MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - VI

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE MECHANICS OF THE FAITH – VI

John1:25  They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Messiah, nor Eliyahu (Elijah),  nor the Prophet?”

In our previous lessons, we have observed the divine order invoked by the gospel of Yahushua Messiah, 1) Repent, 2) Be baptized, 3) Receive the Holy Spirit.  We have discussed repentance and receiving the Holy Spirit.  It is important that we not move to another topic until we have discussed baptism.  If there was ever a subject that has divided believers, it is this one.  If there was ever a doctrine that has been twisted, contorted and confused, it is this one. 

One Christian denomination teaches baptism as an “ordinance” of the church, to be observed almost like checking it off a list of things that you should do; but which has no real practical significance.  Some churches teach that it is through water baptism that you are allowed to “join” the membership of their congregation. Another Christian denomination teaches baptismal regeneration; that it is in water baptism that you are actually born of the spirit.  Another Christian denomination teaches that you must be baptized in water in order to receive the Holy Spirit; and that you should emerge from the water speaking in tongues. Yet another denomination teaches that baptism neither makes you born again, nor does it serve to fill you with the Holy Spirit; but that if you are not baptized, you cannot be “saved.” 

The first thing that we need to understand is that the words “baptism, baptize, baptist” are all transliterations of words from the Greek manuscripts of the New Testament. (A transliteration spells a word in the receiving language so it will be pronounced the way it is pronounced in the original language.  For example, “dunamis,” “exousia,”and “charis” are transliterations of the Greek words for “power,” “authority,” and “grace.”)  At the time of the writing of the King James Version of the Scriptures, infant baptism had already become a popular practice, performed by the sprinkling of water upon the head of the baby.  The scholars transcribing the Greek texts into English understood they would be incurring wrath by translating “baptidzo” into English because it literally means “to dip or immerse.” In an act of scholarly dishonesty, they created new words in the English language by simply transliterating the Greek words into English. To make it possible to more correctly understand this issue of water baptism, we will look at it as it should be properly translated in the Scriptures.

In our opening verse, the Jews had sent priests and Levites to Yohannes (John) to inquire who he was (John 14:19).  There was no practice in Israel of people immersing other people.  The law required that they wash themselves to be restored clean from having become unclean through sickness or disease, by the transmission of bodily fluids, or by some defiling act whether intentional or accidental.  Washings were an integral part of Hebrew life.  In fact, it is reported that there were 1,000 pools of water associated with the temple in Jerusalem to facilitate all the washings that were required of the law.  Immersing one’s self in a pool of water was common place.  Someone immersing another was not.  That would require a unique identify for the person doing the immersing.  This is why they asked Yohannes who he was. 

They did not ask Yohannes if he were the Messiah; but he knew that would be the first person they would associate as having the authority to immerse; so he answered that he was not the Messiah.  Scratching “Messiah” off of their check list, they asked if he were the Prophet that Moses said would come (see Deuteronomy 18:15,18), or Eliyahu (See Malachi 4:5-6).  Yohannes knew that they were the only other people they could understood would have the authority to wash another, but he denied being either one. This produced another question.  “Why then are you immersing?”

How was Moses associated with immersion?

Exodus 29:1  And this is the thing that you shall do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish,

2  And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shall you make them.

3  And you shall put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams.

4  And Aaron and his sons you shall bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall wash them with water.

This is the first time that one person washed another person for the purpose of cleansing. This act consecrated Aaron and his sons to the priesthood.  It separated Aaron and his sons from the rest of the people and from the life they lived up to that point, and consecrated them to the holy purpose and function of the priesthood, no longer to be like they were, nor like the rest of the people.  This consecration marked the change of their life and their lifestyle.

Yohannes told the priests and Levites that he was “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Isaiah 40:3), which they immediately understood was the one who would come to prepare the people for IAUE.  We know from Paul’s explanation to the Ephesian disciples in Acts 19, that Yohannes’ immersion was an immersion of repentance, instructing people to make themselves ready for the coming of the Messiah.  It was a call of preparation to enter into the general priesthood of the believer; because when Messiah comes, ALL of his disciples would constitute a royal priesthood.

1 Peter 2:5  Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to Elohim by Yahushua Messiah.
9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

Many have asked through the centuries why Yahushua submitted to his cousin, Yohannes, to be baptized, seeing he had no need of cleansing.  Yahushua’s answer to Yohannes was that it was to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15).  There was a divine order: repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit.  If Messiah was going to be the perfect substitute for man, he was going to begin with fulfilling the divine order of his Father. 

Yahushua engaged in what I call “corporate repentance.”  It is what Daniel did in Babylon at the end of the 70 years of captivity.  He identified with the sins of his people, though not being guilty of those deeds himself.  He was a Hebrew, and the Hebrew people as a whole were guilty of all manner of departures from the will of IAUE.  Daniel repented on their behalf, as one of them.  This is what Yahushua did when he came to Yohannes to be immersed.

When Messiah emerged from the water, the testimony of Yohannes was that he saw the Spirit of IAUE descend upon him and remain (John 1:32-33).  Repent, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit.  The divine order was fulfilled in Him…fulfilling all righteousness.  

Messiah was 30 years of age when he came to Yohannes to be washed.  This was the age that a Levite could be consecrated to the priesthood. This was the beginning of Yahushua’s ministry.  He did not begin his ministry until he was consecrated unto the priesthood of his Father. This established the pattern that immersion was, as it was in the beginning with Moses, the consecration of one to the priesthood.  From this point forward, even Yahushua’s life was no longer lived as it had been up to then. 

There are eight recorded events of immersion in the book of Acts:

1.    The day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-41)

2.    The Samaritans (Acts 8:12-16)

3.    The Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:35-38)

4.    Paul (Acts:9:17-18; 22:5-16)

5.    Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:34-38; 11:14-18)

6.    Lydia and her household (Acts 16:13-15)

7.    The Philippian Jailer and his household (Acts 16:30-33)

8.    The Ephesian disciples (Acts 19:1-6)

On the day of Pentecost, they were told to be immersed for the “remission” of their sins.  This isn’t forgiveness of sins.  Forgiveness is a finished work in the death and resurrection of Yahushua.  Remission is the release from the bondage of sin.  Like the famous hymn begins, “He breaks the power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free.”  Sin has already been cancelled whether you are a disciple of Messiah or not; but the bondage to sin is not a function of forgiveness.  It is a function of remission; and remission is a function of immersion, of consecration to the order of the royal priesthood.

Saul, soon to be known as the apostle Paul, was called to “wash away his sins” by immersion. This was not a doctrinal explanation by Ananias that immersion would cleanse him of his sins.  Messiah had already done that.  This was a call to submit to immersion to demonstrate that Saul/Paul had put away his former life and was consecrated to a royal priesthood.

1 Peter 3:21  The like figure (Noah and his family being saved through the flood) whereunto even immersion doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward Elohim,) by the resurrection of Yahushua Messiah:

In Philippi, the jailer asked Paul what he must do to be saved; and Paul told him to believe on the Master Yahushua Messiah.  It was after the jailer and his household professed their faith in Messiah that Paul immersed them, distinguishing between the salvific nature of faith and the urgency of the consecration of immersion. 

I have long said that a believer who has not been “baptized” is a rebel in the Kingdom of Elohim; because he has refused to provide the very first required act of obedience to the Master; thus demonstrating the non-subservience of his will to the will of the Master.  Of what use to a kingdom of priests is one who refuses to be consecrated to the priesthood? 

Ministers in the early 1900’s have said that in Islamic countries, if you profess faith in Messiah, you will be shunned as if you do not exist to them; but if you submit to immersion, they will kill you; because they recognize immersion as a death to one’s former way of life; thus they see it as a condemnation of their way of life…a condemnation of any way of life that is not consecrated to the royal priesthood of Messiah.  I share this to bring focus to just how serious a matter immersion should be in the life of the disciple.

2 Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Messiah constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
15 And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.

If you have been “baptized” by sprinkling, you have not been “baptized” at all, as baptism is not sprinkling.  You have not been immersed according to the divine order.  If your understanding of what you were doing when you were baptized was to satisfy a requirement of your church, or to join a church, you have not been immersed according to the divine order.  If you were baptized under the impression that you were going to be born again because of the water, you have not been baptized under the divine order.  If you have never consecrated yourself to the royal priesthood of Messiah, leaving your old life behind and embracing the will of the Master, you have not been immersed according to the divine order.

When you submit to immersion as a separation of your life from your past with a view to the remission of your sins (the release from the power of forgiven sins) in order to be consecrated unto the Master’s priesthood, you will experience a release from your past heretofore unknown to you; and you will enter into a walk that will involve routinely hearing and obeying the voice of the Master; and if you have never had the confidence that you have received the gift of the Father, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the hindrance to receiving Him will be removed.