"To Fulfil All Righteousness"

Some thoughts on baptism

John lifted up his eyes from the water in which he stood and beheld his cousin Jesus stepping into the stream to be baptised by him, and his whole being rebelled within him at the very thought. "I have need to be baptized of thee," he protested "and comest thou to me?" (Matt.3:14) He knew, perhaps better than any other man, the spotless life of this One standing before him. Whether or no he had realised prior to this moment that the firstborn son of Mary was indeed the Messiah that he had been proclaiming for six months past, he knew well that of all men in Jewry this One least needed his baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Therefore he demurred, and in his idea of what was fitting would not lift his hand to baptise his cousin, until the quiet, compelling voice of Jesus broke down his resistance and induced compliance with the request. "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." (Matt.3:15) So Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, led the way and set the example in the performance of a ceremonial symbol which his disciples, with but few exceptions, have followed ever since.

What is the significance of this act which has occupied so prominent a place in Christian thought and practice through the centuries? Is it nothing more than a ritual cleansing, a sign that the believer has been purified and made acceptable in God’s sight and accepted into his Church, or does it indicate some deeper and more far‑reaching truth? The fact that the Apostles and the Early Church attached so much importance to the ceremony—no less than thirteen instances are recorded in Acts—surely justifies at the very least some serious consideration of this subject.

Jesus himself needed no "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," which was the avowed purpose of John’s baptism. (Mark 1:4) Neither did He dispute or deny John’s implied assertion that He needed no baptism of that nature. Quietly, nevertheless, He insisted upon going through the ceremony. That it marked some very definite change in his life and work is shown very clearly in the fact that at this time He began his ministry, a ministry that culminated three and a half years later in his death on the cross.

The word translated "righteousness" in this text is used in the New Testament for "righteousness" ninety‑four times. It is the word that in a slightly different form is used for "justification," and its primary meaning is that of being right with God or doing the thing that is right with God. Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott translates "it is becoming us to establish Every Ordinance" and this may express something of the thought, although the true meaning is undoubtedly that of "filling full," or fulfilling, the thing that is right with God. In other words, this is an instance of "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." (Heb.10:9) And in so coming to Jordan and sinking beneath the waters, then rising again and going forth into a new life, Jesus was assuredly doing something that had a significance far greater than that of mere cleansing, a significance that touches things of the future life and the next world, penetrating into Ages which as yet have not dawned. What He did must have been for his followers’ sakes as well as his own, that they might understand the relation of this simple act to their own lives and standing before God, when in their turn they too came, as Jesus did when He was thirty years of age, to enter upon a life of consecration unto death for the salvation of the world.

It is usual to go back to the Old Testament for light on the rituals and the doctrines of the New Testament. In the case of baptism the Old Testament very nearly fails us, but not quite. There is no such thing as baptism in the Old Testament; the word is not mentioned and the children of Israel at no time in their history practised baptism. When John the Baptist waded into Jordan and commenced baptising repentant Jews for the remission of their sins he was instituting something entirely new. The idea of repentance was not new but this expressing of repentance by an outward act was. But John’s baptism did have a basis and something of that basis is found in the Old Testament. The Law provided that those who came to the Lord with offerings and sacrifices must first be ceremonially clean by washing in water. The priest before being inducted into office was first washed in the great "Laver" in the Court of the Tabernacle. In that simple act and the consecration ceremony which succeeded it we have the principles upon which acceptance with God is achieved. Cleansing—Anointing—Sacrifice; that was the order of things in the duty of priests in Israel and the same order prevails among Christians now. Repentance and belief in Christ brings justification by faith. That is the first step. That is cleansing. That is the truth lying behind Paul’s word to the Ephesians when he declares that Christ gave himself for his followers, the Church, "that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph.5:26) and his declaration to Titus that Jesus saves us "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit." (Titus 3:5) The washing must come before the renewing.

That is only one aspect of the true baptism that lies behind the symbol, the ceremonial. The second aspect is that which follows the initial justification, and is best expressed in the words of Paul to the Romans (Rom.6:4‑5) "we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death…" Here is a theme that has nothing to do with cleansing but everything to do with the dedication of life to death that out of death there might come eternal life. It has to do with the going into death of the few, following the One Who first went into death alone, that out of that death all might be received into life. And that in turn harks back to a truth that was first enunciated in New Testament days by Peter on the Day of Pentecost itself, that this coming of man into eternal life is really a restoration of that which existed at the first. "Times of Restitution of all things" (Acts 3:21) he calls the day when this new life is to be extended to all men, for there was a day at the very beginning when man, newly created by the hand of God, had eternal life within his grasp.

It is because the surviving records of those far‑off days are so scanty that we are not able completely to trace this aspect of the doctrine of baptism back to its probable origin in the days of the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head. (Gen.3:15) The Apostle Paul, whose knowledge of ancient lore was almost certainly far more profound than we today can easily realise, referred to something of this when he wrote in 1 Cor.10:2 of Israel, passing through the Red Sea, being "baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." That was not a baptism of cleansing; it was a baptism of separation, of dedication to the purposes of God that they might be a chosen people, a Royal Priesthood, ultimately to become an instrument in God’s hand for the reconciliation of fallen man to himself and the accomplishment of his purposes with them. To accomplish that end they must of necessity pass through the waters that separate between fallen man in a sinful world and the eternal life that can only be achieved in God’s world.

Peter must have seen something of that when he likened Christian baptism to the historical incident of the Flood. In the days of the Ark, he says, a few were saved by water—were carried through the water and saved when all others perished—"the like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us…by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1 Pet.3:21) He meant something very much akin to Paul’s words about Israel’s baptism in the Red Sea. Noah and his family were forever separated from an evil world, where sin reigned, by the waters of the Deluge, and they came forth into a new world which to them was a world of new and Divine life, a world where the Spirit of God could have full scope for the exercise of beneficent power and the righteous live according to the dictates of their own pious hearts with none to make them afraid. The fact that in after days the world relapsed again into evil does not spoil the picture of the new, renovated world into which Noah and his family entered when they emerged from the Ark, nor of the fact that we who by baptism are separated just as surely from a doomed and dying world come forth to a new order of things which is ultimately to become the "desire of all nations." (Hag.2:7)

In ancient mythologies the present sinful world was considered to be separated from the original perfect and sinless world by water—a sea that was impassable to ordinary human beings and could only be crossed by the favour of the gods. What dim memory of some great historical fact is enshrined in that idea we shall probably never know, at least this side the Vail, but the vague outline of the belief remains and it has some bearing upon our subject. In the Babylonian story of the Flood the patriarch Noah, for his piety, was carried across the sea and given a dwelling‑place among the gods. Only the pure in heart and righteous of life could hope thus to traverse the waters and enter into eternal life. The evil spirits could not cross them, but must forever remain with men in the world of sin. (This is the belief that gave rise to the idea that the demons are unable to cross running water, a popular belief to which our Lord referred in Luke 11:24 when he said that the unclean spirit, cast out of a man, "walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none.") In order to symbolise this separation between the worlds of evil and good there was, in the great Temple of Marduk at Babylon, a huge basin or tank of water, known as the "apsu" or "sea," and a ceremony very similar to the later washing of the Levitical priests was conducted there. As showing the similarity of ideas it is interesting again to note that the great Laver in Solomon’s Temple is called in the Old Testament by this very name of "sea." (1 Kings 7:23‑44; 2 Chron.4:2‑15). One of the oldest of Sumerian traditions tells how at the birth of Marduk, the god of Babylon, he was baptised in that "sea" and thereupon became the Redeemer of mankind. Sometimes those legends and mythologies have been dismissed as inventions of the Devil; what is far more likely is that they represent distorted memories of what were once, in dim antediluvian days, a tolerably clear understanding of the Divine purposes. It might well be that our first parents, during the centuries in which they lived and learned about God, were given some understanding that the promised Seed of whom God had spoken in the Garden must one day plunge beneath the waters of separation and of death that He might rise again in newness of life for the salvation of the world. There is some reason to believe that man’s separation from Eden was brought about by the submersion of the Garden by the waters of the sea. That theme cannot be enlarged upon here, but if such should actually have been the case it becomes easier to understand why subsequent generations, as the world grew steadily older in sin and death, should look longingly back to that former golden age and wondrous garden from which the relentless sea had forever separated them, until the memory passed into a legend growing ever more dim with the passage of years. Logically, then, the only way back to the lost Paradise would be by a passage through the sea, and that in turn would lead to the realisation that the One Who was at the end to be man’s Redeemer must himself pass through that sea, alone, and emerge triumphant on the other side.

There we have what may be the foundation of this second and so much more important aspect of baptism. We who are buried with Christ by baptism into his death are forever separated from the world and its aims and interests; we have elected to follow Christ whithersoever He may lead—and He leads into those symbolic waters and beneath those waters and then out of those waters into a new life. Like as Christ was raised from the dead, so we also rise to walk in newness of life. That new life is lived in this world, here and now, but because of that new life we are no longer of this world. We have become citizens of the perfect world, the Paradise of Righteousness which lies beyond the waters, the Paradise to which all men will attain when at last the waters are done away—they in the earthly phase of that Paradise, and those who went through the waters in the spiritual, heavenly phase.

That then is the vision before us as we go down into the symbolic baptismal waters, when by the One Spirit we, individually, are baptised into the One Body. (1 Cor.12:13) We, here, are still in the world of death and suffering and all manner of evil. Over there, on the other side of the water, there is the glorious world of the future, Eden restored, the River of Life and the Trees of Life, and the Holy City, New Jerusalem, waiting to come down from God to man. But Eden cannot be restored to man, much as man needs it and, maybe, longs for it, until Christ’s consecrated followers have followed him into those waters and been planted together in the likeness of his death. Only then can they emerge also in the likeness of his resurrection. (Rom.6:5) The world must wait until that has become an accomplished fact and the consecration of earthly life which is the real baptism has been consummated in actual death of the human frame and a glorious resurrection to spiritual being. "We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2) Until then "the earnest expectation of the creature (creation) waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."‑(Rom.8:19) The measure of our desire to see evil brought to an end and all humankind ushered into everlasting happiness, and God’s will done on earth as in heaven, will be revealed by the whole‑heartedness with which we present our own selves in absolute dedication of self and consecration of life to our Heavenly Father, willingly accepting whatever in his providence is to be our experience in life, and seeking in every possible manner to be so fashioned and moulded by the all‑powerful Holy Spirit of God that we shall ultimately become vessels fitted for his future purposes.

It is after consecration has become an established thing with us that we enter into the third aspect of baptism. The true baptism is not only cleansing; it is not only separation to holy things; it is also an entry into suffering. Suffering is an essential factor in the Divine Plan. We may not know—we do not know—just why that is so and just what redemptive or reformatory power is inherent in suffering, but the Scriptures show clearly that it is so. Our Lord’s death on the Cross provided the Ransom for man, but his life of suffering was the offering for sin by means of which man will ultimately be reconciled to God. Both are necessary in the Divine Plan. With those who are Christ’s consecrated followers, seeking to become joint‑heirs with him of the Kingdom and associated with him as his "Bride" in the glory of all future ages, the fact that they are dead to the world and are ready to lay down life itself for the Lord and the Truth is not the only fruit of their lives that God can use for the salvation of all. He can, and will, also use the fruit of every act of sacrifice and every pang of suffering that there has been throughout those consecrated lives. We realise, and say, at times, that suffering and sacrifice plays an important part in the development of character. Perhaps we could never approach conformity to the Divine likeness without it. We do know that our Lord was made perfect through suffering, and the disciple is not greater than his Lord. Therefore our baptism is, beside a baptism of cleansing and a baptism of separation, a baptism of suffering. It was so with Jesus. "I have a baptism to be baptized with" He said "and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." (Luke 12:50) When the mother of Zebedee’s children, John and James, asked that her sons be given the chief places of honour in the Kingdom, Jesus asked them if they were able to be baptised with the baptism that He was baptised with. They assured him that they were able. What innocent confidence they had, knowing not what the future held for them of suffering and persecution and death! Jesus knew. "Ye shall… indeed…be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with." (Matt.20:23) Perhaps He knew also that they would be faithful and come through triumphant at the end. In after days they must often have thought of their early joyous ignorance.

So it is with us. We enter the Narrow Way full of confidence—perhaps we think of our baptism principally as a cleansing; that it is also going to mean separation we see to some extent: that it will additionally involve suffering we see not at all. The revelation comes later, when we are becoming progressively stronger and more able to bear it. If then, when the trials of the way are more than usually oppressive, and affliction more than usually difficult to bear, the darkness seems to have overcome the light, and the things of this world to be overpowering the things of the Spirit, then is the time to remember that we who have entered the waters of baptism are half‑way through to the glory land on the other side. We are in process of being buried with him by baptism into his death, and the process in its working out may be a painful one at times—but we shall rise again, and when we do rise again it will be in the likeness, of his resurrection; "I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." (Psa.17:15)

Cleansing—separation—suffering; thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. How can we hold back longer from yielding "our reasonable service"? "I beseech you, therefore, brethren," pleads the great Apostle "that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind..." (Rom.12:1‑2) Will we not answer his plea with a joyous assent and a willing coming to God in full surrender?

What of the symbol? What of the simple, eloquent ceremony in which the believer, heart full of love to his Lord, testifies before his brethren of the decision that has already been taken and the consecration of life that has already been made, it may have been, a considerable time ago, within the privacy of the heart and mind? Our Master surely knew that some great value lies in this joyful ritual, some great blessing for the one thus symbolising his or her consecration. The fact that He himself insisted upon leading the way for all his disciples in going down into the literal waters is surely evidence enough for that! So too, when about to leave them, He bade them go forth and teach all nations, baptising in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matt.28:19‑20) The Book of Acts offers abundant testimony that the Apostles interpreted that instruction very literally and obeyed it very wholeheartedly, and the Church throughout all subsequent ages has done the same. Whatever may be our feelings as to the value and usefulness of ceremony and ritual, or whatever the reason that may tend to deter from the outward symbolic performance of a rite that testifies to the inward surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ that has already taken place, do not let us allow them to silence the gentle, compelling tones of the One we love and serve. Nevertheless "suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness." He knows, better than we can ever hope to do, what source of strength, what stabilising and sustaining influence, the memory of that little ceremony may become to us in some dark or stressful experience of life that may still lie ahead of us, in the unknown future.

"See, here is water" said the Ethiopian eunuch after Philip had expounded the words of life and opened his eyes. "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36)

"If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." (v.37)

"And he went on his way rejoicing!" (v.39)

So may we, having understood and experienced the true baptism of consecration to God and burial into the death of Christ, follow that surrender with an outward testimony to our brethren—and to our Lord—in the fashion hallowed by Jesus himself, thus setting our feet firmly and straightly on the road that leads to the Kingdom, and going on our way...rejoicing!

Bible Study Monthly
July / August 1984