Are You Washed In The Blood Of The Lamb?

Acts 8:36–40 (NKJV)

36 Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” 37 Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” 38 So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. 39 Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

In this study we are going step into the scandalous waters of baptism. We are entering these waters as a result of our last study of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness. We also covered the need of forgiveness and the proper justice that was necessary for that forgiveness. If God is Just, and He is, then He cannot forgive sin merely with a wink of an eye (Acts 17:30). The Greek transliteration hupereido (wink (KJV)), in that context, means to look away, or turn a blind eye, or turn the face away from sin. God has temporally held back His justice to give man an opportunity to look upon the Son for forgiveness (Jn.12:32). Those who reject the Son have winked at God. They have flirted with His mercy and the opportunity to repent and receive full assurance of salvation from sin and death (Rom.6:23). They have closed their eyes to His grace and turned their face away from His love. They have looked into His eyes, stroked their own pride, and spate in His face. If you have not repented of sin, and if you are not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth for salvation, you are flirting with your own destruction. Don’t massage your conscience with the wisdom of this world (1Cor.1:20; 3:19; 1Jn.2:15; 2Cor.6:14-16). Flirting with the world’s religious system will destroy every good and pure intention God has for you as a potential child of the King of glory. You can have life in His Name (Jn.20:31), you can have peace in His righteousness (Rom.5:1), you can have forgiveness in His mercy (Lam.3:32), you can have value in His image (1Cor.11:7), you can have joy in His truth (1Cor.13:6), and you can be a whole new person in His Spirit (2Cor.5:17; Gal.6:15). But you must be washed in His bloody death (1Jn.1:7; Heb.9:14), you must be buried with Him in the dust (Rom.6:4; 1Cor.15:49; Lam.3:29; Isa.47:1;Ps.22:6), you must be exposed to the darkness of your heart with the light of His sufferings (Matt.6:23; Lk.1:79; Mk. 15:33-34), you must be raised with Him to life (Col.2:12; 1Jn.3:14; Rom.8:6,10; Eph.2:1; Jn.3:3), and you must receive Him as Lord of all the earth to be adopted as a son or daughter made after the image and likeness of God (Zech.6:5; Acts 10:36; Jn.1:12,13).

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”

Once again, we don’t have the outline of Philip’s conversation with the Ethiopian; but we know that Christ was preached from Isaiah 53, and that repentance and baptism was thoroughly discussed through the eunuch’s own suggestion. This was an early practice that only Christians obeyed. The Pharisees and Sadducees did not practice baptism of any custom given through the Mosaic Covenant, nor from their own imaginations they may have added to that Covenant (Matt.23:4).

So what then is the purpose of this new ordinance that is necessary to fulfill all righteousness (Matt.3:15)? The error of our less informed brothers who practice infant baptism assume that this is somehow in association with the Mosaic Covenant of circumcision. But that is the furthest from the truth. Baptism and circumcision have no connection whatsoever other than that God uses them as physical and common means to illustrate the supernatural work that God has done to the human heart over its sinful condition (Deut.30:6; Rom.2:29; Matt.3:11; Mk.1:8; Jn.1:33; Acts 1:5). Circumcision was “a sign” to illustrate a heart that had been cut off from the condemnation of the world and set apart for membership in the nation of Israel (Gen.17:10, 11). This covenant did not begin with Moses but with Abraham who fathered the nation (Jn.7:22). The covenant demonstrated Abraham’s salvation to God and all of his offspring who would obey his God (Rom.4:11; 15:8; Col.2:11).

But why then does John the Baptist arrive on the scene as the forerunner of Christ preaching repentance and baptizing with water in the name of Jesus Christ?

Matthew 3:1–2, 8–11 (NKJV)

1 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” . . . 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Water baptism is a brand new command from the mouth of this prophet. The Pharisees, no doubt, were wondering if this man was adding his own to the commands of Yahweh (Prov.30:6). John the “immerser” who by all external appearances was no scholar of the Scriptures; but was a son to his father, who was a priest filled with the Holy Spirit, and trained John well (Lk.1:8, 9). The Old Covenant was insufficient for man to save himself from sin, and had fulfilled its work in Israel to bring them under sin; and Roman rule over them was the sign of their slavery to sin (Rom.5:20). Therefore, the command to repent of sin was instituted and obedience was illustrated with the outward sign of water baptism to point to an entirely New Covenant which will fulfill all righteousness for salvation. My friends, if you want to “obey” the gospel; repent and be baptized. The call is not a command to live the gospel but to live out the application of the gospel through obedience to the command: Repent and Believe.

John 1:29–31 (NKJV)

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for He was before me.’ 31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”

Matthew 3:13–17 (NKJV)

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. 16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

The Pharisees struggled with this question, and with God’s providence over them, in the transition between the covenants.

Mark 11:28–33 (NKJV)

28 And they said to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority to do these things?” 29 But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: 30 The baptism of John—was it from heaven or from men? Answer Me.” 31 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But if we say, ‘From men’ ”—they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed. 33 So they answered and said to Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus answered and said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

You see, it was about who holds the keys to the kingdom of heaven. It was about who the authority was in Israel. The arrival of John and the Lord Jesus posed a real threat to the authority of the religious officials. You should be able to see clearly here that John’s baptism was from God signified by the decent of the dove which illustrates that Jesus is the eternal Son of God sent from above. Jesus Christ is the replacement of the old covenantal authority.

Luke 11:52 (NKJV)

52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

Revelation 1:18 (NKJV)

18 I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.

Matthew 21:42–44 (NKJV)

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: ‘The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? 43 “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. 44 And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

The government “of God” and this old authority crushed the Son of God fulfilling His Father’s purpose and covenantal agreement with the fathers (Jn.19:30). He swallowed the cup of God’s wrath and kept the whole law to fulfill Israel’s part of the covenant. It ground Him to powder, even to the dust of earth. Philip was teaching this portion of Isaiah 53:3–5 (ESV) to the eunuch:

3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

This informs the Ethiopian eunuch and every Gentile that Israel is not the qualified Head to represent God. Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the only qualified Head to bring men to God.

John 14:6 (NKJV)

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Now that the Holy Spirit has come upon the church, the keys of the kingdom is exercised through the church when “she is in submission to the Head of the church;” for Christ has taken the keys from Israel and given them to the body of Christ on earth; governed, controlled, and possessed by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. The importance of water baptism illustrates membership into this communion with God; for we are baptized into the image and likeness of God being fully immersed in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matt.28:19). Unbelievers have access to communion with God only through the Holy Spirit working among a church that possesses the keys of the kingdom, and/or through the Holy Spirit working with the Word of God as one seeks truth from the only Author of it (2Cor.3:16; 4:3). In other words when a church fails to exercise and operate within the means of the keys, a seeker only needs the Word of God to guide him (1Jn.2:27; Matt.3:9). Therefore, the purpose of this new command laid out to us through John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Himself, and Peter at Pentecost institutes a brand new covenant that has better blessings than the old:

Acts 2:38 (NKJV)

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If the Old Covenant circumcision equated to the baptism of the teaching of these men; why does the Lord need to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, and why bother giving us a new command? It is simple; because God has nullified the old by fulfilling its demands and has instituted a whole new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ (Heb.7:22; 8:6; 12:24). In other words the Old Covenant doesn’t wash away sins; but by immersing yourself in the bath waters of repentance to life in Jesus Christ, you signify and illustrate what Christ has done for believers, that can ONLY be applied through personal faith; not through the faith of your parents, as Israel was called out for trusting in their father’s “internal” circumcision (Matt.3:9).

This was elementary doctrine to the early church, but because of false teaching throughout church history this practice has become a strange beast (Heb.6:1; Rev.13:2). Men were drowned in defiance of this doctrine and men are often excluded from teaching in certain assemblies because of this doctrine. But that should not allow us to let go of the importance of this doctrine that had a grip on the early believers. Israel must be baptized into this new covenant if she has any hope of entering the kingdom of God (Jer.31:31-37; Matt.26:28); therefore, this is a hill to die on for the sake of our ancestors (Rom.11:28, 29). The Hebrew writer warns the church of failure in not progressing which always leads to apostasy (Heb.6:6).

Therefore this doctrine is as important to us today as it was to the early believers who were martyred at the hand of Israel and Rome. My “Reformed Baptist” friends should be warned by this also, because of the separation or distinction of the covenants. This applies as much to Baptists as it does to Paedo-baptists. This is an act of obedience that you individually must do for yourself. Your father and/or your mother cannot baptize you into the faith, you must repent and believe the gospel for yourself.

Equating the Lord’s baptism as entrance into the kingdom with infant baptism is heresy because the Lord’s baptism illustrates citizenship into His kingdom, not merely a membership into an earthly church or nation, and is illustrated by the dove who descended from heaven (Mk.1:10). The dove indicates that Jesus was the true Son of God and that He was Israel’s seed (Jer.31:36; Acts 13:23; Rom. 4:13; 9:7). A child cannot reason through this, and therefore all baptisms should be rejected that were practiced as a child. It was because the eunuch understood this that he was ready to be baptized in Jesus Christ of Nazareth; not in Peter, not Paul, not Philip, not his father, but only in the faith and “righteousness” of Jesus Christ (Rom.3:30; Eph.4:5; Jude 3). You must know Him (Jn.10:1-21), you must be led by the Spirit (Rom.8:14), and you must obey His voice (Heb.4:7).

Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?”

Do not let the faith of another hinder you from being baptized in water. Get into the mind of the Ethiopian who was not permitted to enjoy the blessing of coming into the presence and nearness of God in the temple, because of his physical defect, and because of the Pharisees misapplication of God’s law. The proper application of this outward sign is “immersion” (βαπτισθῆναι) in the water. If we fail to illustrate this command and ordinance of the Lord, as it has been taught, we fail to pass on the teaching and association that God intended (Titus 1:7-11). In Mark 7:4 the same root word is used to describe how the Pharisees performed their routine and ‘ritual’ washing of hands. Therefore it is clear that the word indicates a complete covering and dipping into water. The Pharisees did not sprinkle water over their hands to wash the filth away, but covered them completely in the water and were very particular about it.

Romans 6:4 (NKJV)

4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Essentially, we can get to the bottom of this if we take a close look at the Greek grammar. Paul is addressing the Roman church in the past action of their baptism into Christ. The first section of Paul’s sentence gives us the greatest detail of his intent and use of the Greek word βαπτίσματος; and follows as such: συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος εἰς τὸν θάνατον (Therefore we were buried with Him through [the] baptism into [His] death,). The first Greek word, συνετάφημεν, is an aorist indicative. This means that it was a previous and historical reality, but the definition is the plural verb form which means to be buried in a celebratory funeral. Therefore we know that this can only be speaking about a literal baptism as a group. The following Greek word, οὖν, means therefore, and reveals that it is being used as an application. The next Greek word, αὐτῷ, is a pronoun for the Lord Jesus that is connected to the previous verb that signified the Lord’s funeral. The little Greek word, διὰ, equates the Lord’s burial with a “particular” baptism, τοῦ βαπτίσματος, literally (the baptism). It means that the Roman believer’s baptism illustrated the Lord’s burial which is significant to “believer’s baptism.”

“The baptism” that a believer subjects himself under illustrates and confesses that he has died to sin (Rom.6:11) which is what Paul is clearly teaching in this context, and he points to baptism as the teaching method. The next beautiful Greek word, εἰς, simply means (into) which connected to the previous noun, βαπτίσματος (baptism), which in turn illustrates the previous verb, συνετάφημεν (buried with Him), means that through baptism we are all “immersed,” or submerged, and even “wrapped up” into the funeral clothes of τὸν θάνατον (the death of Christ).

Colossians 2:11–12 (NKJV)

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

The apostle Paul is using something old and something new to illustrate being in Christ (Matt.13:52), but he is not equating the two as one practice; in fact, he is saying that the Gentile’s circumcision is spiritually applied through their personal baptism in Christ’s circumcision. In others words, Christ’s obedience to the circumcision belongs to them through being “in Him” or “immersed” into Him through baptism. But what I want you to pay close attention to is the last section of verse 12; ἐν ᾧ καὶ συνηγέρθητε διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν (in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead).

Beginning with, ἐν ᾧ (in which), we understand that the baptism previously referred to illustrates the following definition. Therefore, Paul is clarifying what baptism is with his next phrase. The following Greek word tells the whole story, καὶ (also), which is an emphatic conjunction with συνηγέρθητε (you [alone] were raised with Him) and τῷ βαπτισμῷ (the baptism). This means that only those who were baptized with Christ are raised with Him to life in His image and likeness. In other words it only applies to believers who have been baptized into the Triune nature of God. It could literally translate: in which you alone with the other believers were raised in Him. The next Greek phrase plays a critical role as well; διὰ τῆς πίστεως (through the faith), gives the clear perception that baptism is for believers only. The faith is a singular genitive term that refers to an individual’s personal ownership of the body of universal facts through which one receives salvation (Rom.1:16; Jude 3). In this particular context it is a faith in the Triune power of God. The Greek construct of, τῆς ἐνεργείας (the working), is defined by a particular “energy” or force.

We get our English word energy from the transliteration of ἐνεργείας (energeia), which also alludes to the operation of a system. The place where I work calls it the “power house”. In this case and context I believe Paul is referring to the work of the Holy Spirit alongside the person and work of Jesus Christ. The word also alludes to a power or energy that controls the system in which it labors or operates internally. Therefore, Paul is reminding the believers that the baptism was also through faith in the Holy Spirit, and their faith has come about through an external force; that is to say a “work of God,” not of themselves or of their own nature (Eph.2:8). Now, I am not saying that the Holy Spirit is a force, but I am saying that the person of the Holy Spirit is the one who is “working,” or “energizing,” even operating the controls of the human nature to trust in Christ. The next construct is, τοῦ θεοῦ (the God), who is the source of the energy. This is how we know that the Holy Spirit is a person and equal to the Father.

Therefore, when we are baptized, we are baptized into the fullness of God who made us whole, having once been dead in sin, void of His Spirit, and alienated from the life of God (Eph.4:18; Deut.32:28; Gen.1:2). The article, τοῦ, can also be used as an English pronoun. In this case it is translated, who, which marks the person of God as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is who ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν ἐκ των νεκρῶν (raised Him [Jesus] from [our] death (TR). The TR manuscripts use, των, which is a plural article to show that Jesus died according to our nature and likeness after the fall of Adam (Php.2:5-8; Rom.8:3; 6:5; 5:14). That’s right, Jesus died our death and God raised Him to life. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are baptized into our nature, Jesus becomes a man, and the Holy Spirit joins Himself to our nature, so that we can be baptized into God’s nature who is Spirit (Jn.4:24). Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3 (NKJV)