Immersion, Pouring or Both?

[HKHaugan]

"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."—Romans 6:3-4.

This is in response to Charles Spurgeon’s sermon delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, October 30th, 1881, at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England using the above text from Romans to support immersion as the sole means of authentic baptism.

There is no question that over the centuries baptism was an abused sacrament as were many other religious practices. The Reformation was an indictment on them but it was also a time of heightened emotions and often excessive hostile means were used to correct those errors. Thus many counter arguments arose to make the point of the importance of being biblically centered. There too we can be so zealous we may, as they say, ‘Throw the baby out with the bathwater.’ What I am doing here is to offer the case for inclusion not exclusion, that both grace baptism and faith baptism are valid since grace and faith are both operative.

Charles Spurgeon’s sermon on immersion is indeed a compelling argument for physical immersion but, and I say this with all respect for this historically great Christian, his words are not equal to Scripture. I believe there is a more compelling argument to see baptism from its biblical and spiritual perspective and not the divisive concentration on its physical application.

The argumentative obsession with ‘immersion’ which by the way, is not a biblical word, has been the most divisive subject since the Reformation. The implication of the exclusiveness of immersion is that all other baptisms are invalid meaning that all Christians since the time of Jesus who were not immersed are lost and languishing somewhere in the pit of darkness. So it is important to revisit this idea and reduce the anxiety of those who are assaulted by the spiritual pride of those who feel the need to ‘save’ the ‘unscripturally baptized.’

First, the death of Jesus was a visible event in which an invisible battle was won. That is it was a spiritual victory over sin by our spiritual God in spiritual reality. John 4:24 tells us “God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

Second, the baptism of Jesus was said by Him to be a fulfillment of all righteousness. Righteousness is first spiritual and then visible. It has to do with attitude and the behavior that results ( Matt.3:15).

Third, baptism is an act of spiritual obedience taught by Jesus wherein water is a visible sign of God’s invisible grace. Grace is not determined by a physical quantity but is the unlimited spiritual attitude of God’s acceptance of us who do not deserve it. Note that Jesus’ teaching in John does not center on the amount of water or the way it is applied but that water is a sign of the Spirit at work (John 3:5 see also Ezek.36:25-28) just as in the Red Sea deliverance (through parted waters) and Noah’s Ark (over the waters). It is water as a sign of the Spirit’s invisible activity.

Fourth, when Scripture says Jesus came up out of the water it doesn’t qualify where He was in the water. The context was that it was the Jordan River. The emphasis, the context, is the river. A river in Jesus’ time signified moving water as ‘living’ water opposed to a well which is still and non-flowing (See John 4 and His discussion with the Samaritan woman). The Jordan came from pure springs in the mountains above and flowed down into the valley below to give life to all living things in the valley. This clearly signifies the grace of God that is constantly flowing from God into and through our human valley. See also John 3:22-36 on the issue of ‘ceremonial washing.’

Fifth, immersion is a dramatic means to emphasize the point that we drown the old self and rise with the breath of new spiritual life to eternity in Christ. The reality is not the water rite but what the water rite points to and that is spiritual rebirth through grace from above. The water rite is a sign of that eternal grace and substance of new life flowing in and through Jesus Christ. The issue of children’s baptism is not therefore their personal awareness of Jesus as Savior and Lord but the validity of God’s acceptance of them, His grace and love for them. It is the believing parents that God uses to guide and train children until such time as they make their own declaration of personal faith. Again this is not about personal faith but spiritual recognition and therefore the weight of baptism rests on the faith of the parents for teaching a child how to be a disciple. There are three instances of whole households being baptized, two in Acts (16:15, 16:31-34) and one in 1Corinthians (1:16). Households included not only blood family but servants and extended family as well. Families and households were local extensions of the family of God called the Body of Christ.

Sixth, the principle of extending God’s grace as He showed in Scripture applies also to the Lord’s Supper, to anointing with oil, to ordination, to worship and to all the physical forms we use to experience the Lord’s spiritual presence. But grace is not limited to these forms. Grace is extended as we minister to others in His Name; exercise our spiritual gifts in the Body and share Jesus with the world around us.

Seventh, the Lord Jesus Himself is the ultimate example of the invisible becoming visible, His body as the outward and visible sign of His inward and spiritual presence, His teaching, His miracles, His sacrifice on the Cross and the proof of it all in the Resurrection of His physical body. The Body of Christ which we call ‘the Church’ is no different. It becomes a visible picture of the Kingdom of God on earth for which He commands us to pray “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.”

The bottom line in all of this is that as soon as we start placing human interpretation above Scripture we miss the invisible eternal dimension in which the true reality of Jesus lies. This is akin to Phariseeism which set legalistic barriers against the deeper personal experience of a loving and graceful God. We become judgmental, exclusive, lose our humility and feel superior.

Finally, this is not about grace versus faith. It is about both and both being gifts and blessings from a loving God. As far as baptism is concerned we need to see that Jesus commands the use of water as a physical means to experience the invisible reality of being a part of Him and the use of words “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” These to be followed by teaching everything He commanded.

Personally I am as comfortable immersing as I am pouring and I do both. If personal faith is the means who dares to say their faith is sufficient enough to warrant the presence of God. What we stand on is this truth as expressed by Paul, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith---and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God---not by works, so that no one can boast (Eph.2:8-9).”