Baptism: The Outward Response to an Inward Change

“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

(Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.” (John 1:19-28, ESV)

I was baptized somewhere in my early teens. If I had to guess, I was somewhere in between 12 and 14. If you ask my mom, she probably remembers for sure. I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy brain, or that it happened so long ago, but there aren’t too many details I remember of that day.

I remember I was baptized with two of my childhood church friends. I remember the water was warm. I remember that I didn’t want to say anything into the microphone to the congregation watching. When I emerged, my dad was on the other side of the baptismal with a towel and one of the biggest smiles on his face. 

I remember that I did it because I was fully convinced of Jesus and His love for me. I was sure of his birth, death, and resurrection. I was sure of the fact that I was a sinner without hope of salvation beyond Him. I remember wanting to step into a deeper relationship with Him and wanted to be baptized to prove it.

On the other hand, I remember the first time I baptized someone in vivid detail. I was serving youth alongside my now husband, Samuel. There were three youth that wanted to be baptized, and we listened to their testimonies of what Jesus did in their lives. We helped them into the stock tank baptismals that were rented for the occasion. And one at a time, we led them in their confession of faith, dipped them below the water. I remember the tears in both of our eyes as we got to serve in this way together. I remember feeling so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of their young faith and even more blessed to be in ministry with the man I was going to spend the rest of my life with.

No matter what side you’re on: either being submerged under the water or being the hands that minister to that one declaring Jesus is Lord, baptism is a moment in every believer’s journey that is a deeply meaningful moment. 

I’ve never really considered though, back in Jesus’ time, the symbolism of baptism that has been lost to time and changing cultures. In John 1, we see John the Baptist being questioned by priests and Levites sent by the Pharisees. John had been drawing crowds of people wanting to be baptized out to the wilderness to be dipped in the Jordan, and his rising popularity was catching some attention. 

They ask John who he is. They ask if he’s Elijah, if he’s a prophet, if he’s Christ Himself. John emphatically replies that he is not the Messiah, but he is making people ready for the Messiah’s arrival. He was making the hearts of the people ready to receive the One who was already among them that would be revealed as the Savior.

John’s baptism was the sort of baptism we see today, where full-grown people choose to make a public declaration of the faith they have realized in God. It was a practice that came out of the Jewish laws regarding ceremonial cleansing and washing. Back in that day, it was mainly used to proselytize, or convert, someone who was formerly one religion into the Jewish faith. In other words, John’s baptism was traditionally observed for gentiles who were renouncing evil and their sin, declaring faith in the God of the Jews, and being converted into that faith. There was an aspect of repentance involved in order to be made clean and righteous.

Maybe you can see why this would catch the attention of the Pharisees and Levite priests: because it wasn’t just gentiles coming to John to be baptized. It was Jews, too. And for a Jew to publicly admit that they needed to be made clean before God and to lower themselves to the status of a gentile that was saved neither by bloodline nor birthright– that was a departure from Jewish law in a significant way. 

Which is what brought this interrogation to John’s neck of the woods. Because John was lumping Jews and Gentiles together with no distinction to the hierarchy that the legalistic Pharisees and staunch Jewish culture observed.

But John makes another distinction between his ministry and the coming ministry of the Messiah. He says that he baptizes in water, but the coming Messiah was bringing something much more eternal. And indeed, when we are baptized, the act is representational, not salvific in nature. It’s not the water we are submerged under that saves us. Instead, it is Jesus’ finished work on the cross and a baptism of the Holy Spirit that saves. 

And I do want to be clear: This baptizing of His Spirit is not a separate event that must be awaited after the moment of salvation. There is no hierarchy of being saved under Christ. This spiritual baptism is not denoted by speaking in tongues or any other mystical phenomenon. It is simply the Lord drawing His people to Himself, and His people’s response to that salvation. It is a repentance of sin, a renouncing of the evils they once indulged in, and a commitment to pursuing God’s righteousness.

That baptism supersedes all else. It is more than a ceremonial cleansing or a public declaration. It is a spiritual cleansing that plunges to the very depths of our souls and changes us. It is a binding and covenantal salvation. 

To be baptized in the sense that we know of as a step of faith, that is merely the outward evidence of a spiritual baptism that has already taken place. It is our natural response to God’s revealing Himself to us. And indeed, it is a reason to celebrate and rejoice. It is a reason to smile or bring tears to our eyes, because it is the demarcation of a change that has already taken place. 

John knew this. He declared it to the skeptics that came to question him. He knew his baptism was something physical and symbolic, whereas the one that was coming– the one Jesus would bring– was spiritual and final and complete. And He knew that all would have to undergo it to enjoy that salvation: Jew and Gentile alike.

Today, let’s give the Lord thanks. Let’s worship Him for His wonderful glory. That He didn’t want to leave us with mere water and animal sacrifice to try and make amends and approach the Father. Instead, He shed His blood to make a much better sacrifice, one that we can live in, experience, and mature in. One we can respond to and one we can stand assured of.