I remember my pastor explaining in candidates’ classes that the act of baptism doesn’t make us saved. That’s what repentance does. Some time later, I heard a friend saying that with baptism, some of us simply change our state. We enter the baptismal waters as dry sinners and emerge as wet sinners. Could that be what Y’shua explained to Nicodemus in their discourse? Consider Today’s Holy Nougat.
John 3:5 AMP
[5] Jesus answered, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot [ever] enter the kingdom of God.
Born of the Water
Many of us might not recall many references to baptism in Jewish scriptures. That’s because baptism, as we understand it, was only featured in the biblical narratives surrounding Y’shua’s birth. Yet the concept is embodied in ritual mikveh, i.e., special areas for women’s ritual baths, as well as the priests’ purification containers found outside the temple.
Some argue that John the Baptist popularised the concept of baptism as a response to repentance. But prior to that, after the Exile, it was a ritual for diaspora Jews and Jewish converts to indicate that they were members of the faith. None of those contexts really featured the concept of being ‘born again’. Yet, some of us can easily make the mental leap required to connect baptism with rebirth.
Self-Check
What are our views on baptism, and does it deepen our connection to faith in Christ?
Application
We might have heard baptism being explained as death to our former lives, raising to new life in Christ. If we accept that premise (echoed in 2 Corinthians 5:17), there is a very real sense in which baptism represents conversion resulting from conviction of Y’shua’s divinity. But that same ritual also says the there is a new us… we’re reborn, as it were.
Thus, it’s not about returning to our mother’s womb, but about returning to factory settings i.e., to God’s likeness as per Genesis 1. Being the guardians of the Law, it seems natural for the Jewish leaders of Nicodemus’ day to keep covenant with that original mandate. But that was not the case. With our baptism however, that’s part of our covenant.
For some of us, our baptism didn’t include that conscious choice, as the decision was made for us by our parents. In such traditions, we would be oriented in the faith through special classes in our teen years (possibly similar in concept to a bar mitzvah). One could argue that those persons might not feel that they were born again, but that they confirmed a prior covenant made on their behalf. Whether one was restored to covenant through confirmation or confession, what really matters is that we accept the divinity of Y’shua and His sovereignty over our lives.
That is not an entirely natural process, but involves God’s Spirit. More on that with tomorrow’s reflection.
Point to Ponder
Having revisited the concept of baptism as keeping covenant with our covenant keeping God, do we need to renew our covenant with Y’shua? If yes, it’s not too late.
—
May all we seek be found in Christ
