(Luke 3:1-3) In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar--when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene-- {2} during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. {3} He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Have you ever asked yourself the question: “why did God choose baptism to symbolize this thing called forgiveness?” Why not something like setting your hair on fire? To answer this question I want to take you though a historical context for what we now call baptism.
Lets take a look at the “Day of Atonement”.
(Leviticus 16:1-4) The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when they approached the LORD. {2} The LORD said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud over the atonement cover. {3} "This is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. {4} He is to put on the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments next to his body; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on.
Other than the account of the flood that is clearly about cleansing the entire earth ceremonially and literally with the exception of Noah’s family, this is one of the earliest correlations between the acts of ceremonial cleansing being linked to the water. We no that the act of washing oneself in a bat tub does not make one spiritually clean in a literal way but God chooses this method to speak toward the issue of ceremonial cleansing. Look at the references that will bear themselves out before you finish reading this context of scripture.
(Leviticus 16:5-10) From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. {6} "Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. {7} Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. {8} He is to cast lots for the two goats--one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. {9} Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. {10} But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat.
(Leviticus 16:23-24) "Then Aaron is to go into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen garments he put on before he entered the Most Holy Place, and he is to leave them there. {24} He shall bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his regular garments. Then he shall come out and sacrifice the burnt offering for himself and the burnt offering for the people, to make atonement for himself and for the people.
This is now the second time that a ceremonial cleansing with water is mentioned. It is very important to note here that God never refers to this as a form of gaining fellowship with any sort of people but as an act of cleansing.
(Leviticus 16:26) "The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp.
Now we have the third reference to washing and bathing with water which is to cleanse himself and also to allow himself to fellowship inside the camp after the ceremonial cleansing.
(Leviticus 16:27-28) The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and offal are to be burned up. {28} The man who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp.
Now we have the forth reference to this act and it is by a person who just touches the entrails of that which has represented the sin sacrifice.
(Leviticus 16:29-30) "This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work--whether native-born or an alien living among you-- {30} because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins.
Now lets step forward into the book of Hebrews for the interpretation of what we’ve just heard.
(Hebrews 10:1-12) The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. {2} If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. {3} But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, {4} because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. {5} Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; {6} with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. {7} Then I said, ’Here I am--it is written about me in the scroll-- I have come to do your will, O God.’" {8} First he said, "Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them" (although the law required them to be made). {9} Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. {10} And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. {11} Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. {12} But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.
All those men that took all those baths were just as sinful after their baths than they were before the bath, but God was satisfied. The act of bathing or the act of baptism does nothing for one who is not seeking to obey the will of God. But for the one who’s heart is contrite and his motive is to obey the eternal will of God something happens in the waters of baptism. Lets continue to look at this allowing the Hebrew writer to interpret what we have read.
(Hebrews 10:19-22) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, {20} by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, {21} and since we have a great priest over the house of God, {22} let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
It is impossible to understand the New Testament fully without first getting some background information from the history of the Old Testament.
Now when we read about the “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” we have a reference point. John is not instituting anything new. He’s just making you a priest. John is just removing all the sacrifices that have no power. Baptism is nothing new. It is in fact very old and the meaning has not changed. Baptism has always been used by God to signify a ceremonial cleansing. Peter even tells us the flood account is a picture of baptism and not the other way around. Many look at baptism and think that it represents the flood. It is exactly the other way around. God wanted to make the act of ceremonial cleansing through water (i.e. Baptism) so evident that He used the flood to illustrate what happens in the process.
(1 Peter 3:18-21) For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, {19} through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison {20} who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, {21} and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Yet peter still says that the act is not what saves a person, but the fact that Jesus was resurrected having been crucified as “the prepared sacrifice as referenced in Heb 10:5-10. However Jesus chooses to use the ceremonial cleansing process to save you by His resurrection.
Baptism is nothing new and it is not a man made doctrine. Look at all the references in Leviticus and Genesis and see how they fit with all the New Testament passages relating to Baptism.
(Galatians 3:26-27) You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, {27} for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Now see Lev 16:4 You’re putting on your “sacred garment”
(Acts 22:16) And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’ This is your “Day of Atonement”, Lev 16:29-30.
Hebrews 10:22} let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience… Lev 16:14-16
(Luke 3:21-22) When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened {22} and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."
Hebrews 10:9 Then he said, "Here I am, I have come to do your will." He sets aside the first to establish the second. {10} And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Jesus is saying Father I know that the blood of bulls and goats can’t make our people clean but my blood can and I am willing to do whatever it takes to cleanse them from their sins. - What a father’s day present. To have your son say: “I understand Father” - “I know why I am here and what my life is all about and I am willing to take on that task.”
This is ultimately what it is all about. Doing the will of my Father. John goes on to talk about this aspect of the Christian life when he speaks of “fruit in keeping with repentance”. Baptism in and of itself has no value but along with a changed heart, a changed mind, and actions in keeping with repentance it serves as your Day of Atonement sacrifice that cleanses you from all your sins.
I will close with this question: If you knew that you were leaving your friends and family and they would never see you again what would you say to them? Would it be important? Would you just tell them a joke and fade away? If I had one more opportunity to influence people and knew it would be my last time I would say something that I thought was important to them in the way they live after that point.
I ask you to study the gospel accounts of Jesus last minutes before He was taken into the heavens and ask yourself why He, felt compelled to, command His disciples in His last discourse to go teach people and BAPTIZE people into the possession of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit if it is an act the that we can easily dismiss as a take it or leave it aspect of our Christian experience?
I submit to you that He felt very strongly about it because He equated the act of a believers baptism with the opportunity to experience your very own day of atonement.
May God bless you as you plead for His guidance in your study.
