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CHURCH LETTER
'If we have been planted together in the likeness of His death '
Within Christian circles the mention of `baptism' opens up a variety of often-heated opinions. We do not, however, intend to list those many `pros and cons' within the Christian Church! The word `baptism' itself derives its meaning from the Indo-European root `to dip' and therefore can be used for various occasions - even `to dip into a book' or to wash something. Within Christian circles it has come to mean a washing with water by `dipping', and in many Christian Churches and Fellowships and also with individual believers it has come to mean a ritual or ceremony of admission by different ways and means and for all ages. Within Judaism amongst other things it is seen as an act of purification for admission into Judaism, and using Paul's words recorded in Acts 19 this purification was only for repentance and not for baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul said:
" John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe
in the One coming after him, that is, Jesus. On hearing this, they were
baptised into the Name of Jesus. "
However we shall sidestep those many opinions and turn to the Gospel of John in order to see what the Believers were being baptised, dipped, into. In chapter 17 we read of Jesus, shortly before he was arrested and sentenced to be crucified at that Feast of Passover, alone and speaking in prayer to His Father. The word written as `pray' in His time alone with His Father is found only here in John's Gospel and in one other instance in chapter 14 of Luke's Gospel. It was not a prayer of entreaty or supplication for it is translated from a Greek word `Erotao', meaning `to ask' - a reminder from one equal person to another equal person to do the `something' reminded of. Throughout the following verses we find that this `reminder' is to:
" Glorify the Son that the Son may Glorify the Father . . . with the Glory I had with you before the world was . . . I ask (remind You) not for the world but for them You have given Me, for they are Yours. All Mine are Yours and all Yours are Mine and I am glorified in them . . . I ask (remind You) not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them safe from the evil one (to be sanctified, set apart) . . . Neither do I ask (remind You) for these alone, but for them who also shall believe in Me through their words . . . The Glory which You gave Me, I have given to them that they may be one (in that Glory) as We are One . . . "
From these words of Jesus comes the clear understanding of what Believers through their words of faith in Jesus are baptised into. First, into `the likeness of His death and raised by the Holy Spirit in the likeness of His resurrection' into His Glory which He had `before the world was'.
We need now to turn to the Pauline Letters to see how Paul opens this up following the revelation he received from the Lord Jesus. Once again we will see a `parallel' outworking - first the natural and alongside it God's purpose. We shall find that throughout Paul's letters this truth breaks through: Resurrection into New Life in Him, a God-given life which we have as First Fruits, baptised by the Holy Spirit into Him and His Glory. Paul's first Letter in the Canon of Scripture, that of Romans, is paralled with the first of the Three Pilgrim Feasts of Leviticus 23, Passover, and this is revealed in chapter 6. We who have believed in Him are no longer in sin because we have died with Christ: (Romans 6:3-4)
" Do you not know that so many of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory (glorious power) of the Father, we too should also walk in newness of life. "
Two things come to mind in this: First, we have seen in John 17 that this Glory of the Father was `in the Son before the world was'. Second, verse 5 of Romans 6 starts with a connecting word `for' - `For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection'. It is in this verse 5 of chapter 6 that we see the fulness of baptism - we have been planted together in the likeness of His death! The word `planted' has been translated as `united', but this does not give the true meaning of the orginal word. We can unite with someone until we decide to `un-unite' - it becomes an act of will coming from a common interest or desire. However when we plant something into something, we expect it to grow into the likeness of whatever it was planted into. Here in his Roman Letter Paul was saying that we have been planted into the likeness of His resurrection. In that act of baptism, through our words of confession, this `likeness' is described more fully as a `similitude', meaning `a person or object having the same quality or state as another'. Therefore the Glory that was in Jesus, that He had with the Father `before the world was', could not be destroyed for it was eternal, before time was. In baptism, in new birth, planted into Jesus, that same likeness of His Glory is imputed into all who live in His resurrection Glory, which is eternal. The Believer in Christ Jesus now dies to himself, for as Paul writes in his Letter to the Galatians: (Galatians 2:20)
" I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives
in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself for me. "
However, in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5, Paul makes it clear that this imputed Glory is but `a Deposit given by the Spirit . . . guaranteeing what is to come'. As we said earlier, Paul's Letters are full of this glorious revelation of what is now and also what is yet to come. This time in his Letter to the Ephesians he writes in chapter 2: (v 4-5)
" But because of His great love for us, God Who is rich in mercy, made us
alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by
Grace you have been saved. "
Paul continues in chapter 2 of his Letter to the Colossians: (v 9-10)
" For in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you
have been given fulness in Christ . . . . "
Regarding this baptism of death into resurrection, an expression has been coined to give a simple understanding that baptism for Believers in Christ Jesus is `a physical event releasing a spiritual effect'. Scripture however gives it a more glorious depth, which even Paul could barely express when writing in his Roman Letter concerning God's irrevocable gifts and calling for Israel: (Romans 11:33)
" Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!. How
unsearchable His Judgements and His path beyond tracing out! "
His Riches in Baptism certainly are beyond tracing out for it is death to our mortal bodies as we are baptised by the Holy Spirit into His Glory for eternity! However we need to step back a while, for baptism, and later the gift of the Holy Spirit, are seen in many Scriptures which have been turned into tradition. Firstly, in Jewish practice baptism is an act of Purification with the undertsanding that baptism is used for proselytes being brought into the Jewish faith, the thought being that unclean Gentiles must be purified before entering into the Jewish faith. It is seen also in the baptism of John the Baptist, a baptism of repentance for past uncleaness into a purified state, for there would be One Who would come to `baptise them with the Holy Spirit and with fire'. The ultimate expression of uncleaness is in touching a dead person, as recorded in Numbers 19, for such a person could only be cleansed through `the washing with the ashes of a pure unblemished red heifer, which had been placed in a vessel containing pure spring water, the mixture sprinkled on an unclean person with twigs of hysop, but then the priest undertaking the ritual would himself become unclean and his clothes required washing with pure water and he then remained unclean until the evening. This understanding is seen in Haggai chapter 2 where the LORD, speaking through the prophet asks the priests:
" If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled? `Yes', the priests replied, `it becomes defiled'. Then Haggai said, `So it is with this people and this nation in My sight', declares the LORD. `Whatever they do and whatever they offer is defiled'. "
Since the destruction of the Temple and the lack of a pure red heifer for purification Jews consider themselves to be in a state of death, hence the search for their names in the Book of Death during the `Ten Awesome Days' between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, trusting that by repentance and good works they may find themselves in the Book of Life. Such thinking needs to be remembered when witnessing to Jews, for as they see it Christians are in a state of uncleaness, not only are they outside the Jewish faith but they also claim to be baptised into a dead Person - hence the total shock on that Day of Pentecost when Peter stood up in the Temple Courts and declared:
" Repent and be baptised, every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ
(that is, in a dead Person) that your sins may be forgiven and you will
receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. "
Little wonder that those disciples and those who believed in their message walked in fear for their lives, for they were outcasts in Jewish eyes, dead unclean people!
So it is with this Jewish background that we now turn to Christian baptism, for in Acts 2 we read of Peter's response to the peoples' cry, `What shall we do?'. As we read previously,
his reply was, `Repent and be baptised, every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, that your sins may be forgiven and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'. The Jewish understanding of baptism is this: Be baptised, dipped into pure spring water for purification and (in Peter's words) receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This `addition' to the Jewish ritual was to give a spiritual sign of acceptance that their consenting baptism had the blessing of the LORD - even though in Jewish eyes they were being required to be baptised into the Name of an unclean dead Person! Not only that, for earlier in Acts 2 we read:
" When the Day of Pentecost had come they (the disciples) were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind . . . and there appeared to them cloven tongues of fire and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance'.
It is said by the Rabbis that Pentecost is the closing Feast of Passover, therefore Passover and Pentecost are two parts of the one Feast:
Passover records in its fulness of revelation the death, the sacrifice of Jesus, the Lamb of God Who three days later was raised from the dead and ascended into Heaven to complete His work in the heavenly Temple of sprinkling His blood on the heavenly Mercy Seat.
Pentecost fifty days later saw the release of the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31 and `when the Day of Pentecost was fully come - that is 49 days followed by the 50th day, God's Day, outside man's work - they were all with one accord in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven of a rushing mighty wind . . . And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as fire, which sat upon each of them'.
Now we can return to what was said earlier regarding the Red Heifer. This can now be seen in its full revelation: Jesus, the Son of God, the Red Heifer, had been taken outside the city walls, as required by the `Mosaic Law', and crucified, destroyed in His flesh. He had been raised from the dead, had sprinkled His blood on the Mercy Seat in the heavenly Temple. He was now ready as High Priest to minister in the Earthly Temple on this 50th day at the closing Feast of Pentecost where the `water' of the Holy Spirit through the `Ashes' of God's Red heifer fell upon the waiting disciples, cleansing them for service as priests in the Temple - as recorded in Acts 2:14:
" Peter standing up with the others raised his voice and said, `Men of Judah and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and heed my words'. "
So now we can turn to Paul's Letter to the Romans, where in chapter 6 verses 3-11 we read of Paul's understanding of the continuing work of the Red Heifer, the Lord Jesus Christ.
" Do you not know that as the many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised 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, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection. "
And so to bring all of this together, this is Paul's revelation of baptism into the Name of Jesus: We were planted into the likeness of His death, Who as God's Red Heifer cleansed us with the water of purification mingled with His `ashes'. And so we were washed clean for service as priests in the Temple of Living Stones.
To sum up: This is baptism for all true Believers in Christ Jesus. We are `Planted together in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection', washed clean by the Holy Spirit as priests with the first fruits of His Glory `which He had before time was'. It is a natural Jewish ritual, but now through the revelation of Jesus given to Paul it is revealed in all its Glory as a deeply spiritual matter for all Believers in Christ Jesus, undertaken with a deep sense of reverent awe and with great joy in the promises of God to restore `all things' to their original Owner - as revealed on that glorious 50th Day of Pentecost so many years ago, a 50th day outside the time of man who counts to a different `time'. Whilst there is no salvation in the act of baptism there is, however, an implied understanding in the wording of Romans 6 that baptism is confirming something which has previously happened. By accepting Jesus as Saviour and Lord a person undergoing baptism, who was previously `unclean' towards God, is cleansed and brought to new life, fit for purpose as a priest and ready for service in the Temple of Living Stones.
Baptism, a simple stand-alone word in constant use all over the world, reveals itself to those who believe and trust in God in Jesus, the Eternal Glory `which was before time was' and is now given to those `planted together in the likeness of His death (who) shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection'!
Selah
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