yearning for the food they had back in Egypt.  Never mind that they were slaves and the king was killing their children and working them to death.

What a picture of this world that will sell its soul for a few moments or years of pleasure rather than worship the Lord and give him his due.  One can’t help but remember Esau who for one meal gave up his inheritance.  To him his enemy was an empty belly but that only showed that his belly was his real enemy; in other words his enemy was his flesh that would be satisfied at all cost.

As Christians it is imperative that we recognize our true enemies.   Pain, sickness, poverty, injustice, loneliness, obscurity and such things are not what we need to fear.  Such things are sent by a loving God to demonstrate his power and that we need him more than these things.  These things can only cause discomfort for a short time.  But we must recognize that our enemy is the remaining sin in our heart that would cause us to flee from them rather than use them to serve the Lord.  When we do, then we will do battle with the way we think and the things we love more than the Lord.  When we live by sight and not by faith, we end up doing battle with God by complaining about his providence. 

As Jesus said in Mat 10:28, And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.   Our true enemy is anything that would become an idol to us; anything that would cause us to fear it more than the Lord or anything that would cause us to love it more than the Lord.

Israel should have been more concerned with the idolatry of the Canaanites rather than the size of their army because one could only kill their bodies, the other destroy their souls.  Of course, most of the Jews never had a regenerated heart but if we are Christ’s, we do and that makes all the difference.  Our problem often is that we don’t live spiritually minded, judging all things by the Scriptures, but we tend to live according to what we can see and feel.  But this is to walk as we did before we were saved and it is of the utmost importance that we walk according to the Spirit and not the flesh. 

The fourth chapter of Ephesians deals with this concept but I will quote just part of it here.  Read it and see if it doesn’t support what I have just conveyed. 

Eph 4:17  Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 

Eph 4:18  They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 

Eph 4:19  They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 

Eph 4:20  But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 

Eph 4:21  assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 

Eph 4:22  to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 

Eph 4:23  and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.

The Favored Son

Gen 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 

Gen 37:4  But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. 

I suppose most children are taught in Sunday School that Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son so Jacob gave him a really pretty coat to wear and his brothers were jealous and so eventually sold him into slavery.  I remember being left with the idea that Jacob just played favorites and no wonder Joseph’s brothers were jealous.  To be sure Jacob had a history of favoritism, especially with his wives and it did cause problems.  But I think there is more to this account than simple favoritism.  This is easier to understand once we see that Joseph is a type of Christ.

As it turns out, Rueben had slept with one of his father’s wives and so lost the inheritance and the blessing of the Messiah coming through his line.  We will learn later that Joseph was given the position of the firstborn (the greater material inheritance) and Judah received the Messianic inheritance (Christ is born through his line). 

This being understood Joseph’s coat is better translated a long tunic as it is in 2Sa 13:18  Now she was wearing a long robe with sleeves, for thus were the virgin daughters of the king dressed. So his servant put her out and bolted the door after her.  In other words it was a coat a person of authority would wear not the common laborer.  Joseph took the leadership of his father’s herds and so was the overseer of his brothers, not so much because of favoritism, although that was involved, but also because of his outstanding character as opposed to the deplorable moral state of his brothers.  This is probably one reason why the account of the brothers at Succoth, ch. 34 and the account of Judah and Tamar in ch. 38 are recorded for us.  Jacob’s favor is justified.

Once we put all this together the similarities between Joseph and Jesus are amazing to see.  Here we have a son who has a special relationship with his father.  He is given dreams that he relates to his brothers that someday they will bow the knee to him.  His brothers hate him for the special relationship with his father and for his exalted position seen in his dreams that he unashamedly tells them about.  

In Rueben we have the firstborn brother who forfeited the right to rule his father’s inheritance because he took for himself what belonged to his father alone.  Another son comes along who honors his father as Rueben was supposed to and is given charge over his brothers.  They reject his position and sell him into slavery for a few pieces of silver.  But in their rejection Joseph is exalted to the right hand of Pharaoh and eventually he becomes the means of their salvation from starving to death.

From there it is easy to see Adam as the firstborn man who took for himself the glory he was supposed to give to his Heavenly Father.  Another “Son” down the line is born whose character is unquestioned and in keeping the Law perfectly is given authority over all things.  He comes unto his own and his own do not receive him but instead betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver and he is crucified.  But it is in that very act of rejection that he is exalted to a position in which he is the very Savior we need. 

Not only is this a marvelous picture of the gospel but it is also an undeniable proof of the inspiration of Scripture and in this case of the book of Genesis.  This book has always been under attack by those that hate God because it establishes us as his creatures and thus accountable to him.  They can make fun of the six day creation and the universal flood of Noah but this account of Joseph teaches us that we had better take this book seriously as inspired by God; not just some of it but all of it.  If we can’t trust all of the Bible why would we trust any of it?  How could Jacob and his sons live this out in such a way that points clearly to the person and work of Christ unless God was in control of all things and could communicated it clearly to Moses to write it down for us?  If the Bible can’t accurately tell us what happened at the beginning by God who was the only One there, how can God relate any truth to us?

The Bible is a marvelous book and it is self-authenticating as the inspired Word from God.  Woe be to those who ignore it and so miss Christ.