We continue our series on baptism! In this issue, we consider the role that baptisms (yes, plural!) played in the ministry of the Lord Jesus!
Perhaps the most important baptism story is the curious story of the baptism of Jesus Christ.[1] For those of us bewildered when reading this confusing story, it is encouraging to note the bewilderment of John the Baptist who was living it! (Matthew 3:13–14, “John would have prevented him”.)
Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan is better understood by considering its contexts—especially in relation to Jesus’s other baptisms. For the baptism in the Jordan is one of three in the life and ministry of Christ: the Jordan baptism, the Golgotha baptism, and the Pentecost baptism
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The Jordan Baptism
Christ’s first baptism at the Jordan River is the most familiar and the obvious place to begin. Three of gospels record it for us and show us themes that our study has taught us to watch for: identity and ministry.
First, notice how Christ’s baptism reveals his identity. As Jesus emerges from the water of the Jordan, “behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16–17). This is echoed in Paul’s words in Colossians 1:13, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” That is, this water ordeal marks our spiritual-spatial transition from one boundary marker to another. This also is echoed in the words that the Father speaks during Christ’s transfiguration (Matthew 17:5, more on this in our next section).
In his baptism, Christ’s identity is revealed as he recapitulates two prominent strands of Old Testament theology: Christ as God’s son and Christ as the Suffering Servant. The voice from heaven, God the Father, identifies Jesus Christ using the sonship language of Psalm 2:7 (“You are my Son”) and the Suffering Servant language of Isaiah 42:1 (“Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations”). Christ’s baptism reveals his identity both in terms of his relation to the Father and in terms of his mission of ministry.
Next, notice how Christ’s baptism launches his ministry. Before his baptism at the Jordan River, Jesus led a quiet, low-profile, and personal life. This baptism launches his public ministry as he begins traveling and speaking. He travels throughout the land, preaching the Word. He travels to synagogues, declaring the gospel. He travels to the sick, announcing healing. He even sails to help those possessed by demons, proclaiming freedom. His baptism launched his ministry.
The Golgotha Baptism
When Christ’s second baptism happens is less obvious, but the gospel of Luke describes Christ’s death as a baptism. “I have a baptism to be baptized with,” Jesus said in Luke 12:50, “and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!” In Mark 10: 38, Jesus refers to his death when he asks James and John, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” When speaking with Moses and Elijah, Jesus describes his death and resurrection as his “departure” (Luke 9:31) which is the greek word, “exodus.” The implication here is that Christ’s death is somehow involves a repetition of the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea.
By considering how these water metaphors are used to describe Christ’s death as a second baptism, we are presented with beautiful biblical theology. Christ will enter the chaotic waters where he will experience the overwhelming power of God’s waves, breakers, and waterfalls (Pss. 42:7; 88:7).
However, Christ will also create a path through those waters, providing a safe passage for believers. Tim Keller says, “the darkness of death swallowed Jesus, he entered it, but then he blew a hole out the back of it.”
The Pentecost Baptism
The third baptism in Jesus’ ministry isn’t one he receives, but one he performs on the church: the baptism of Pentecost. John the Baptist prophesied that Christ would baptize people with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3:11). Sure enough, on the day of Pentecost fire descended and the Holy Spirit filled each believer (Acts 2:3–4), fulfilling the prophesy. Through this baptism Christ pours out his Spirit on his church, immersing, uniting, and empowering them with the Holy Spirit.
As with Christ’s other baptisms, several Old Testament metaphors are drawn together in this passage. This baptism applies to the Spirit and fire the kind of water imagery we’ve seen before as it is poured like waters from above: cleaning the dirty, refreshing the thirsty, blessing and uniting the church with their Savior. It also employs the same metaphor of division as the story turns to Ananias and Saphirra. This baptism of the Spirit, like boundary waters, has come judging and winnowing the wicked at the same time he unites and blesses the godly.
Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River serves as a useful framework for understanding the Pentecost baptism. Just as the Holy Spirit personally descended on Christ during his baptism, revealing his identity and launching his ministry, the Holy Spirit corporately descends on the Church during Pentecost, revealing their identity and launching their ministry.
How else does baptism unite the Church to Christ? Somehow it seems to connect the corporate deliverance of a people to the personal deliverance of their leader. Paul describes the nation of Israel during the exodus as those who “were baptized into Moses” (1 Corinthians 10:2).[4] It’s a puzzling and evocative phrase that surely has layers of meaning. One thing it points to is how the personal experience of Moses anticipated the corporate experience of the people. As a baby, Moses was personally rescued from the water and the reeds, just as the people would be corporately rescued from the Sea of Reeds. Miriam saw Moses’ personal deliverance (Exodus 2:2–8) and celebrated the people’s corporate deliverance (Exodus 15:20–21).
Like the union between the personal and corporate in the baptism of Moses, Christians who have been baptized into Christ have been united with Christ (Romans 6:3). His personal experience anticipated the corporate experience of his Church. The hatred that the world had for Jesus personally will be experienced corporately by the church (John 15:18). Christ laid down his life for his church, anticipating how the church lay down their lives for others (1 John 3:16). Perhaps most profoundly, Christ’s personal death and resurrection brings his people through the grave, that great sea of judgement and terror, into glorious life. His personal resurrection allowed him to walk out of his tomb, allowing believers to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). His experience becomes ours.
How does this work? How should we best ponder this glorious mystery, that Christ’s personal baptism has become ours? Paul says we should reflect on our baptism! “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:4–5).
Next week, we conclude our series on baptism with some practical observations!
[1] Much of this section draws from the insights of Alistair Roberts, “The Baptisms of Christ,” YouTube Theopolis, May 9, 2022.
[4] Much of the following paragraph owes its insights to Alistair Roberts and Andrew Wilson’s Echoes of Exodus.
1 Corinthians 10:2–5, “[2] and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, [3] and all ate the same spiritual food, [4] and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. [5] Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. (ESV)