For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Galatians 3:27

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

Ephesians 4:4-6

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:12–13

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

Exodus 5 gives us an initial glimpse at the coming problems with the exodus generation of Israelites. Moses spoke to Pharaoh on Yahweh’s behalf, but Pharaoh only scoffed at the order and made the burden upon the Hebrews even greater by making them gather straw for themselves. As a result, the Israelites became angry at Moses. Of course, God’s plan was not foiled. As He told Moses in Exodus 6:1, He was going to so thoroughly humiliate Pharaoh that the Egyptian king would be the one to thrust them out of Egypt.

And the LORD did so through the ten plagues. After the firstborn in all the land of Egypt had been slain, Pharaoh ordered the Hebrews to leave Egypt, and after four hundred years of slavery, they were finally free. As they left Egypt, God guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. But soon the LORD led His people to the shore of the sea and behind them came the chariots of Pharaoh, whom God had stirred up to give chase to Israel. With no escape available, the people again groaned against Moses, saying that it would have been better for them to remain slaves. Yet God worked for them a great salvation. He split the sea in two, and the Israelites walked across on dry ground. Pharaoh, in the stupor of his sinful heart, drove his army into the sea after them, but Yahweh restored the waters and drowned the hard-hearted king.

On the other side of the sea, Israel sang of a psalm of praise to Yahweh their God. But the praise did not last long. God led them into the wilderness to make a covenant with them, but along the way, they grumbled, complained, and grumbled some more. Eventually, that generation that witnessed more wonderous works of the LORD than almost any other so rebelled against their Savior that He forbid all but two of them from entering the Promise Land. He would give it to their children instead.

Of that exodus generation, the Apostle Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 10:1-6:

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.

Israel’s crossing of the sea was a kind of baptism. It marked their salvation as a people by the mighty hand of Yahweh, and it was a grand display of their freedom from slavery in Egypt and their start of their new life as their own nation. However, that baptism into Moses was not sufficient to keep them from perishing in the wilderness as a judgment upon their sinful hearts. Moses’ baptism and exodus took Israel out of Egypt, but it did not take Egypt out of Israel.

Thankfully, for us today, the greater Moses has come, worked the greater exodus to liberate us from our slavery to sin, and now commands us to be baptized with a far greater baptism than the crossing of the sea.

PUTTING ON CHRIST

In the first sermon of this series, we endeavored to explain the nature and purpose of baptism, noting that baptism is fundamentally tied to repentance and faith. Last week, we continued our study by diving into what baptism signifies inwardly to the person, namely, that it signifies a circumcision of the heart and the burial and resurrection of the person baptized into Christ. My aim is now to conclude this brief series by looking at what baptism outwardly signifies. Of course, the distinction that I am making between inward and outward is not a firm and clear-cut division. The texts that we discussed last week certainly have communal implications, and the texts before us today still have rich meaning for each of us individually and personally. I make these distinctions primarily to give a clear shape to our study of baptism, so do not take them further than they are intended to go.

Indeed, the first text before us could have easily been (and almost was) the conclusion of our last week’s sermon. Galatians 3:27 is our focus, but let us read Galatians 3:23-29 to give some of its context:

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

The focus of Galatians 3 is Paul’s explanation that our salvation is through faith, not through the keeping of the law. Particularly, Paul labors to make it clear that Christ has brought God’s promise to Abraham to bless all nations through him to fulfillment:

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Galatians 3:7-9

In these final verses of chapter 3, Paul calls the law our guardian until the coming of Christ, but now that Christ has come, all who are in Him are no longer under the guardian but have been adopted as children of God through faith. Christ, not being ashamed to call us His brothers, has brought us into the household of God in Himself.

Which brings us to verse 27: “For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Notice that being baptized into Christ is continuing Paul’s chain of thought from verse 26 about us being sons of God in Christ through faith, which makes sense given everything that we have been studying about baptism so far. A Christian should desire baptism as a visible expression of their faith in Christ and their repentance from sin, and as they are baptized, it is a tangible picture of their death to sin and new life in Christ. Here Paul is treating baptism as a visible sign of our inward faith, and that is why he says that we are baptized into Christ. But, again, that’s largely what we discussed last week.

Notice also how the verse ends: “For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” The idea being expressed here is the same as putting on clothing. In being baptized into Christ, we have been clothed with Christ. Of course, this is not an unusual idea for Paul. In Romans 13:14, he writes, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.” Just as the prodigal son was clothed by his father in a clean robe, so we are to be clothed with Christ. Indeed, the prodigal’s new robe was a sign of the restoration of his sonship, so is our putting on Christ the marker of our sonship before God.

In the Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian travels with a heavy burden upon his back and dressed in filthy rags. Yet when he comes to the cross, the place of deliverance, the burden of his sin rolls away, and angels give him fresh clothing. That is how we put on Christ. We bring the burden of our sins to Christ alone, looking to Him by faith for forgiveness and new life. Since baptism is a picture of our repentance and faith, it also becomes a picture of our being clothed with Christ, of putting on Christ.

But how is putting on Christ an outward testimony of baptism? In Romans 13:14 above, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 3, Paul uses putting on Christ and our newly raised selves as a call for us to renounce our sins and live godly lives. Thus, baptism is a public declaration of our intent to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Romans 13:14). This is the notion of walking in the newness of life in Romans 6:4, and it is also the expressed in the Great Commission. As disciples of Christ, being baptized into the Triune Name goes together with learning to obey all that Christ has commanded us. Baptism is, as the New City Catechism teaches and as I was primarily taught about baptism growing up, “our commitment to belong to the Lord…”

BAPTISM AS A PUBLIC CONFESSION

In Acts 2:37-41, we read:

Now when they heard [Peter’s preaching] they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Verse 38 has been the source of much controversy as some argue that it teaches that we should not baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but only in the name of Jesus Christ. While I do not think that baptizing someone only in the name of Jesus is invalid (as it is not used to deny the Trinity obviously), I also do not think that Peter is replacing Jesus’ command in the Great Commission. Baptism is both in the name of Jesus Christ and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. After all, it was through Christ that the mystery of the Trinity was at last made known to us.

Yet most importantly from this passage, we should note that baptized in the name of our Lord is a public confession of faith in Christ and of our commitment to belong to Him. Of course, we already saw that baptism is a declaration of our faith in Christ to God; however, it is also significantly a confession of our faith in Christ before men. And this is by our Lord’s design. For all Christians, the moment of conversion is an internal renewing of the heart through indwelling of the Holy Spirit (aka the baptism of the Holy Spirit). Some conversion may have a very visible expression (such as those who received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues in Acts). However, for most of us, our conversion did not come with a mighty spectacle. It was an internal rebirth that may have happened so suddenly that we didn’t notice until we began to see our own fruits of faith. We confessed Christ privately, and He saved us. But in baptism, our Lord summons us to confess Him publicly before others.

In the introduction to our new teaching series through Christopher Gordon’s New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality, I read an extended quotation from Ben Myers describing the baptismal original of the Apostles’ Creed. As he notes, it was originally not a creed but a catechism, that is, it was originally a series of three questions rather than three declarations. The three articles of the Creed were asked to the person being baptized: Do you believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of heaven and earth? The person would then respond: I believe! This means that we have the Apostles’ Creed only because the early church desired to properly and publicly confess their faith in Christ.

Indeed, recall that one of the most repeated exhortations throughout Hebrews was for the readers to hold fast to their confession. Upon hearing that exhortation, it is quite possible that the original audience would immediately have thought about their public confession of Christ through their baptism. They very likely saw baptism as a profession of their submission to the Lordship of Christ. In fact, Ephesians 4:4-6 is one of the most confessional or creedal passages in the New Testament, and it places Jesus as Lord at the very center:

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

This is perhaps an appropriate time to raise the question of how much understanding of the faith a person needs to have in order to be baptized. There are some who would cite the examples of baptism throughout Acts and say that only basic confession of Jesus as Lord and Savior is needed to be baptized. The account of the Ethiopian eunuch is often cited as an example for spontaneous baptisms, which is essentially replacing an altar call with a call to the waters of baptism. However, it is worth noting that none of the baptisms in Acts are all that spontaneous. Philip was brought to the Ethiopian eunuch while he was reading from the scroll of Isaiah, so the eunuch clearly had some familiarity with Scriptures. Philip also taught the eunuch enough of the basics of Christianity for the eunuch to ask to be baptized, which probably means that Philip gave him quite a bit more than a five-minute gospel presentation. The same is true in Acts 2 where, before three thousand people were baptized, Peter preached “and with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them” (Acts 2:40). Thus, while we may be able to think of a few exceptional examples where it would be best to baptize someone within a few hours of their profession, I think it is wise to give a time before baptism for instruction in the basics of the Christian faith (using the Apostles’ Creed, Lord’s Prayer, and Ten Commandments have a long track record).

BAPTIZED INTO THE BODY

However, the New City Catechism rightly goes on, saying that baptism “signifies… our commitment to belong to the Lord and to his church.” If we glance back at Galatians 3:28-29, we find it point to our belonging to both Christ and his church, but we will consider another text: 1 Corinthians 12:12-13.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

These are the verses that begin Paul’s comparison of the church and its individuals to a body and its members, and it is here that Paul speaks of baptism as the sign of our becoming one body. Of course, some might argue that Paul is not speaking about water baptism but rather about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. While Paul is certainly speaking about our baptism in the Holy Spirit, water baptism is physical picture and sign of that inward work, so I agree with Tom Schreiner, who says,

Once again we should not separate Spirit baptism from water baptism as if Paul were attempting to segregate the one from the other. Conceptually they may be distinguished, but Paul himself was not interested in distinguishing them from one another in this verse since both are associated with the transition from the old life to the new.[1]

The overall point that Paul is making is similar to Galatians 3:28-29. Although we may have little in common with many Christians, we should all be unified around our common confession of faith in Christ. Again to quote Schreiner:

Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit is not restricted to only some believers. Paul emphatically teaches that all believers have been baptized regardless of their ethnic background or social status. Baptism in water and the Spirit is the signature event for Christians, marking them out as members of the people of God.[2]

Thus, baptism ought to be one of our highest appeals for unity among the body of Christ. Paul makes the same appeal in Ephesians whenever he grounds our source of unity in the gospel. In the gospel, we find that we all stand condemned under the burden of our sins and that we can be saved through no other means but Christ. And baptism is a visible display of that truth. There is no hierarchy of value and worth in the church (notice I don’t say of authority). The one baptism that we all share is a sign of our equal status in the Lord. Of course, the gospel and baptism do not erase distinctions. Jews were still Jewish, and Greeks were still Greek. Likewise, Galatians 3:28 does not mean that the gospel abolishes the distinctions between male and female. Indeed, those who were free continued to be free after their baptism, and those who were slaves continued to be slaves. No, the distinctions remain, which is what makes us unique and individual members. What has changed is that we have been grafted into one body. Being Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, does not give any Christian a higher rank of importance over other Christians. Indeed, there is no ranking of importance. We have all been saved from the same death that our sin earned by the same Lord, who ransomed us with His own blood, and we have all received the same waters of baptism as a sign of that glorious gospel.

Of course, there are two ways that the New Testament speaks of the church: the catholic or universal church and the local church. Or we may refer to them as the Church and the church. Baptism ought to be the sign of our inclusion in both. Again, from the example of the Ethiopian eunuch, there may be exceptional circumstances where a baptism might not be done in the context of a local church or a particular congregation, but such exceptions should be exceedingly rare. The normal practice should be for baptisms to be administered in a particular church. If we are baptized into the church, Christ’s body, then we actually commit ourselves to the physical expression of Christ’s body, a local church.

This again leads us to baptism’s connection to the Lord’s Supper. If baptism is the sign of our allegiance to Christ and our initiation into His people, then it is right that it precedes the Lord’s Supper, which represents our communion and fellowship with both Christ and one another. Just as the waters of baptism represent our common need to be washed clean of sin and redressed in Christ, the cup we drink represents the blood of Christ that alone has able to purify our consciences before God, and the bread we eat represents the body of Christ that was broken in order to remake us into His body. Therefore, as we eat and drink together, let us taste and see the goodness of our King, who has clothed us with His finest robe and seated us with Him at His own table.

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I pray that this study of baptism has enlarged our love and understanding of this precious ordinance that our Lord has given us. May baptisms never become a trivial affair or mere numbers to prove that we are successful as a church. Instead, may baptism be to us as joyous and mysterious as Scripture describes it.

May each baptism proclaim the greater exodus that Christ, the greater Moses, has worked. May we see ourselves in both Pharaoh and Israel. Beneath the waters, we die to our sin. Our wicked hearts are drowned like Pharaoh. Rising from the waters, we are set free from sin’s captivity, given new life in Christ, and begin our daily walk as a people for His own possession.

Indeed, may every baptism remind us also that the greater flood is both here and coming, washing over all nations, one soul at a time, signally another transfer from the domain of darkness into Christ’s eternal kingdom. Just as water is both good and dangerous, may baptism reveal both the judgment and grace of our Lord. May baptism also reveal to us Christ as the greater ark. Though the waters rage and foam, though heaven and earth pass away, in Him, we are secure, for in Him we are adopted into the household of God.

Let us, therefore, hear again the words our Lord, our Savior, our King, and our Brother:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

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[1] Thomas Schreiner, “Baptism in the Epistles,” from Believer’s Baptism, 72.

[2] Ibid.