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"I Will Sprinkle Clean water":
Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition

S. Joel Garver

In 1521, Martin Luther took refuge in Wartburg Castle, working on his translation of the New Testament. It was a difficult time for Luther who stood fast in his commitment to proclaim God’s Gospel of grace.

Not only had Luther been named a heretic and excommunicated earlier the same year, but he had also just come from the futile Diet of Worms, after which the Emperor declared him an outlaw. At the suggestion of Friedrich the Wise, Luther allowed himself to be kidnapped and transported in disguise, under an assumed name, to Wartburg where he remained in exile, plagued by physical ailments and frequently tempted by Satan unto self-doubt, depression, and despair.

Amid these attacks from authorities, the devil, and his own conscience, living incognito and in fear, it’s no wonder Luther felt his very identity was under assault. Whether or not Luther really threw an inkwell at Satan in Wartburg, we know from his own testimony that he drew courage from his baptismal identity in Christ, declaring: “I am baptized! I am baptized!”

Luther writes in his Large Catechism, “To appreciate and use Baptism aright, we must draw strength and comfort from it when our sins or conscience oppress us, and we must retort, ‘But I am baptized! And if I am baptized, I have the promise that I shall be saved and have eternal life, both in soul and body.’” And note the present tense: not only was I baptized, but remain so to this day, the whole Christian life lived out by faith under the sign of baptism.

This perspective on baptism is not merely a Lutheran peculiarity, but characterizes a Reformed understanding as well.1

The Westminster Larger Catechism defines sacraments, in part, as ordinances given “unto those that are within the covenant of grace…to strengthen and increase their faith” (162). Moreover, among the duties of “improving our baptism” the Catechism includes “growing up to assurance of pardon of sin, and of all other blessings sealed to us” in baptism, as well as “drawing strength from the death and resurrection of Christ, into whom we are baptized, for the mortifying of sin, and quickening of grace” (167).2

More vividly, the Scots preacher John Willison cites the case of the newly baptized eunuch who “went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). Willison writes,
He must have thought to himself, “Oh, now my case is blessed, for I am a pardoned man. God has received me into His family and taken me into covenant with Himself, and implanted me as a member of His mystical body. I, who was a plant of a strange vine, am now ingrafted into a noble stock; and shall I not be glad and rejoice in His salvation?” Thus, O believer, improve the seal of baptism in order to grow up to the comfortable assurance of your pardon of sin and adoption into God’s family, seeing that these blessings are irreversibly promised and sealed to you in that sacrament.3
Along similar lines, the Puritan exegete Thomas Taylor writes that baptism is
a seal or pledge of our sanctification and salvation, as certainly assuring these to the soul of a believer as he is or can be assured of the other. As a man having a bond for a thousand pounds sealed unto him may truly say, “Here is my thousand pounds,” that is, a security confirming it unto me as surely as if I had it in my hands; even so may the believing party say of his baptism, “Here is my regeneration; here is my salvation.”4
Even if it is widely agreed among Reformed theologians that baptism provides assurance to faith, the question remains, however, just how baptism functions as an assuring seal.

Is the sacrament of baptism merely an occasion for faith to act, placing its trust and finding grace in a promise of God or operation of the Spirit that occurs elsewhere? Views following Zwingli and Bullinger tend in this direction, emphasizing the obsignatory or sealing aspect of the sacrament.

Or is the sacrament, as an act of God, an instrument and means of grace through which the Spirit meets faith in the sacrament to strengthen and increase it by offering, exhibiting, and applying the benefits of salvation?5 Views following Calvin and Bucer tend in this direction, emphasizing sacraments as not merely obsignatory, but also gracious means.

It is possible too that the truth lies somewhere between these views. Whatever the case, any determination must proceed from Scriptural teaching regarding baptism, to which we now turn.


Jesus’ Baptism by John

I begin with the following assertion: biblically speaking, the primary significance of Christian baptism is to express the covenant faithfulness of God himself who in and through Christ Jesus accomplished salvation for us. Baptism is not first and foremost an expression of our faith or our making covenant with God—though that is true as well—rather it expresses God’s own faithfulness to us, his covenant people.

Having said that, I will add a second claim: one of the primary ways in which the covenant faithfulness of God takes form is by Jesus himself undergoing baptism in his own person.

When we encounter the baptism of Jesus in the Gospel, however, it is within the framework of John’s baptism: “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4-5). Our sketch here can only be brief, but reviewing John the Baptizer’s ministry is indispensable for understanding Jesus’ baptism and, in turn, Christian baptism. We observe that John’s ministry blends elements of washing, wilderness, Jordan, repentance, and forgiveness, suggesting a ministry of eschatological expectation, of judgment and vindication.

John’s administration of “washing” recalls the only Old Testament water rites that were not self-administered: cleansing from corpse contact and from leprosy, as well as the priestly consecration of Aaron and his sons.6 The cleansing rites are particularly important in John’s context of repentance and forgiveness, involving a transition from uncleanness to cleanness, which is tantamount to a passage from death to life, from sin to purity, at least ritually speaking.7 Restoration through water, then, was also ritual resurrection.

The typology of sin and death as uncleanness is already apparent in the Torah and comes to further expression elsewhere in Scripture, such as Psalm 51 where “purging with hyssop” and its parallel, “washing,” act as shorthand for the entire rite for cleansing lepers, marking sin as the true uncleanness that leprosy images. And like the leprosy-cleansing rite, the Psalm culminates in renewed fellowship with Yahweh through offerings.8

Later in Israel’s history cleansing-resurrection typology became associated with return from exile, purification from sin, and eschatological vindication. We read, for example, in Ezekiel 36:25-28:
I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give to you and a new Spirit I will put within you…Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people and I will be your God.
This prophecy occurs within a larger vision of national resurrection and restoration of exiled Israel (Eze 37:1-14).9 As such, it functions within the categories of Israel’s water rites, particularly those cleansing from contact with leprosy and death, converting these typologies into a prophecy of national cleansing, resurrection, and restoration from exile, a hope that grew into an equally strong hope for personal bodily resurrection as Yahweh’s final vindication of his people.

In this light, John’s baptism adapts the Torah’s cleansing rites, interpreted through the lens of eschatological expectation. It not only anticipates the final outpouring of the Spirit, but also prepares the way for it: “After me comes one mightier than I, whose sandal strap I am unworthy to stoop down and untie. I’ve baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:7-8).

This eschatological anticipation is further underscored by John’s wilderness ministry, recalling the trials and judgment of Israel before entering the promised Land via the River Jordan.10 Calling Israel in the wilderness, John evokes a new exodus out of resumed exile, not in terms of a literal migration of people, but in terms of ultimate exodus out of bondage to sin and into the freedom and peace of the reign of God. This final exodus for Israel reverses the primordial exile of Adam from Eden, inasmuch as God had called Israel to bear the destiny of humanity. Within prophetic expectation this great event requires the Messiah to come and Yahweh’s own return to Jerusalem. In this manner, John prepares “the way of the Lord,” Israel’s God, soon to appear, though unexpectedly in the person of Jesus.

Turning, then, to Jesus’ baptism, we see that in submitting to baptism, Jesus identifies with Israel’s hope and undertakes the mission and destiny of Israel in his own person as their Messiah and representative: he does for Israel what Israel could not do for herself. Entering into Israel’s story through baptism, Jesus becomes Israel’s promised restoration. In his resurrection Jesus became, in the middle of history, what Israel expected to be at history’s end—a resurrected, vindicated, and restored humanity, the embodiment of God’s faithfulness to his promises.

Each Gospel draws our attention to particular aspects of Jesus’ baptism, within the contexts of their larger narrative purposes.11

Mark emphasizes Jesus’ kingly, Davidic role so it is as messianic king that Jesus embarks upon the “way of the Lord.”12 But Jesus asks his followers on that way, “Are you able...to be baptized with the baptism that I am being baptized with?”—for the messianic “way” of Jesus leads inexorably to the cross. In his baptism by John, Jesus was baptized into this “way,” anointed as Israel’s king, to represent his people through royal service unto death, drawing Israel’s fate upon himself.13 But by Jesus’ taking up Israel’s destiny in his baptism, the rite also holds out hope: the promise of resurrection.

Matthew presents Jesus as a new Moses and new Israel, so that Jesus’ baptism is an eschatological exodus in the midst of spiritual exile, recapitulating Moses and Israel’s crossing the Red Sea. The Father declares at Jesus’ baptism that he is “well pleased” (Mt 1:1; 3:15-17), a contrast with Israel under Moses, with whom Yahweh was displeased and who perished in the wilderness.14 Thus, when the “Spirit of God” comes upon Jesus at his baptism (Mt 3:16), his dove-like descent takes up the symbolism of the eagle-winged cloud of glory that led Israel, now leading Jesus into the wilderness of temptation.15

Matthew echoes the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ baptism in connection with later healings, suggesting that baptism stands as a sign over his whole ministry: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him…”16 Jesus thus lives under the aegis of the Spirit as the renewed Israel of God, in whom the Father is well pleased and to whom he grants promised restoration through the Spirit: resurrection out the other side of exile and exodus.

Luke retains many of the same features as Mark and Matthew, but particularly emphasizes Jesus’ role a prophet and priest, alluding many times to the prophetic ministries of Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha and giving the priestly temple prominence. In light of these emphases, Jesus’ baptism in Luke functions both as a prophetic empowerment by the Spirit of God and as an ordination into priestly service in order to bear away the sins of the people.

John does not explicitly narrate Jesus’ baptism, though it is presupposed throughout John’s recounting of Jesus’ ministry, particularly the Baptizer’s testimony that he “saw the Spirit descending from heaven upon [Jesus] like a dove, and it remained upon him” (Jn 1:32). The Gospel writer later speaks of Jesus as the Father’s Son who has the Spirit without measure (Jn 3:34-35). In between, in the context of John’s baptism and Jesus’ own baptizing through the hands of his disciples (Jn 3:22; 4:1-2), Jesus speaks to Nicodemus of “birth from above” and being “born of water and Spirit” (Jn 3:1-21), drawing upon biblical typology that Nicodemus, as a teacher in Israel, was expected to know (Jn 3:10).

As is often the case in John’s Gospel, Jesus’ teaching operates on several levels at once. To begin, Jesus situates John’s ministry of baptism as a preparation for the Spirit’s eschatological outpouring through his own messianic obedience.17 In the context of Jesus’ interweaving of baptism, water, the Spirit, new birth, and his own messianic and divine sonship, I submit that Jesus’ speech to Nicodemus points first to his own person as the one preeminently born from above, descending from heaven as the Father’s Son, born of water and Spirit in John’s baptism, receiving the Spirit without measure in that baptism, and who, born of the Spirit, comes mysteriously as the wind. Jesus, after all, speaks only of what he himself knows and has seen (Jn 3:11) and, as Jesus goes on to say, all who desire eternal life—the life of those born from above—must look to the Son of God in faith, thereby finding in him the power to become sons of God (Jn 3:11-21; 1:12-13).

Having surveyed the Gospel accounts, let’s sum up and elaborate the rich complex of biblical typologies brought together in the single event of Jesus’ baptism.

We have seen that Jesus’ baptism was a new application of the rites given to God’s people for cleansing and purification—rites that had once reconstituted Israel as God’s priestly people, signifying and embodying Israel’s hope for deliverance from sin and death through restoration and resurrection.

Analogously, Jesus’ baptism recapitulated the ordination of Aaron and his sons as priests serving in God’s house to guard his holiness, serve their Lord, and minister to his people, assisting in Israel’s offerings and, crucially, bearing Israel’s sins away. Moreover, Jesus’ baptism recalls Israel’s prophets, anointed with God’s Spirit that they might reveal his word of promise and carry out his judgments.

In addition, Jesus’ baptism reiterates kingly anointing, setting him apart as heir to David’s throne, God’s anointed and beloved messiah and servant, a capacity in which Jesus acts as Israel’s representative, summing up Israel’s sonship and service to the nations.

Beyond these more ritual resonances, Jesus’ baptism also takes up and repeats the major events of creation, re-creation, covenant renewal, and deliverance from throughout the biblical narrative. His baptism recalls the original creation in which God drew a new world out of the watery deep, above which the Spirit hovered. It reminds us of the safe journey of Noah through water in God’s ark to a new world washed from sin, signified by a dove carrying a token of new life. And, as we’ve seen, Jesus’ baptism replays the powerful deliverance of Israel from slavery, through the cloud and sea, unto a new obedience and time of testing in the wilderness, all the way through to Israel’s entry into the promised land, crossing the Jordan, with the ark of God’s presence in their midst.

In every way, then, Jesus’ baptism summed all of God’s promises to his people through the centuries—promises of sonship, vindication, spiritual anointing, new creation, divine presence, and cleansing—attesting to God’s faithfulness to all those promises in Christ. Baptism marked out Jesus as the chosen One of God, the faithful remnant of Israel, his own son, even when everyone else fled and fell away.

Under the sign of baptism, Jesus truly lived out the meaning of baptism: perfect obedience, a life lived by faith in his Father’s promises, seeking rule through service, even unto death where, in the agony and forsakenness of the cross, he entered into the curse of the covenant. Jesus passed through this judgment by faith in the Father who sent him and proclaimed him his own beloved Son at his baptism in the Jordan, sealed him with every promise, and granted him his own Spirit as an earnest of the promised inheritance. And Jesus’ own faith and obedience received its reward when the Father, by that same Spirit, raised Jesus from death, declaring him to be his holy son, vindicating him as the new creation in whom all of God’s promises are “Yes” and “Amen.”


Jesus’ Baptism and Ours

Jesus’ baptism, however, was never simply for him alone. Commenting upon the Creedal affirmation of “one baptism for the remission of sins,” Calvin states that “one baptism” does not merely mean a Christian is only baptized once. Rather, it denotes the unity of all Christians in receiving one and the same baptism, a baptism they share with Jesus himself. Calvin writes that Jesus “consecrated and sanctified baptism in his own body in order that he might have it in common with us as the firmest bond of the union and fellowship he has deigned to form with us.”18 This, it seems to me, is a helpful perspective in which to consider John’s baptism of Jesus.

The Gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism, considered in light of their original audience, seem aimed, in part, at instructing their hearers about their own baptisms, their solidarity with Christ, and with one another in Christ, in being baptized. Thus these accounts show how Jesus fulfills all of God’s promises so that their baptized audiences know themselves to share together in that fulfillment.

We should keep this in mind when we see the Spirit poured out upon Jesus’ gathered disciples in the baptism of Pentecost, the very same Spirit who descended upon Jesus in his baptism and raised him from the dead. Peter explains to the crowd that, though Jesus was put to death, death could not hold him since, as the Messiah who received the promised Spirit, Jesus had been raised and exalted to the Father’s right hand. He thereby conquered death and became, in his own person, the remedy for sin, the one in whom we receive the gift of the Spirit (Acts 2:22-39).

The outpouring of this Spirit upon these disciples constituted that earliest Church as God’s own forgiven, vindicated, and holy new-creation people, fulfilling God’s promises to them in Christ as his chosen and holy heirs. And when the Apostles went into the world as God’s ambassadors of reconciliation and heralds of his new creation, the sacrament of baptism was the tangible sign by which Spirit brought all who believed into the community of Jesus’ disciples, the church.

Thus the Apostles baptized converts and their households so they too might share in what the church already had become in Christ by the Spirit. Peter, therefore, proclaims on Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you for forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is to you and your children and all who are far off” (Acts 2:38-39).

As the New Testament repeatedly affirms, in baptism, just as much as in the word of the Gospel or the celebration of the eucharist, the Spirit offers to us everything that belongs to Christ and his church in him. One way the New Testament writers unfold this baptismal theology is to interpret and explain baptism in the typological categories we have already seen applied to Jesus’ own baptism.

Thus we find Peter associating Christian baptism with Noah’s flood, (1 Pet 3:18-22) recalling how Noah and his family were kept safe through watery judgment in the ark, which also became the means by which they sailed into a new world, cleansed from wickedness. In baptism, then, we undergo this same journey in Christ who, as our ark, bears judgment on our behalf that he might bring us into the new life God has prepared for us. Thus baptism, Peters says, is not intended as a washing of dirt from the body, but as a saving means by which we receive right-standing before God through Christ’s righteousness—the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit.

Paul likewise draws an array of analogous connections between Christian baptism and the typologies caught up into Jesus’ own baptism. In 1 Corinthians 10:2-4 Paul explicitly draws upon the image of Israel’s crossing the Red Sea (compare 1 Cor 12:12-13). Paul presents baptism, therefore, in terms of the exodus so that Jesus is manifest as God’s new Moses and Israel. All Christians share together in this exodus in baptism, through the Spirit, as corporate members of Christ (Christus totus).19 The exodus motif, however, also stands as a warning. As many Israelites who crossed the sea were struck down in the wilderness, baptism is no guarantee of salvation for those who do not follow Jesus through faith (1 Cor 10:5-13).20

Elsewhere, with respect to baptism, Paul deploys the twin motifs of sonship within God’s family and of priestly or royal investiture. In Colossians, Galatians, and Ephesians, the image of being clothed with Christ, putting on the “new man,” is interwoven with themes of adoptive sonship, inheritance, new identity, and a new way of life. Through baptism, Paul explains in Galatians 3:26-28, we are clothed with Jesus’ own messianic sonship and incorporated into his messianic people, since “Christ” here refers not only to the person of Jesus, but also, as in 1 Corinthians, the entire body of Christ. In Christ, by baptism, we all have equal standing before God, the freedom and inheritance of sons, whatever our ethnicity, sex, or station—in short, a new humanity.

Paul uses similar language in Colossians, but within a larger context that includes circumcision (Col 2:11-13), which Paul brings together with baptism in Christ’s person and work. Among Abraham’s circumcised sons, Jesus perfectly lived the meaning of circumcision so that, in his death, Jesus put off the body of the flesh, nailing the law’s condemnation to the cross, an event which Paul calls “the circumcision of Christ.” These events are also simultaneously the baptism of Christ, by which he lived out and fulfilled the meaning of baptism, in both the baptism of the cross and his resurrection by God’s power. In baptism, therefore, we share in all Christ accomplished, receiving the true circumcision by which we put off our sinful flesh, enjoy forgiveness of sins, and are raised with Christ unto new life, all received through faith.

In light of this new baptismal identity we share in Christ, Paul calls upon the Colossians to live in terms of this identity (3:1-3), to “put to death” or “put away” whatever sin remains in their lives, using the image of clothing we saw already in Galatians (3:9-11). The “old man” and “new man” here are not, therefore, simply individual, but also indicate two humanities: one rooted in the “old man,” the fallen Adam, and one clothed in the “new man,” in Christ, the new Adam. The old Adamic man still finds itself bound to sinful practices that are not only self-destructive, but destructive of human community, while the new man in Christ has put off these old practices in baptism so that it might be renewed in God’s image. Baptismal renewal here is not only an individual renewal, but also and primarily the renewing of humanity, God’s new creation people in whom his original plan for our race will be fulfilled.21 Renewal marks the advent of a new creation in Christ who, by his resurrection, is its first fruits.22

A final image of baptism is that of “washing” from sin, a natural image in relation to baptism, derived no doubt from Old Testament ritual purifications that we saw formed a background to John’s baptism of Jesus. When Paul received his first Christian instruction concerning baptism after his Damascus road experience, it was from the prophet Ananias, who said, “Get up and be baptized and wash your sins away, calling upon the name of the Lord” (Acts 22). Thus it is no surprise to find Paul taking up the image of baptismal washing in his own writings, connecting it with the gift of the Spirit, justification, sanctification, inheritance, new creation, new life, and renewal.23

We can conclude, then, that the New Testament consistently teaches this: by baptism we receive God’s promises in Jesus Christ, the one who was baptized and received those promises in his own person. In baptism, we have God’s own covenant faithfulness proclaimed to us personally and individually, within the body of Christ, that we might find our identity in Christ’s own faithfulness and in the faith of his church.

This new identity is one that marks us out as God’s justified, sanctified, new-creation people, and heirs of eternal life. The only possible proper response is to continually turn in faith to God and live out what he has already named us through baptism by his word and Spirit. Someday, like Christ, by a faith that produces the fruit of obedience, following the Way of the cross, we too will share fully in the resurrection and new creation which is already offered to us now, in Christ, through baptism.


Baptismal Efficacy

Having looked at the New Testament’s overall theology of baptism, we can, I think, summarize matters in the following way regarding baptismal efficacy:

1. Baptism is first and foremost a proclamation of God’s own faithfulness to his covenant promises in Christ, who was baptized and carried out his ministry and work under that baptismal sign. In this context, we see that in baptism God signifies and represents the benefits of the new covenant in Christ, offering and presenting them by his Spirit to all who are baptized, in the context of the community that anticipates now the eschatological renewal of humanity. 24

2. It follows from this and from the sacrament’s essentially passive character, that baptism is primarily God’s action, not ours, coming from outside of us, for us, a fitting sign of grace’s primacy: God’s faithfulness to us in Christ and the inception of the Christian life among God's people.

3. What baptism offers is also offered to us through other means within Christ’s Body, particularly God’s proclaimed word and the Lord’s Supper, alongside other gracious means within the wider ministry of the word and fellowship of believers.25

4. Baptism differs from other means in being both initiatory (marking the inception of life within Christ’s Body, which continues, lived out under that baptismal sign) and personal (moving from the Gospel’s general call to its particular application in water in the Triune name, applied to each individually).

5. While baptism is primarily God’s action, nevertheless—as with God’s action in Christ and call of the Gospel—we must respond. The Gospel-offer of God’s faithfulness in Christ calls us to the Gospel-response of faith.26

6. For all who receive baptism rightly, that is, laying hold of Christ in the sacrament only by faith, baptism not only offers and presents Christ and his benefits, but also is an effectual means or instrument by which they are conveyed and received.27 As God saves people by means of his word as it is preached, he likewise saves by means of baptism.28

7. Water or the mere rite of baptism is not itself efficacious. Rather, baptism is efficacious only insofar as it tangibly carries forward God’s covenant word in salvation history, joined together, in Christ and his Body, with the Spirit’s own working.29

8. While we believe upon Christ in baptism, many also come to baptism having already begun to believe. This does not, however, overturn baptism’s efficacy since Christ and salvation, considered comprehensively, are not received all at once, in a single instant, but continue to be received in every act of faith responding to God’s word and sacraments.30

9. Given New Testament warnings, apart from faith’s response baptism is not merely ineffectual as a saving means, but instead becomes an occasion for greater condemnation as befits those who know God’s grace and reject it. This does nothing, however, to impair the sacrament’s intrinsic nature as presenting and offering Christ and his benefits.31

10. Thus, the baptized are called to live according to their baptismal identity, growing up to assurance of what baptism presents, repenting of sin, receiving God’s word of pardon, resisting temptation, and so on.32 This also entails walking in accord with the grace of baptism in newness of life, thereby following Christ in the way of baptism, the way of the cross.

11. This response to baptism’s call leaves no room for carnal presumption, but requires and occurs within the response of faith, by which Christ is received and rested upon for salvation as he is presented to us in the Gospel, both through the word and in his sacraments.

12. Ultimately, then, from the standpoint of the baptism’s final end, the sacrament is only savingly efficacious for the elect. Nonetheless, the judgment of charity requires that we regard all the baptized as enjoying Christ’s benefits until their manifest unbelief indicates otherwise, meanwhile calling them to the response of faith and repentance that baptism expects.33

While we might say more of baptism’s efficacy, this shall suffice as a summary of what we can glean and organize from the wider sweep of biblical teaching. Although some particular points may be open to clarification and qualification, this kind of systematic framing seems necessary in order to maintain a proper biblical balance between the New Testament’s sacramental realism, the indispensability of personal repentance and faith, and the practical piety of those who live under the sign of baptism. It is as an efficacious instrument of the Spirit that baptism offers Christ unto faith for our assurance and strengthening in him.

We conclude then with the words of the eminent Puritan divine, Daniel Rogers from his magisterial work of sacramental theology. Concerning the esteem in which we should hold God’s sacraments, particularly baptism, he writes,
Doubtless he that cares not for Christ in the word, Christ in the promise, Christ in the Minister, Christ in the water, Christ in the bread and wine, Christ sacramental, cares as little for Christ God, Christ flesh, Christ Emmanuel. By these he comes near us. And “he that despiseth you despiseth me and him that sent me.” Beware we of such contempt, even in the secretest of our thoughts and affections and let Christ in the water be honoured as Christ, for that sweet union and fruit which he brings to a poor soul thereby.34


Notes

1. One can note how often this story from Luther and similar ones from Luther’s ministry are cited by Reformed authors in their exposition of baptism. See the discussions of baptism in Stephen Marshall, Thomas Watson, Thomas Manton, or John Willison, to name a few. Recall also Calvin’s well-known statement, “there is no doubt that all pious folk throughout life, whenever they are troubled by a consciousness of their faults, may venture to remind themselves of their baptism, that from it they may be confirmed in assurance of that sole and perpetual cleansing which we have in Christ's blood” (Institutes, 4.25.4).

2. The entire answer to Question 167 bears reading in this connection.

3. Willison, A Sacramental Catechism, ed. Don Kistler (Soli Deo Gloria, 2003 [1720]), pages 64-5.

4. Taylor, Exposition of Titus, 3:5 (Klock and Klock, 1980 [1619]).

5. Samuel Ward, a Puritan divine and a member of the British delegation to Dort, phrases it this way: “first it is a means whereby God doth offer and exhibit on his part the grace it signifieth; which we receiving by faith, it then also becometh a pledge, to assure us of the receipt thereof” (“Letter CLXX” to James Ussher, Bishop of Armagh; May 25, 1630).

6. On corpse defilement see, Num 19:1-22; leprosy, Lev 14:1-7; priestly ordination, Ex 29:4-9; Lev 8:6-9.

7. In the first case—defilement by a corpse—uncleanness results from being touched by death (Num 19:11, 14, 16) and apart from cleansing will effect a “cutting off” from Yahweh’s people (Num 19:13, 20; cf. Ex 30:20). In the other case—defilement by leprosy—uncleanness brings about a condition of virtual living death: separation from communal and cultic life (Lev 13:46), dwelling in the site of execution (Nu 15:35-36), and adopting a mourner’s costume (torn clothes, unkempt hair, a covered face, crying out; Lev 13:45). See Gordon J. Wenham, The Book of Leviticus, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Eerdmans 1979) and Numbers: an Introduction and Commentary, Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries (InterVarsity 1981).

8. Within the Torah see, e.g., the purification offerings, Lev 5:1-6. On leprosy, see Lev 14:1-32 and compare Ps 51, esp. verses 7, 9-12, and 16-19; also cf. Zech 13:1.

9. Ezekiel graphically portrays Israel’s resurrection as the reconstitution and resuscitation of dry bones by the Spirit of Yahweh. The dry bones represent Israel, slain earlier for her idolatry (Eze 6:1-6), now forgiven, cleansed, renewed, and, in later chapters, vindicated among her enemies (Eze 38-39) and restored to fellowship with her God in her land (Eze 40-48; cf. Isa 4 4:1-5).

10. On the testing and judgment of Israel, see Num 14:26-35; Deut 1:26-40; Ps 106:24-27; and Josh 3:7-4:24.

11. For a more detailed and extensively argued exposition of Matthew and Mark on baptism, see my essay, “Baptism in Matthew and Mark.”

12. On Jesus’ sonship (Mk 1:1) as Davidic, compare 1 Sam 7:14; Ps 2:7; 89:4, 26-27 (cf. Acts 10:27-28).

13. Jesus’ pilgrimage along the “way” is a strongly Markan motif (Mk 1:2-3; 2:23; 3:1; etc., see esp. 10:17, 32, 52; etc.). Regarding the cruciform service this way entails for the messianic king, see Mk 8:27-31; 9:30-31; 10:32-34, 42-45, particularly 10:38 in connection with baptism. See John Paul Heil, The Gospel of Mark as a Model for Action (Paulist 1992).

14. See Nu 14:26-35; Ps 95:7-11. For a detail exposition of Mosaic motifs in Matthew, see Dale C. Allison, The New Moses: a Matthean typology (T&T Clark 1993).

15. See Ex 13:21-22; 14:19-25; 19:4; Dt 32:11-12; cf. 1 Co 10:1-2.

16. Mt 12:15-21 quoting Isa 42:1. In original context, the prophet refers to Israel, personified as God's servant, restored from exile, and establishing justice among nations (Isa 42-43).

17. Jesus predicts the Spirit’s gift repeatedly throughout the rest of the Gospel, anticipating it by his own ministry of baptism, his discourse with the Samaritan woman, and so on.

18. Calvin, Institutes 4.15.6. See also Ronald Wallace, Calvin’s Doctrine of Word and Sacrament (T&T Clark, 1953) 175-176 and Geddes MacGregor, Corpus Christi: The Nature of the Church According to the Reformed Tradition (Westminster, 1958) 132-133.

Pierre du Moulin similarly writes that baptism “is a sacrament which Jesus Christ has sanctified in his own person” (Buckler of the Faith 1617). Likewise Thomas Manton says, “the pattern of Christ is very encouraging; for whatever Christ did, he sanctified in that respect—his steps in every duty leave a blessing. Look, as Christ sanctified baptism by being baptized himself, and made the water of baptism to be saving and comfortable for us.” (“An Introduction to the Exposition of the Lord's Prayer (Part 1)”).

19. That is to say, “Christ” here in 1 Cor is a corporate reality, the whole Christ, head and body.

20. Arguably, 1 Corinthians is not the only place where Paul uses this exodus motif in relation to baptism. In Romans Paul moves from God’s promises to Abraham, which include the prospect of bondage, exile, and exodus (Rom 4; cf. Ge 15:5-16). And so later (Rom 8), Paul exhorting his hearers as the “children of God” who, led by the Spirit (a new Torah; Ro 8:3), must not fall back into slavery, but enter into the promised inheritance as fellow heirs with Christ (Ro 8:12-17), recalling thereby the wilderness wanderings of Israel. The exodus out of slavery to sin, then, is explained in between Romans 4 and Romans 8, particularly in chapter 6:16-23, with his discussion of baptism as the equivalent of Israel’s Red Sea crossing (Rom 6:4; this reading of Romans 6 is also suggested by N.T. Wright, Sylvia C. Keesmaat, and Frank Theilman). Baptism is associated here by Paul not only with the vindication or justification found in union with Christ’s resurrection (Ro 5:12-21), but also with dying to sin and walking in newness of life, which is our regeneration or sanctification (Ro 6:1-23).

21. For further elaboration of this theme, see Geerhardus Vos, The Pauline Eschatology (Princeton UP, 1930) 42-61. In particular compare 2 Cor 5:17, which, as Vos, Ridderbos, and other Reformed exegetes have noted, concerns not so such “renovation in the subjective condition of the believer” as it does being “transferred into a new world, a world which differs toto genere in all its characters, its whole environment, and…differs likewise principally as to the basis of objective righteousness in which the new man stands, from the present world” (Vos, 150, note 7). Paul regularly ties this transfer to a new world with the transition that occurs in baptism by all who believe.

22. A similar sequence of thought is found in Ephesians 4:1-30, where Paul argues from “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (4:5) to the necessary unity that must characterize those who share in that faith and baptism (4:1-16). He goes on then to call upon the Ephesians—using what we can now recognize as baptismal language—to “set aside the old man…and put on the new” (4:22-24) in as part of the renewal of the Spirit, by whom we “were sealed” (4:30), presumably, in context, an allusion to baptism as well. As Paul goes onto to explicate the nature of renewed community in Christ, he again alludes to baptism as “washing of the water with the word” in which the whole church shares and by which Christ cleanses his people, setting them apart from the world as his Bride (Eph 5:25-27).

23. In this connection see, in particular, 1 Cor 6:9-11 and Tit 3:4-7.

24. The Westminster divine, Stephen Marshall, writes in his A Defence of Infant Baptism, “I say therefore, that in every Sacrament, the truth of the Covenant in itself, and all the promises of it are sealed to be Yea, and Amen; Jesus Christ became a Minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made unto the Father, and so to every one who is admitted to partake of Baptism, according to the rule which God hath given to his Church, to administer that Sacrament, there is sealed the truth of all the promises of the Gospel, thant they are all true in Christ, and that whoever partakes of Christ, shall partake of all these saving promises; this is sealed absolutely in Baptism.”

25. This is clear from how what the New Testament attributes to baptism in one place is attributed to receiving the word of the Gospel elsewhere. The parallel between the sacraments as an administration of God’s word and the primary verbal proclamation of the word, is a common parallel within Reformed theology, beginning with Calvin.

26. Again, Stephen Marshall writes, “as to the second [sense in which baptism is a ‘seal’], which is interesse meum, or the receiver's interest in that spiritual part of the Covenant, that is sealed to no receiver absolutely, but conditionally. In this particular, all Sacraments are but signa conditionalis, conditional seals, sealing the spiritual part of the Covenant to the receiver, upon condition that he perform the spiritual condition of the Covenant.”

27. To refer to baptism as an “instrument” in this context is not at all to compromise faith as the sole instrumental means by which we receive Christ, but there is a distinction between an instrument on our part and an instrument on God’s part. Calvin writes that the Reformed “maintain that [baptism] is the ordinary instrument of God in washing and renewing us; in short, in communicating to us salvation” (Antidote to the Council of Trent).

The Scots divine Robert Rollock similarly writes, “The outward washing in baptism is not to be looked to lightly, the pouring on of the water is but any base sign to look to; rather it is the instrument that God takes in his hand and whereby he applies to us the inward washing of the Holy Spirit” (“Sermon on Titus 3” from Select Works). This language of “instrument” is common among a wide away of 16th and 17th century Reformed divines.

28. Regarding baptism as an effectual means of salvation, Charles Hodge writes,
How then is it true that baptism washes away sin, unites us to Christ, and secures salvation? The answer again is, that this is true of baptism in the same sense that it is true of the word. God is pleased to connect the benefits of redemption with the believing reception of the truth. And he is pleased to connect these same benefits with the believing reception of baptism. That is, as the Spirit works with and by the truth, so he works with and by baptism, in communicating the blessings of the covenant of grace. Therefore, as we are said to be saved by the word, with equal propriety we are said to be saved by baptism. (Commentary on Ephesians).
29. The joining together of God’s covenant promises, water, and the Spirit in Christ’s own baptism makes this clear, especially insofar as it founds the institution of Christian baptism. Not also the Westminster Confession’s teaching that the grace of the sacraments “is not conferred by any power in them” nor does the efficacy of that grace “depend upon the piety or intention of him that doth administer it.” Rather, the whole efficacy of the sacraments in exhibiting and conferring grace depends “upon the work of the Spirit, and the word of institution” in which Christ and the Gospel are offered unto faith (27.3).

30. Again, Charles Hodge, “the benefits of redemption, the remission of sin, the gift of the Spirit, and the merits of the Redeemer, are not conveyed to the soul once for all. They are reconveyed and reappropriated on every new act of faith, and on every new believing reception of the sacraments.”

See also Francis Turretin, who says that the “Holy Spirit is repeatedly promised and given also to believers” and that this is “the progress and increase of regenerating grace” by which the Spirit acts “to promote and perfect the good work which began in them” (Institutes 15.5.20). Thus believers experience the ongoing “actual mortification of the old and vivification of the new man” as part and parcel of regeneration itself (15.5.21).

Turretin continues, adding that “by baptism is sealed to us the remission not only of past and present, but also future sins” (19.20.12) so that the “promises of cleansing and blotting out sins” received in baptism are also “referred to sanctification,” which occurs “gradually and successively” (19.20.26). The “death to sin” received in baptism is with regard both to justification in which sin “is perfectly remitted and in no way imputed” and to sanctification in which “sin dies or rather is mortified by degrees” (19.20.25). In both these ways then, “we are said...to die with Christ in baptism” so that through baptism sins “are wholly removed as to guilt and gradually as to stain”(19.20.25, 27).

31. As Michael Horton notes,
Does Baptism actually save, then, if so many who are baptized fail to believe? If the sacraments serve the same purpose as the Word—that is, if they are means of grace—then we can ask the same question of the Word: Does the preached Word actually save, if so many fail to believe? Most of us have no hesitation in answering, “God offers eternal life—but if we reject it, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we accept it, we have no one to praise but God.” The same is true of baptism. If God offers eternal life to everyone, even to those outside the covenant of grace, then how much more will he hold us responsible for rejecting his saving grace sealed to us by his Spirit through the Word and baptism? (In the Face of God, 221).
Regarding the integrity of sacrament itself, Calvin writes concerning the Supper that unbelief does nothing to “impair or alter anything as to the nature of the sacrament ” so that “nothing is taken away from the promises of God, or falls to the ground, through the wickedness of men” (Commentary on 1 Corinthians 11:27).

32. As we saw above, this is how the New Testament writers often address their hearers, calling upon them to live out by faith what they are identified as by baptism, the imperative and subjective following upon the indicative and objective. In this connection, in particular, see again Westminster Larger Catechism 167 on “improving” one’s baptism.

33. And so, for instance, the Puritan divine George Downame writes, “We are to distinguish between the judgment of charity and the judgment of certainty. For although in general we know not that every one that is baptized is justified or shall be saved, yet, when we come to speak of particulars, we are to judge of them that are baptized that they are regenerated and justified, and that they shall be saved, until they shall discover [that is, display] themselves not to be such” (Treatise on the Certainty of Perseverance 1631). This was the common view among English Puritans.

34. A Treatise of the Two Sacraments of the Gospel (Thomas Cotes, 1633) 73.