What if… (take the plunge)

…Immersed in His Death and Raised in His New Life

If I was raised as a Christian at all it was because of my paternal grandparents. They were Methodists and the family had been raised that way for a couple of generations. I understood that my great grandparents became Methodists back when Methodism was, well, different than it is now, some hundred years later.

What little I remember was that my brother and I wanted to sing in the choir and to do that we needed to be “baptized” – but I can honestly say I do not remember what that experience was, let alone what it meant – other than afterward we got to wear choir robes. I would have been nine or ten – certainly no older, because our parents divorced when I was eleven – and the year leading up to that was hellish.

By the way, I do also remember memorizing the books of the Bible and Psalm 23 – for which I received my own Bible – though I don’t think I ever actually read that one.

I moved out of the chaos that our lives deteriorated into when I was in my mid-teens; was snatched out of what was certainly about to be an “out of the frying pan and into the fire” experience shortly after by the loving hand of God and the revelation of salvation!

It was routine for new Christians, in the smallish church I was going to, to be “baptized” – and so I was – though I do not remember what that experience was, let alone what it meant…

I wonder now – I didn’t know enough to wonder then – if part of my lack of recall is tied into the fact that what is called “baptism”, and noted nearly 100 times in the New Testament is not an idea that was translated, but merely a transliteration? A transliteration of a term that, as we will see, meant an awful lot to those who were inspired to write our New Testament? What if I had been told what was really going on, instead of just going through motions? (Though I must confess – maybe I was and just don’t recall.)

For the “What if” occasions that I have found, almost without exception, the source of the lack of understanding can be tied to a decision (from very early on in the process of translating and copying the Word of God), to not actually translate a word from the original language; to, instead, transliterate or even substitute altogether.

The word of which I speak is the word (and its derivatives) that we see as “baptize” in the New Testament – though its Old Testament corollary is appropriately seen as “dipped” or “plunged” (most notably portrayed in 2Kings 5 – a story we will cover in detail in just a moment). The Greek root is the word “baptō”, it means “to dip” in the sense of immersing or plunging; it is only found three times in this form in the New Testament (though it is found in some form around 20 times in the Septuagint) and it is always translated – as either dip or dipped. In the form “baptismos”, which refers to “the act of dipping or washing” and which is also seen three times, it is also translated as either washing or washings.

As for how it is presented in the other forms (bapitizō = to dip, sink; baptisma = the result of a dipping or sinking; and baptistēs = one who performs a dipping or washing), seen 95 times: (with only 2 exceptions) the words we see are transliterations.

And once again I find myself asking: What if, instead of ignoring how the words were originally understood and how they appear in the Greek Old Testament, we were given the simple meaning of the words when the idea is first presented in the third chapter of Matthew? What if the doctrine of being dipped in water and the Spirit as a part of our declaration of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, was as simple and plain and life changing for us now as it obviously was for them? And why was it deemed necessary to propagate some mysterious and misunderstood concept, not only early in our translations but throughout the revisions and endeavors since?

That I know the transliteration to be misunderstood is not solely a result of my own experience. I have spoken to dozens of Christians and church-goers who have insisted that there is no further need for “baptism” and believe their understanding to be confirmed in the Bible – some have even been taught from “the pulpit” that its ending is found in the New Testament. (And I confess, there is a part of me that heartily agrees – because the word means nothing…but then I recall that the act being described is quite powerful and so I stay the course!)

These terms we read as “baptize” or “baptism” or even “Baptist” as a title, are members of those terms and phrases in our common translations that many of us believe we know and understand His original meaning, only to discover with a simple review that we don’t.

From my two “baptism” events and my reflections on them – I have reaffirmed the conclusion that when teaching a child (or a child in the Lord, no matter their age), a doctrine found in the post-crucifixion writings, it is important for them to come to know what God meant when He inspired the writers of scripture to write His words. Doing that (teaching the meaning) takes more time than it takes to just read words; especially when they are words that the “child” doesn’t truly grasp and so ignores; unless of course they are explained – but I believe it to be time well spent.

This, the understanding and communication of His meaning, is the core reason I am motivated to do these “What if’s”; to draw attention to what I originally (and others with whom I interact) accepted as obvious, when in reality, it isn’t obvious at all. I mean, just because someone (like me) believes they “know” what “apostles” do, and what authority they have, doesn’t mean that they (or I) truly do.

Let me quickly add: That there is more than one way to translate the verified, original scrips into any particular language is indisputable – because language is nuanced. That any of those translations can and have been refined can also not be denied (in other words, there are multiple “editions” of the New American Standard Bible, for example). That the various translations are joined by even more devotional or expositional works, those that focus more (and maybe exclusively) on application than they do on an attempt to interpret the originals, is also a given.

All that said: I absolutely believe that the Holy Spirit – despite the variety – will lead us into all Truth, if we submit to His leading as we read and meditate on the written word. (He does, after all, work in and through flawed and feeble men and women.)

And as I have noted before, William Tyndale was executed for translating the Greek New Testament into English (circa 1526). His being burnt at the stake was because that translation fulfilled the very desire for which Tyndale believed he was commissioned: to put the Word of God into the hands of the common People of God – not just in those of the clergy or monarchy. His faith was that the Lord had intended the entire congregation of believers, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, to have a say in how the doctrines and principles He had given were to be lived out.

As I begin to tackle, from a Biblical perspective, the sensitive topic of this “What If…” I believe it will be extremely helpful for us to review an example from the Old Testament that effectively describes what this particular rite was intended to look like (and that I believe is very close to what it did look like – as I hope to demonstrate).

The story can be found in the Second Book of Kings, our chapter 5; it begins in Aram (what we know as Syria today). The characters include Naaman, captain of the army of the King of Aram, that king, the king of the northern kingdom of Israel, and Elisha – though there are minor characters as well.

Naaman was renowned, we are told, in part at least because the LORD had given victory to Aram, Israel’s enemy. He is also considered a valiant warrior, a great and highly respected man – and he is a leper. At one point in the conflict between Aram and Israel, captives were taken, including a young girl who served Naaman’s wife.

It was heard by Naaman that this girl said, “I wish that my master were before the prophet who is in Samaria! Then he would cure him of his leprosy.” And Naaman immediately reported to the king of Aram, who in turn authorized him to go to Samaria and gave him a letter of introduction to the king of Israel describing Naaman’s mission.

The letter read:

“And now as this letter comes to you, behold, I have sent Naaman, my servant to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.”

Naaman took with him, ten talents of silver (a talent is about one hundred pounds) of silver (about $500,000 in today’s market) and 6,000 pieces of gold (or two talents or 65 years of common wages) along with ten changes of clothing. That, in his position, the value of gold and silver would be less (as it would be for a billionaire – for example) than the current market value suggests, is certainly reasonable – but even a steep discount would still indicate for Naaman the price he was willing to pay for healing.

(A quick note. Leprosy was a disease that, under Mosaic law, would result in absolute isolation and the resulting ruin. It was considered “curable”, but even without a cure, advance cases would get to a point where the leper would be declared clean – suggesting that they were no longer contagious. What is described in Leviticus, though similarities exist, is not congruent with what is currently described as Hansen’s disease. So a direct comparison of current treatments or even causes is at best symbolic and may actually be a counter-productive comparison as one studies the health rules of the people of Israel.)

The king of Israel’s response to the letter was to tear his clothes as a sign of the sense of desperation that accompanied the demand from the king of Aram – his cry of despair being that this was simply a means of giving Aram another reason to attack Samaria.

When Elisha heard the story he saw it as an opportunity to testify of the power of the LORD and invited the king to send Naaman to him. What happens after Naaman, with his entourage, shows up at the “prophet’s” home (the word is “nābí and it means “a spokesperson, speaker”) is worth noting in its entirety.

So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.” But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.’ “Are not Abanah and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped (the word is “tâbhal”, it is a prime verb that means “to dip”; in the Septuagint, this is the Greek word “baptizō” – which we saw, means “to dip, sink”) himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child and he was clean. 2Kings 5:9-14

Though the remainder of the story is extremely insightful, it shifts to an entirely different theme, so we will leave it for now.

The take-away for our purposes is clear. There was a means of cleansing, a washing that would result in Naaman’s healing. And in this particular example the “candidate” for the cleansing was stricken with leprosy – which is symbolic in the Bible for sin. He did not need the spokesman of God to even see him, he just needed to recognize the instructions, get over his own pride and obey! So he dipped himself seven times – seven is symbolic of completion, perfection and fullness – and was clean and restored – like a little child, like one reborn. (We will come back to that point in a bit.)

The idea of cleansing or being washed clean is a significant doctrine in the laws given to the people of Israel by God through Moses. And though there is clear evidence that much of that was for simple sanitation, it carried with it an underlying principle of being cleansed from sin. A beautiful example of that is found in the 51^st Psalm. David wrote this after being confronted by Nathan for David’s sin with Bathsheba. Though the whole Psalm is worth re-reading, for our purposes I will note select verses:

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassions blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean, Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Ps.51:1-2,6-7

Hyssop was used to spread the blood of the Passover lamb or goat on the door post and lintel in order to rescue the Israelites from the death of the firstborn. In Exodus 12:22 where this is described we read “You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the basin of blood…” The word “dip” is the Hebrew word “tâbhal” and is the Greek word “baptizō” in the Septuagint. (The wonderful threads that can be found in His word!)

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I would be remiss (as we move from the Old Testament, where the concepts and principles of the doctrine are rightly translated and communicated, to the New Testament where the decision was made to cover over the clear meaning by using a form of transliteration to describe it) if I didn’t start with a parallel story.

Where Naaman was required to come to Elisha, the spokesman of God, to receive healing and cleansing; the story of Philip has him going to the man from Ethiopia. To set the frame of this encounter, it is helpful to review where we are in the work of spreading the Good News of Jesus.

Immediately after the stoning of Stephen, Saul ramped up a serious persecution of those Jews that had recognized the truth: that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah for Whom the nation of Israel had been waiting for over 1500 years! We are told that those believers who fled Jerusalem continued proclaiming the word.

Philip was one of those; and having gone down to Samaria he was proclaiming Christ. The response was enthusiastic and the Holy Spirit worked through Philip to heal and deliver many from unclean spirits. (By the way, I am going to “skip over” the parts about Simon the sorcerer in this review – not because it has no merit, but because it is a sidebar to our topic – though a sidebar that does point to the fact that being immersed, even in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough. Peter said of Simon after he was dipped, “Your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you.”)

But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being immersed in water, men and women alike.

Now when the sent ones in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been dipped in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:12, 14-17

Please note that what was missing for Simon was the Holy Spirit, “for He had not yet fallen upon any of them”.

As Peter and John started back to Jerusalem, Philip heard from a messenger of the Lord that he was to, “Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.” On that road he came to a court official, in charge of the treasures of Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was sitting in his chariot reading from the writings of the Lord’s spokesman, Isaiah. (The official had gone to Jerusalem to worship – so we can assume he was a proselyte.) The Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” Hearing the Ethiopian reading from Isaiah, Philip asked the man if understood what he was reading?

And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

“HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER; AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT, SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH. IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY; WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION? FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.”

The eunuch answered Philip and said, “Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” Acts 8:31-34

Taking advantage of the request, Philip used this passage in Isaiah to give a full accounting of the work of Jesus for all of Mankind. We are told that “he preached Jesus to him.” And that proclamation resulted in the eunuch seeing water and asking Philip, “What prevents me from being immersed?” So they both got in the water and the eunuch was dipped; and when they came up out of the water to the shore, Philip “was snatched by the Spirit of the Lord and the eunuch no longer saw him but went his way rejoicing!” But Philip found himself in Azotus and began preaching along the way until he got to Caesarea – which was about 70 miles away. So cool!

The doctrine of dipping/plunging/immersing (I get it, it is hard to not just shrug off the implications of a forced transliteration and go on with what we have grown accustomed to) is a powerful doctrine and it is a pertinent, present day doctrine as well. It wasn’t just important in the early days of the Lord’s building of His house for those He was calling out of darkness. It continues to enable us in our walk with the Lord today. It seems to me that the very fact that there has been a shrouding, confirms the importance!

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We will look next at the culmination of the old and the founding of the new by looking at the implications of Jesus’ dipping before we touch on some of the most important passages from which we can develop our understanding of what the Lord intends for us. (I will quote from Matthew’s account; but I will also modify the transliterations, drawing from the understanding that is consistent with how the Greek Old Testament treats these words.)

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be immersed by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be immersed by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all justice.” Then he permitted Him. After being dipped, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he (John) saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. Matt.3:13-4:2

The connection between John’s ministry of dipping for the cleansing of sin and the ceremonial cleansing of the laws given to Moses (keeping in mind that there were also forms of cleansing and even immersing that were based on sanitation) are a study in and of themselves – and one that would cover a series – so I will forego that attempt here. Suffice to say – Jesus did not need cleansing; He was without sin.

It was, however, important enough for Jesus to participate in the act that the timing of it can be tied precisely to the beginning of the seventieth week of the dividing of weeks prophecy the Lord sent to Daniel by way of Gabriel. (Again, I defer to the detailed works of Martin Anstey and Philip Mauro, as well as Kevin J Conner, that examine the details that prove this fact.) We are told in John 1:31 that though John did not perceive all that Jesus would do, and so hesitated to dip Him in water, and that his then doing so was “that He might be manifested to Israel” (see also Daniel 9:24-27).

And the importance of it is, of course, confirmed by the presence of God as the Spirit in the form of a Dove and the Father as the Voice from heaven. It is noteworthy that John the Immerser later testifies that the Spirit not only descended on Jesus but remained with Him – the very confirmation from God, that John was given, as proof that Jesus was the One.

That Jesus immediately goes into the desert to be tested, after forty days and nights of fasting, aligns with the inauguration of His ministry as Messiah. There He will face the tests that we all have faced (and failed) and He will conquer the adversary, by relying on the Word of God and the Spirit of God. His answers to the “Doubt, Deny, Deceive” tactic were Truth. This was a necessary (but not final) step to His proving that He is our Worthy Near Kinsman (the word in the Hebrew is “gaal” and it means “to redeem, act as a kinsman”) the Role that was fully revealed in Revelation 5.

But, as noted above, this was a segue from the Old Covenants to the New. It was a requirement for His ministry; but it was not the accurate template for what could not be demonstrated quite yet. For that, He needed to become sin for us, be separated from the Father, die and spend some of three days in Hades, be Justified by the Father because of His sinlessness, be Raised, apply His blood to the throne in Heaven, show Himself as flesh and bone for forty days to His disciples, and then Ascend to be Seated with God until…

For the actual template, we can find it most clearly stated by Paul, the one sent by God with specific orders and the power and authority to fulfill his mission, in the letter he wrote to those Gentile converts in Rome. As he lays out his treatise to them, which is focused on demonstrating the plan of God throughout the ages of time, he includes the purpose for being immersed in water – and it is not for cleansing – the blood of Jesus is the only means for that to happen.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus have been immersed into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through dipping into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:1-11

This, to me, expresses fully and beautifully, why we as His disciples should joyfully and with understanding go into the waters, being immersed and rising out of them. Our cleansing was complete when we confessed our faith in His ransoming; being dipped in water is not required for our names to be written in His Book of Life. But oh what a statement we miss making, to ourselves and to those around us, if we forego the physical enactment of our immersion in His death and our resurrection into His new life.

This to me is evidence enough of the value of the witness we make – for ourselves, as well as for others – of our new birth in Him and the power of the new life that comes when, as Jesus told Nicodemus, we are born again.

Which brings us to the final disclosure that we find regarding the unveiling of our being dipped in Him (though it was hinted with the converts in Samaria). As you likely remember, John told those who stood by the river, that he immersed in water, but that there was One that would come and bring a different immersion.

“I dip you in water; but He will immerse you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:8

As some of you will recognize, Acts 19:1-7 tells the story of Paul’s return to Ephesus at the beginning of his third mission (probably around 55 AD – shortly after Nero was set in as Emperor – which coincides with his writing the letter to the Romans to which we just referred). When he arrives, he meets a dozen young men who had been dipped in the dipping that John had proclaimed – the one for the cleansing of sin. Paul tells them:

“John dipped in water with the dipping of repentance, telling people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.”

Their response:

When they heard this, they were dipped in water in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in languages they had not learned and spoke forth the word of God.

As I read that story, what I see is a group of men, who like me, had not been given a full understanding of the purpose and benefits of the immersion into water as our ability to participate in the death and resurrection of our Lord. And that, once the truth was made known, they (like me when I learned the depth of the truth) were immersed in Him. I envision Paul standing with each one of them, dipping each into the water of the Mediterranean, and then as they rose from the water, he laid his hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit and the resurrection power that He brings.

Therefore if you have been raised up with the Anointed One, keep seeking the things above where the Anointed One is, seated at the right hand of God. Col.3:1

Paul, later in his life and while in prison in Rome, writes to those in Ephesus – those with whom he had spent so much time – and reminds them of the truth that he had shared with them years before.

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one immersion, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Eph.4:1-6

Included in his final words to these whom he loved, is the importance of their understanding of the one immersion that comes in the Lord.

We, in this day and age, seem to have so parsed and so formalized what was originally an organic experience, that we have even lost its meaning, lost it in a transliteration. For those, during the time of the writing of the New Testament, dipping in water was filled with power and wonder; we now tend to teach a rite, a formula, even a controversy. The Lord’s intent was that it be, simply and powerfully, the outward enactment of our experiencing the death of the old and the birth of the new – with the accompanying anointing that will enable us and lead us into all truth!

And so I am inclined to ask: What if, when we teach our children about the Good News of Jesus, in the same way that Philip proclaimed Him to the Ethiopian; they ask us what would prevent them from being immersed in water? What if, when we share that same Good News to someone in need of a Savior, they are plunged into His death and His resurrection and His anointing? And what if, say, some forty years later, those who experienced that testimony continue to declare His death and His new life with power and authority until He comes?!?

What if? If only!