The spiritual reality it portrays is that kind of sanctification that takes place for the believer at the moment of salvation on the sole basis of the sacrifice of Christ: By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once [for] [all]. (Hebrews 10.10)
These words of Ananias to Saul/ Paul also suggest what the ritual portrays: And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22.16)
The ritual portrays that spiritual reality of being cleansed from sin and set apart to God eternally on the basis of what Christ did by dying for our sins on the cross.
The word "baptism" is not always used in reference to water baptism. The word "baptism" according to its use has the meaning of someone or something being identified with or united with something else.
Consider John the Baptist's words: I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Luke 3.16) John's baptism was a union between men and water; but Jesus' would be a union between men and the Spirit and with fire (the Spirit's affect or future judgment).
Romans 6.1-14 speaks of a baptism/ union by the reckoning (accounting) of God with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. It isn't talking about water baptism here but a spiritual reality, being an identification with Christ. This is how we are said to have "died to sin." His death for our sins is the basis for our release from the penalty of sin in which God must deliver us from the source of sin in us, being the "old man" with its sin nature. (Since God released us from the penalty of sin, He must deliver us from the source, that we might exist with Him.) His resurrection is the evidence and guarantee of our life from the dead. We are "freed" from sin. Sin and death will not "reign" over us. Sin does not have dominion over us: It does not have absolute control or sway over us in reference to eternity or even potentially in experience.
This union and identification with Christ at the moment of salvation results in positional and practical changes, such as seen in Romans 6.1-14. Distinguishing the positional from the practical is important, for the positional is one's unchangeable standing with God now, and the practical has two stages or aspects to it: one being the potential for change now and the other being complete change in the resurrection and glorification of the believer. The practical for now involves "reckoning" (to count or consider true) yourself dead to sin and alive to God. It involves the word of God concerning ones position in Christ and faith. There is new life strength through faith in God's salvation. We need to take in the word and be renewed in faith in grace and be obedient to God. Count these realities true and do not feed the inordinate desires or just pursue selfish ambitions, but maintain good works of righteousness to God.
Water baptism is a testimony showing acceptance of the counsel of God as Luke 7.29-30 says: And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. To be baptized in the name of Jesus is to identify with the Christian faith and community--to say it is the true community of God. This was a great risk for the Jewish believer, for such would cut him off from his Jewish community.
To avoid baptism, because of ostracism or persecution, would result in an evil conscience towards God (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism would save them from an evil conscience towards God, for they would openly identify with the Christ and the Church. Baptism could be a positive act to strengthen and press onward with in obedience: “There is also an antitype which now saves us-- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 3:21)
The call to Baptism, for the First century Jew, assumed a faith in Christ for salvation, and it openly identified them with Jesus as the Christ: Peter said to the Jews on the day of Pentecost: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “ Acts 2:38
Peter’s call to baptism acknowledges their faith in the person of Christ and the resulting remission of sins. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their lives was associated with water baptism because such manifestation had to be associated with faith in Christ for salvation and not for merely being a Jew.
If baptism was required for justification, then what about Abraham? He was justified by faith alone and not water baptism. We are saved the same way Abraham was, by faith in the word and promise of God concerning the eternal inheritance through Christ. Cornelius and those with him received the Spirit before baptism: Acts 10.36-47
Romans 4.2-5a For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God . For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.”
There are those who say circumcision was replaced by water baptism, but the two were distinctively practiced. John the Baptist did not introduce a new thing, nor was it a replacement for circumcision. Even if baptism did replace circumcision, it is clear that justification is by faith alone apart from the rite of circumcision as it is clear concerning Abraham: For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he] [had] [while] [still] uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. (Romans 4.9-11)
I don't believe the mode of baptism is as significant as what it pictures. Baptism pictures the effect, not the mechanics of the believer being baptized into Christ in his death and resurrection. That effect is the positional sanctification of the believer. It also seems consecration is in view: it is a new start to serve God as a vessel sanctified, set apart from sin unto God.
Consider...
John 3.25: Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. This statement is significant because it references the rite of water baptism as a "purification."
Numbers 19.13: Whoever touches the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person shall be cut off from Israel. He shall be unclean, because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him; his uncleanness is still on him. There was a baptism that served as a restoration to the community of God. The one who was defiled had to be "cut off from Israel"--the community of God. This was because of the defilement of the "tabernacle of the Lord." The tabernacle/ temple was the designated place of God's special presence in the midst of Israel. The baptism--water of purification--would restore one to the community of which God was in the midst.
Besides restoration, the rite could serve as a type of initiation into service to God. Jesus' baptism could have been initiatory for service to God as Messiah. In a symbolic way, baptism portrays the true effecting by the Holy Spirit. Yet there was an actual initiation (the Essenes spoke of "attaining to") or restoration into the Jewish community following the rite.
There's the idea of sanctification (in reference to one's status), and I believe that is what the washing of water signifies. It is by the Spirit of God that we are sanctified and placed into the community of God. The water signifies this effect: one is sanctified (set apart) to God in reference to God's true community of people or to a particular service for God. I don't believe the mode of baptism is as significant as what it pictures. It is a picture of sanctification.
I believe that baptism should really be done with clean water and not dirty lake water.
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