Baptism.
The Greek is baptisma, from baptizw, to dip, plunge, wash, etc. The ordinance of Baptism:
1. JEWISH. In Hebrews 6:2 (baptismoj) the Hebrew believers were exhorted to leave 'the doctrine of baptisms;' and in Hebrews 9:10 we read of 'divers baptisms or washings,' but which is followed by the words "imposed until the time of reformation," which 'time' is referred to as 'Christ being come.' This shows that the baptisms referred to were some part of the Jewish ritual, in which there were many washings and bathings; but none of these washings signified fully the baptism of the N.T., which as an initiatory ordinance places the baptised in a new position: the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:2) was a figure of this. It was the Jewish washings that the Hebrew believers were exhorted to leave, or not to be laying again as a foundation.
Further, it has often been said that the Jews received their proselytes by baptism. Of this we have no record in the O.T., and Josephus, who details the rites necessary for the reception of a proselyte, makes no mention of baptism. It is true that Maimonides says that proselytes were thus received; but he was not born till A.D. 1135, and was thus far too late to know what took place so long before when contemporary writers are silent on the subject.
2. BAPTISM BY JOHN. This was specially in the Jordan, to which the multitudes went out, and which is spoken of again and again as the baptism 'of repentance.' Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24; Acts 19:4. He challenged the multitudes who came to be baptised that they should bring forth 'fruits worthy of repentance.' Matthew 3:8; Luke 3:8. He baptised those who came 'confessing their sins,' Matthew 3:6; and he exhorted the people to believe on Him who would come after him," that is, on Christ Jesus." Acts 19:4: cf. John 1:29, John 1:1. The godly remnant by John's baptism took separate ground from the national body, in expectancy of Messiah's coming: they judged themselves, and cleared themselves of the sinful condition of the nation. The Lord was baptised by John, thus taking His place among the repentant in Israel, not as confessing sins, but as fulfilling righteousness, as He said, "Thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" Matthew 3:15.
3. CHRISTIAN BAPTISM. We have seen that John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance. During the Lord's ministry before the cross, some were baptised to Him as Messiah. John 4:1. After His death and resurrection Peter preached, not repentance, but the rejected Jesus as exalted, and made Lord and Christ. When they were pricked in heart, he said to them, 'Repent,' etc., but the baptism was to the remission of sins because the work was now done which gave it fully: they were baptised to the remission of sins — administratively and governmentally. Acts 2:38.
Romans 6:3, Romans 1:6 gives the meaning of Christian baptism to saints who had been baptised long before. It treats of the death of Christ (the sinless One,) as death to sin and to the state man was in, and draws conclusions from it for us inasmuch as He is risen. They were baptised to His death, that is, they have a part in it — they are alive to God in Him risen (and consequently also alive to Him risen — not to law), and hence sin was not to reign any longer; but there is no resurrection with Him in these verses. Baptism is prefigured by Israel's passage through the Red Sea, not by their crossing Jordan, though resurrection is added in Colossians 2:12, as leaving sins behind: "Having forgiven you all trespasses." It is individual, and reception into the profession of Christianity: "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." The signification of baptism goes further in Colossians than in Romans, but is always connected with a status upon earth, and not with heavenly privileges. It saves, 1 Peter 3:21; we wash away our sins in it, Acts 22:16; we go into death in it; and in Colossians 2:12, it is added, we 'are risen:' hence also it is individual. The church as such has never to be brought into death, its very origin is in the resurrection of Christ, Colossians 1:18: it is first-born in the new creation.
It is clear that Baptism, though in a certain aspect it places the recipient in a resurrection status, giving Christ for our life, never takes us out of the earth; but puts us in the position of christian responsibility in it, according to newness of life, as it is said, "so we also should walk in newness of life." There is a warning in 1 Corinthians 10:1-6. They were baptised, etc., "but with many of them God was not well pleased." A mere sacramental position is not enough: we have to "continue in the faith, grounded and settled." Colossians 1:23. We are called, as baptised, to walk in this world as dead and risen again, as in a wilderness. It is the expression of the outward visible church in its profession: "one Lord, one faith, one baptism." In baptism we have a good conscience by the resurrection. 1 Peter 3:21. We wash away our sins in it, calling on the name of the Lord, Acts 22:16; we are received by it into the responsible place of God's people in this world.
With Peter, Christian Baptism seems more connected with the kingdom of heaven: cf. Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48: with Paul it was connected rather with the house of God when he did use it. Paul had a new commission. He is not found, like Peter, ministering in the midst of a known people who had promises, calling souls out of it to repentance, that they should receive remission and be separated from the untoward generation. Paul takes up man as man (though owning the Jews) and brings him into God's presence in light. For the Gentiles it was, even in testimony, a wholly new resurrection state, not merely a good conscience through the resurrection; and baptism, which gives a status on earth founded on resurrection, forms no part of Paul's testimony, any more than of the mission in John 1:20-23; and Paul tells us himself, that he was not sent to baptise.
Faith sees that when God brings a man into privileges on earth, he does not separate his household from him, for example, Genesis 7:1, etc. Under Christianity this surely holds good: see 1 Corinthians 7:14: and we See households were baptised by Paul.
At the end of Matthew's gospel we have a commandment connected with baptism and apostolic mission to the Gentiles exclusively, but then there is nothing of repentance or remission. It is simply discipling all the nations, baptizing and then teaching them. Matthew 28:19, Matthew 1:28. (This passage contemplates in its full sense a work to be done at the end of the age by the Jewish remnant toward the Gentiles. Christian Baptism now is for Jews and Gentiles alike, that by it they should lose their standing as such, and being committed to the death of Christ be brought into Christian profession, leaving those distinctions behind them.) The direction in Luke 24:47 is repentance and remission of sins. In Mark 16:15, Mark 1:16 salvation belonged to him who believed and was baptised; for if he was not, he refused to be a Christian.
Scripture gives no definite teaching as to the mode of baptism, the great point being what the recipients of the ordinance were baptised to: cf. Acts 19:3. The idea conveyed by the word is 'washing,' as with the priests of old (Exodus 29:4), rather than 'sprinkling,' as with the Levites.
As to the formula used, some have supposed that because we read in the Acts that persons were baptised 'to the name of the Lord Jesus,' the instruction given in Matthew 28:19 to baptise "to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," was superseded. but this does not follow: baptism is always to some person or thing. The disciples found at Ephesus had been baptised to the baptism of John, Acts 19:3; the Israelites had been baptised to Moses; and those baptised in the Acts were to the name of the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Lord; and there is no reason why this should not be combined with the words found in Matthew, and a person be baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus unto the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. In Acts 2:38 the preposition is epi (en in MSS B,C,D); in Acts 10:48 it is en; and elsewhere it is eij.
4. BAPTISED FOR THE DEAD. This occurs in 1 Corinthians 15:29. Some maintain that the Corinthian saints had fallen into the error of holding that if some of their number had fallen asleep without being baptised, others could be baptised for them, and that Paul was condemning this. but in the language he uses there is no condemnation. If 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 inclusive be read as a parenthesis, 1 Corinthians 15:18 explains 1 Corinthians 15:29; and 1 Corinthians 15:19 explains 30-32. Thus, if there be no resurrection, those "fallen asleep in Christ are perished . . . . else what shall they do who are baptised for the dead?" Why step into their place in the ranks, and be in jeopardy every hour, like soldiers in a war, if the dead rise not? What advantage was it for Paul to have fought with beasts at Ephesus if the dead rise not? The allusion in the 'jeopardy every hour' and in the 'fighting' is to those in danger, as soldiers in a war.