Some Thoughts on Baptism

A few thoughts on baptism inspired by reading a dozen student papers on the water symbolism of Exodus:

1) Several students pointed out that Moses was “baptized” as an infant. I’d never thought of it that way, but it works from various directions. Moses’ water-salvation is linked to the flood by the fact that Moses is put into an “ark” that is covered with pitch and tar (like Noah’s ark); and the flood is a baptism. Moses’ water-salvation is also linked with the later “baptism” of Israel in the Red Sea; Moses goes through the waters as the head of Israel, and the body follows later. So, it is quite reasonable to see Moses’ rescue from the waters as a baptism. The waters are waters of death (drowning Hebrew babies), and Moses passes through them to a new life in the palace of Pharaoh.

2) The link of water with salvation and judgment in Exodus suggests the possibility of working out the links between justification and baptism typologically. Water functions both as judgment on enemies and means of deliverance for Israel (the Red Sea). Water is the agent of the whole “recreation” event. What interests me is that water is an agent of judgment ?Ethrough water God passes a judgment of condemnation on Egypt, and through water God passes a judgment of justification on Israel (vindicating Israel). One of the interesting consequences is that the water of the Red Sea is a “justification unto life,” a judgment that not only renders a verdict but carries out a verdict, a “deliverdict” as I have called it elsewhere. It is not entirely clear how this works out with Christian baptism. Everyone who is baptized today (apart from freak accidents) comes out of the water; so are there NO Egyptians being baptized? One hopes for the best; but it’s clearly NOT true that only Israelites emerge from the waters to new life in the church. But that is also true of ancient Israel: there were “Egyptians-in-heart” among the Israelites who were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they fell in the wilderness. Yet, they had participated in the “justification unto life” that occurred in their baptism at the sea. (I’m back to the issues I discussed in a post earlier this week ?Enamely, the question of whether justification belongs in allegory or tropology, or, if both, which is predominant in the NT teaching on justification.)

3) One student, Hannah Stevenson, suggests that the situation of the land of Israel between the water of the Mediterranean and the water of the Euphrates recapitulates the exodus. Israel comes to the land by passing through the exodus; but Israel IS the land between the waters, a land that goes through a “continuous exodus.”

4) Hannah also pointed out that priests wash at the laver as they enter the tabernacle “lest they die,” and notes that this indicates a “salvific” washing. This is excellent, and again provides a way to explore questions about the saving efficacy of baptism. Priests who came near without water were unclean, and therefore in danger of death. In the new covenant, we are all baptized into the priesthood, and all approach the MHP in heaven. The water that cleanses us is given “lest we die,” and to that extent saves us from death. Washed with the waters of baptism, we can approach the sanctuary, and the table at its center, and the throne of grace, without fear, for the Lord does not stretch out His hand against us.