Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel and welcome back to the series on water. Today I really don't know exactly what we're gonna get into in this conversation because I really wanna talk about purification and things like that, but I feel like I need to talk about ritual more than purification, although we'll talk about purification in relation to ritual.
[00:00:40] But really our point here in this series is to point forward into our Christian life, and especially for baptism. Baptism is really contested in Christianity, isn't it? It's either really, really important and it's very salvific and everybody needs to do it. And there's all of these associated ideas with it. Like you have a order of things that happen and you have to have all of this teaching before you're baptized in order for that to happen. Right? And in some traditions have a really long series of things to learn before you're baptized. And of course you have the question of infant baptism versus believers baptism versus some other formulations of that.
[00:01:27] You even have people who say that you don't need to be baptized and you can just sign your name on a list. And that's almost the same thing because who wants to have to deal with all of this complexity? Right?
[00:01:40] So I wanted to kind of back up a little bit with all of that and just talk about ritual. What is ritual? What does ritual mean? What does ritual do? Is a ritual just a surface level thing that we do, or is there something more to it? Is there any genuine metaphysical, ontological reality to things that we do in a ritual context? Is it just symbolic, but the meaning and the intent and the time that we spend thinking about it means that that symbolic action is really something that is still more than symbolic, even though it is just symbolic.
[00:02:22] What we wanna do, I think, in part is not cherry pick things. I am hoping that you guys listening to this, and I really trust that you do, that you are not straw manning other positions and making them out to be something that they're not. So this is a case where it would be really fruitful to sit down with different people from different traditions and ask them, what does your tradition teach about these things?
[00:02:51] Now of course I am very into biblical theology and this is a biblical theology podcast. So because of that, I am very into narrative and themes and design patterns and all of those kinds of things. So my bias is to see ritual in that framework. And I think it's a helpful one personally.
[00:03:16] Now, does that mean that there's no ontological or metaphysical reality? I don't think that has to be the case, but I do think that first and foremost, what we have in something like ritual is a participation in a story. We're participating with people in our community. We're participating with people in the past who also did this thing that we are now about to do in this ritual. And it's communicating something. It's communicating something about the person who is doing the ritual, who is participating. It communicates something about God. And it communicates something about the world at large and other people in it.
[00:04:00] What we've already set the trajectory for in this conversation is to talk about the ancient practices in the form of studying biblical theology. And ritual is going to play a really big part in that.
[00:04:13] We also know that water can form a transition point. We go from one reality into another reality, kind of like entering a temple, entering sacred space, joining a kingdom, being part of a covenant, being born into a new creation.
[00:04:33] Okay, so let's talk about ritual and let's define it because a ritual really is just a repeated action that you do. A ritual can be the kinds of things that you do in the morning to get yourself ready for the day, and you do those things in certain order, perhaps, and you do each of those things for certain reasons. Of course, when we're talking about sacred ritual or something like that, then we have something that is more than just the repeated patterns.
[00:05:06] A ritual at its heart is a symbolic action that encodes or expresses or enacts or participates within a set meaning. It makes meaning in your life. Rituals are often physical. They have words to them. Sometimes there's objects. Sometimes you do it in a particular space or a particular time, but a religious ritual is not just a tradition or a habit, but it's structured, symbolic action that has layers of social and theological meaning.
[00:05:44] Now, is that all it is though? We'll talk a little bit about that and whether or not it actually attaches to a metaphysical, ontological reality. And I know I use that word a lot, don't I? I say ontological a lot. I actually remember when I heard the word ontological and had to figure out what it meant.
[00:06:07] And I was like, that's weird. Why do they keep using this word when it just really means what something is? But really, when I'm talking about all these things, it's hard to avoid using a word like that because ontological means what something is. And that usually ascribes to something scientific, something that is based on something that you can see in the real world, right?
[00:06:34] So part of the question about something like purification or baptism or any kind of sacred ritual is how much that actually maps onto what we would call a scientific metaphysical reality. Now, part of the problem with that is that it kind of presupposes a level of materialism, but we'll just kind of set that to the side.
[00:06:59] So there's a few characteristics of rituals that we can talk about. First of all, we have repetition. The consistency of a ritual and that action that you do in a ritual gives it a sort of power. Over time it forms us into something. So there is that ontological reality. When you practice doing something, then that practice actually informs your future practice and it can even change or impact the way that you think.
[00:07:30] Okay, so another characteristic of a ritual is that it's symbolic. The thing that you're doing has some sort of meaning that is greater than the single action that you're performing.
[00:07:43] A ritual is embodied. It's not just an idea or a proposition, but it's something you actually act out. It's not something you just think about. And you know, when I say that, it makes me think about the Jesus prayer. You know, the kind of evangelism that people do sometimes where they ask people to give their lives to Jesus. You have to say this prayer and then boom, there you go. But even in that idea where belief is really very much about some mental structure in your head. Like if you have faith, then that means you think certain things.
[00:08:23] But even there, even in that, there's a kind of embodiment. You know, evangelists like that want you to say something and they usually want you to have a prayer. Now, we might say that that is like the minimal level of embodiment of faith that you can have, but it's still something, right?
[00:08:43] A sacred ritual is also a communal participation. It's not something that you just do by yourself. Most rituals are designed to be done with or in front of others, and they build and they reinforce community identity.
[00:09:01] A ritual can be a moment of transition or transformation. Rituals often mark a kind of a threshold, a change in status, a change in space, a change in belonging.
[00:09:16] So what is the function of ritual? A ritual can help to frame time and space in relation to yourself and other things. So a sabbath is set apart sacred time. A temple is set apart sacred space.
[00:09:32] A ritual can induct someone into a role, into a community, into some sort of spiritual reality. I mean, we can think of priestly anointing, we can think of circumcision, we can think of baptism. All of those things mark somebody's identity.
[00:09:51] A ritual also communicates values and narratives. A ritual can tell a story without explaining every detail or possibly even using words because it's embodying a shared truth.
[00:10:07] Now, for us, I would say that a ritual can link heaven and earth because what you're doing in a ritual often mediates between the divine and human realms. It's why we have something like the laying on of hands or the act of being baptized in water.
[00:10:24] Let's look at some examples in scripture. We have the Sabbath. It is a ritual in time. It repeats every seven days. It reshapes the relationship of people to work, rest and God's order. Then we have the Passover. The original Passover happened one time, but after that it was to be a ritual reenactment That would teach the children of the community, even if they were not in the original Passover. So they're participating in the story itself. It's not just a story that they're being told at bedtime.
[00:11:04] The ritual of anointing or laying on of hands can be one of calling or blessing or transfer of responsibility, possibly even healing. Now here's kind of a hard part. Do we think of ritual as being necessary? Like you can't be healed without these kinds of ritual things happening first? Well, that seems a bit ridiculous, doesn't it? Even if you believe in the healing of laying on of hands or something like that, I don't think most people would think that that is the only way that God can heal someone, and yet it is the thing that we see in Scripture, isn't it?
[00:11:43] So it's perplexing. Why do we have ritual happen sometimes, but it doesn't always have to happen every time. What does that mean? Well, I don't have the answer specifically for that, but again, when we look at the concept and the idea of ritual, what it's doing in all of these layers, right?
[00:12:06] So if somebody is healed by the ritual laying on of hands or whatever else is going on, then really what you have going on there is some sort of embodiment that is creating a reality that is forming identity, or it's providing some sort of authority and connection between people.
[00:12:28] The fact that it doesn't have to happen every single time means that it's not really something that is mechanistic, but that also doesn't mean that it doesn't have some sort of real world impact. And really, even in Jesus' own life, his life was filled with ritual participation. He went to synagogue and the temple. He participated in the Jewish feasts. He even used his own meal and table as ritual space at the Last Supper. And of course he was baptized.
[00:13:02] So, you know, I've seen a lot of people say that when Jesus participates in those things, somehow it's different for him. I mean, in some level that's gonna be true because Jesus is after all God. So he doesn't need the kinds of things that we need. But that doesn't mean he's not participating in the same way.
[00:13:25] Rituals invoke a frame. Yes. There we go. Frame semantics. We have an entire set of expectations, roles, relationships, and meanings that are packed into a ritual.
[00:13:41] I mean, if we look at the idea of baptism for instance, it evokes frames of purification, birth and death, and resurrection, exodus and crossing the water, initiation and identity into a new people. As far as Jesus went, we had the identity of being the divine Son at his baptism, right.
[00:14:07] Now, of course, many traditions, as I already noted, have a really long set of teachings that you need to have before you're baptized so that you do understand a lot. But there's other traditions that don't feel like they have to explain it all for the ritual to carry all of the meaning.
[00:14:26] And even though all of these ideas are very embedded in the ancient context and Scripture itself, there's certain things about baptism that are pretty universal and pretty obvious for people. So it kind of makes me wonder if that's one reason why it's such a universal thing for the Christian life because the act of baptism itself kind of loads the frame up for us. We're thinking of cleansing and in relation to Jesus dying and going into death and being resurrected. That's fairly obvious as well, at least when you have the idea of immersion, right?
[00:15:05] Now, we can go into all kinds of questions about whether rituals matter and how much and what they do, but unquestionably, rituals shape the people who are participating in them. And I would suggest in a disenchanted world like we tend to have right now, recovering the power of sacred ritual might be a key to reconnect with embodied covenantal faith.
[00:15:33] In fact, I would kind of say it's absolutely essential. It's not an optional thing.
[00:15:40] And when it comes to Christianity and belief in Jesus, we know that that is situated in the context that it is in. We know that we have this story in the Bible, right, and so all of our faith ought to be connected to what's going on there. That seems rather obvious to me, although I know it's really not to everybody in the world, and there's plenty of people out there who are going to disagree with me.
[00:16:07] But for now, let's just look a little bit at baptism in context.
[00:16:12] Again, we're gonna be doing more thematic traces in the Old Testament. But for the moment, let's just go ahead and jump right into the Jewish and Greco-Roman ritual backgrounds of baptism.
[00:16:24] You may or may not already be aware, but there was quite a large context for Jewish baptismal purification traditions. The mikvah was a ritual bath of living water. It's a bath of purification and it would be done fairly frequently.
[00:16:45] If we're looking at Leviticus for the context of purification, we would have purification baths happening quite frequently. The mikveh is rooted in the Levitical purity laws. You can look in particular at Leviticus 15 through 17. Purification is associated with bodily discharge, menstruation, contact with the dead, childbirth with a whole lot of things. It's used for purification before entering the temple or sacred space. It's used for priestly ordination and sacred preparation.
[00:17:19] It would also be used for conversion to Judaism. A gentile convert was washed to become part of God's covenant people.
[00:17:29] There's an emphasis here of cleanliness as readiness for sacred space. Now, we might think about hygiene and germs and things like that, but that's not really the way they were thinking about it, because they had no idea that germs existed. Of course, a lot of people will want to say, well, doesn't matter that they didn't know that germs existed because God did.
[00:17:53] But rather than boiling it down into a materialistic explanation, we could think more in terms of spiritual alignment and the things that they're thinking about in regards to approaching or drawing near to God. I mean, if we're thinking about hygiene, there's a whole lot that would be missing, honestly. And I could get into all of that, but I won't. I'm just gonna let you think about all of the things that don't need purification that you would think that would be the case if it was all about hygiene.
[00:18:25] Now, as far as the mikvah went for us in Christian baptism, it's usually a one and done thing, right? You're not baptized frequently, but people would wash in the mikvah quite frequently.
[00:18:40] Okay, so then we have the Qumran, or possibly the Essene water rites. This is the Dead Sea Scroll community. Well, they practiced daily ritual immersions, and they absolutely saw it as part of the moral purification and communal holiness that they were to have together. Their washings were tied to repentance, preparation and renewal.
[00:19:07] And in fact, there's a few ideas that we might find a little bit surprising. We tend to think of the water as being the thing that purifies people, but in some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, we actually have descriptions that say that it is the repentance of the person that purifies them. Then when they enter into the water, the person who is pure, actually purifies the water.
[00:19:33] So it's kind of backwards according to what we would normally think, which is really interesting. So there's a strong connection between spiritual purity and ritual washing, though. That embodied action shows something that is greater than itself. So the internal and the external purification are linked in some way.
[00:19:56] Water rituals were about defining community. And they were apocalyptic, we might say. The people at Qumran were getting ready for a coming judgment and the Messianic age and their frequent washing was part of that.
[00:20:14] Now let's move over to the Greco-Roman mystery religions. And many of these religions had an initiation that included ritual washing and sometimes even a symbolic death and rebirth kind of a picture. They're called mystery religions because the participants underwent a kind of secret thing going on here, but it was very much about identity.
[00:20:39] So you have purification, you have initiation, and participation in the story that the community has. Some of the rites did reenact mythological death and resurrection ideas. But we have to keep in mind that these ideas often came from the ancient Near East itself. So this should not surprise us.
[00:21:03] The initiation into the mystery religion was a kind of identity transformation. You are now part of a new people with new access to hidden truths. So a lot of that might sound really similar to Christianity in some ways, but of course, Christianity was meant to be a lived out reality in front of the whole world.
[00:21:26] Certainly the persecution would cause the Christians to be a little bit more secretive, wouldn't it? If you're gonna persecute us, and if you wanna kill us for being who we are, then we're really going be over here doing our own thing. We're not gonna tell you what we're doing because you wouldn't get it anyway. That really isn't the same as some sort of gnostic thought where you are going to go and find hidden truths. It's not like it was supposed to be hidden. It's just when you're persecuted, then you're going to tend to be a little bit more circumspect. Right?
[00:22:02] But at any rate, all of this shows that ritual immersion was a very widespread metaphor for life transformation, for belonging and for divine favor.
[00:22:14] Now in comes the ministry of John the Baptist. And with John the Baptist, it's really interesting because you have both continuation of what's going on with other people. But also kind of a disruption of that. So he's sort of at a unique intersection of time where he is definitely continuing the Jewish mikvah traditions, and that includes a call to repentance and purification.
[00:22:41] But there's also a bit of a disruption because he's doing it in the wilderness at the Jordan. There's a whole lot of symbolism to that, right? And remember, ritual thrives on symbolism. Very interesting that John the Baptist was baptizing Jews and not specifically Gentiles.
[00:23:02] And of course he is supposed to be leading to what Jesus does, right? So that's part of this whole picture. It echoes Israel's entry back into the promised land. It's kind of a new exodus frame where we have the wilderness, we have water, and we have entry into a new life. It's a transition ritual for God's new movement here.
[00:23:25] So, even though the Jews may have also generally practiced purification rights at the Jordan River, we have something really crucial here because those Jewish rites aren't themselves anticipating the greater baptism of Jesus, the baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that's fascinating, right? We tend to think in certain ways about what that means. But for the ancient person, it would be linking baptism to judgment, cleansing, and power.
[00:23:58] So for a lot of Christians, we might get the mistaken idea that baptism kind of arose in a vacuum, but it really didn't because for both Jewish and Greco-Roman audiences, they were ritually primed to understand immersion as a symbol of transformation, preparation, and belonging.
[00:24:21] So early Christian baptism absolutely echoes and critiques and reframes some of these traditions in light of Jesus as both Messiah and the one in whom God's new creation is dawning.
[00:24:36] So then we have Jesus' baptism. And this is not just identity and fulfillment, but it's also a theophany. It's a revelation of God himself. It's a very foundational moment. The theophany we have here is that the Father speaks, the Spirit descends, and of course you have Jesus there being baptized.
[00:25:01] So this is the public moment of revelation of the Trinity, basically. It's kind of a big deal, isn't it? If you think about it. We're so used to that, that I don't know as though we really can grasp the gravity of the situation that's going on here in this revelation. Now, of course the people were already thinking in terms of visible and invisible Yahweh, but this was unprecedented kind of revelation.
[00:25:32] And the baptism is stated to be not just for Jesus' repentance, because of course he is not seen as needing repentance himself, but to fulfill all righteousness. It's identifying Jesus with Israel's story, especially the exodus and the wilderness wanderings. So Jesus goes through the waters on behalf of the people just as Israel once passed through the Red Sea and Jordan.
[00:26:00] This situation also echoes royal coronation and priestly anointing. We have the phrase, you are my Son, which we see in the Psalms. We have the phrase, with whom I am well pleased, which we see in Isaiah.
[00:26:17] So this is kind of a picture of the king plus the servant. Then the Spirit rests on him and there is a divine empowerment for his mission. This moment is what we say is the beginning of his public ministry. This is also echoes of Isaiah.
[00:26:35] So baptism marks the beginning of Jesus's public ministry, and it's framed as an act of obedience and identity declaration. And it's taking this thing that people were already doing and that they were already understanding, and it's raising it to a whole new level. So then when people are participating in baptism, in Jesus' name, you are recalling what Jesus did. But what Jesus did has recalled all of Israel's history itself as well. So we are participating in that whole picture. And it is beautiful, isn't it?
[00:27:16] Now we can move over to the baptism in the Book of Acts. And here we have this picture of also initiation, inclusion. And a very strong thread of Spirit. Baptism is almost universally the first public response to the gospel in the book of Acts.
[00:27:35] Acts two, verse 37 says, quote, " Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you'll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." End quote.
[00:28:08] So we have this promise that is associated with baptism, but every time we have promise coming up in Scripture, we should be thinking of covenant. We should be thinking of God dwelling with us. We should be thinking of the whole narrative arc of the entire Hebrew Bible.
[00:28:26] So baptism is functioning here as initiation. As a boundary marker or a transition between old life and new allegiance, and it's a trigger or a confirmation of the Spirit's reception. Although we do have to admit that the pattern can vary here. It's not always the same exact thing. And sometimes parts of it are not even there.
[00:28:50] So again, it's not like it's this mechanistic thing, but what we should be seeing as this ritual is, again, participation and inclusion. There are many surprising inclusions of mixed groups and sometimes the Spirit comes later. We see the Ethiopian eunuch. He was marginalized and he couldn't access the temple, but he was fully included in baptism. We see Cornelius and the Spirit falls before baptism and that upends expectations and confirms gentile inclusion. So what we have here in baptism is a dramatic visual of kingdom expansion. God is actually breaking boundaries here with this, and it would be shocking to the people.
[00:29:42] So then when we look at the Pauline Epistles. This is where we get into a lot of theology and all of this kinda thing, right?
[00:29:50] Romans six, starting in verse three, quote, " Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. 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. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
[00:30:35] " Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace." End quote.
[00:31:27] Okay. So you know, of course that sounds very theological. It sounds like Paul is really explaining a lot here in theological ways. And sure that's what he's doing, but it's not really the level of systematic theology that we get later. What we have here is the baptism as participation in Jesus' death and resurrection.
[00:31:49] I don't think Paul is presenting this as merely symbolic. It's a very formative and performative action. Paul says that we die to sin and we rise into resurrection life. There's a transformation of identity and an association of allegiance with Jesus and with the Jesus community.
[00:32:12] It's interesting, isn't it, that in Romans six we really don't have language of purification, but we have this association with Jesus and his death. So here's a question. Is this, then, somehow not talking about all of the images that we might usually pull up with purification rites from the Old Testament.
[00:32:36] I mean, when we're thinking of ritual washings and repentance and all of these things and identification, we ought to be calling back to the incident at the Red Sea and the Exodus. But Romans six isn't talking about purification and things like that. It's talking about death. Does that relate somehow to the Exodus, and if so, how?
[00:33:01] Well, again, it's interesting because who died in the Reed Sea? It wasn't the Israelites, it was the Egyptians. Now of course, God was pretty just in doing that because the Egyptians were chasing the Israelites to bring them back to their land to continue to be slaves so that they could not worship God.
[00:33:24] What's going on here? We have Jesus who dies. Is he dying like the Egyptians?
[00:33:31] I mean, the Egyptians were not doing God's will there and they died just deaths, we might say. Is that what we have in Jesus or is it a reversal and turning that around?
[00:33:45] Jesus was killed without reason . The Romans had no legitimate reason to kill Jesus. I think we can all admit that, right? So they killed Jesus unjustly. And that is the image that we're having pulled up here in Romans six. Paul is talking to people and they are to be identified with Jesus in his death and resurrection.
[00:34:12] I just wanna leave that with you for a little bit to think about. Let's look at Galatians three. Galatians three, starting in verse 26, quote, "For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise." End quote.
[00:34:48] Okay, so we have the image here of putting on clothes, and this is what we have at baptism. After you're baptized, you are putting on fresh, clean, white robes. And what does it do at the end of the chapter? It calls back to the promise of Abraham. So the idea of new clothing here marks a new status, a new belonging to a new type of people. And it erases divisions. Baptism is radically inclusive and unifying.
[00:35:21] Let's go to Colossians two, starting in verse 11. " In Him also, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him." End quote.
[00:36:13] So obviously we have connections with circumcision and baptism, forgiveness, canceling our record of debt, and all of that has to do with disarming the rulers and authorities.
[00:36:27] This passage would be fodder for a lot of rabbit trails here. But suffice to say, what we have is circumcision, and that is, again, identity with the people of God. It is part of the covenant promise. And here we have it associated with the baptism of all things. You know, so we tend to focus so much on this water aspect. And water is really easy to then connect over to the purification rites. And rightly so. It makes me think that maybe we don't quite understand those purification rites as well as we think we do, especially if we're trying to go down paths like, well, it's all about hygiene and cleanliness and things like that.
[00:37:15] Again, I don't wanna say that none of that is part of it, but we have to look at what this ritual is telling us. What is the ritual doing? And if we try to say that it's not doing anything real, because after all we don't see how it can be a mechanism for changing some materialistic reality, well, I suggest we're not quite looking at it exactly the way that the ancient person would be looking at it.
[00:37:43] And again, this idea of the circumcision, there's a lot of symbolism here . Cutting off the old self, burial with Christ, resurrection and also circumcision has something to do with the idea or pointing towards progeny and offspring. The promise is going to be fulfilled in your seed and in the offspring and in the perpetuation of the people. In fact, the early church had quite a few ideas about what that meant. You know, you are now included in a new family.
[00:38:18] So this idea of offspring and promise and progeny and growth, while that can certainly be a material reality within your own family, it's a picture of something far broader here and much more wide ranging.
[00:38:34] I want to zoom in on Second Corinthians five 17, which says, quote, " Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold the new has come." End quote.
[00:38:52] That is within a broader passage about reconciliation. So I wanna read this whole thing starting in verse 11. " Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again by giving you cause to boast about us so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all. Therefore all have died and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who for their sake, died and was raised.
[00:39:50] " From then on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." End quote.
[00:40:48] We have reconciliation. Christ died and he died for all and everybody died in him, so this is very participatory. Even he died for our sake, and he was raised, he did that so that we can participate in that reality with him.
[00:41:08] Now, when it says that even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh and we regard him thus no longer, that doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't have a body or something like that, but he's pointing to a higher reality here, and this reality of reconciliation and our being ambassadors for Christ, all of that fits in with what I was just saying about the growth of the church, about offspring and promise and all of these things.
[00:41:38] Baptism and participation with Christ is death to the old world. Rebirth into the new. And it's not just personal. It's not just about our sin, but it's cosmic and it's a public act of allegiance. In the Roman world, public washings or oaths marked civic loyalty, or again, religious initiation.
[00:42:02] So in Christian baptism, you are declaring loyalty to Christ over Caesar, to the kingdom of God over the power of darkness. It is a symbolic exodus from one kingdom to another.
[00:42:17] So what we have going on, for sure, unquestionably in baptism is identity in Christ. Its inclusion in the new covenant community. It's participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is allegiance to a new cosmic order and King. You can't argue against any of those points. Right.
[00:42:40] So then our question is, what does baptism do? How effective is ritual? Is it just a rite of passage that we just kinda do and then there you go, we've checked the box?
[00:42:54] Well, the classic structure of a rite of passage is that we do have a separation from an old life and an old identity and old loyalties into a transition between one period of identity and another. That is this picture of death in baptism. Then we come out of that and we are incorporated and welcomed into a new status or community.
[00:43:21] So, does that matter? I mean, I think that's pretty obvious that it does matter and that it does map onto some metaphysical, ontological reality of who you are. Like it's not changing your cells. It might not be changing some materialistic aspect of you, but through baptism, you are going on a journey. You're leaving behind sin and death in the world, passing through the water and emerging into the body of Christ itself, and a new creation.
[00:43:55] Now, in some traditions, we have baptism as connected to illumination and spiritual rebirth, right? This is very much, I think in the Orthodox tradition, for instance. For the Catholic, baptism is a gateway to the sacraments. So it is entrance into the church and spiritual life and the ability to then partake in greater portions in the church.
[00:44:21] But then you can contrast that with something like a Baptist idea of baptism. And for the Baptist, they might say that it marks the conscious commitment of a believer. And it's like a public profession of faith. And even there the person is raised to walk in newness of life and you are joining the community of believers.
[00:44:43] And by joining the community of believers, presumably you are to be transformed. You are to live according to that community and that community is going to help you. So all of these ideas, you know, how important is it and how salvific is it? Well, that will depend on your tradition, certainly.
[00:45:03] But even in a tradition that is quite away from the more extreme example of like the Catholic idea of baptism, I think a lot of times it's unfair to say that they are just saying it's just a symbol as if it has no reality or meaning beyond that.
[00:45:20] Now again, baptism is certainly connected to ritual washing, but it's fascinating that it isn't always. Nonetheless, it has a deep continuity with those Old Testament purity rituals where priests are washed before entering the tabernacle. Even Israelite lay people would use the mikvaot for cleansing.
[00:45:43] Hebrews tells us that our bodies are washed with pure water. Actually, let's talk about that for a second. Does that align with what the Qumran community would say, where the person is repentant, then they enter the water, they purify the water, and then the water is pure?
[00:46:01] Well, it seems like here in Hebrews, our bodies are washed with water that's And so that seems like it's opposite that other idea. But what if it's not though? What if part of what Jesus did by entering the water was transform it himself so that when we enter the same water that Jesus did, we are entering that pure water?
[00:46:26] In Titus three, we have the idea of washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. We find that in verse five of Titus three.
[00:46:38] So again, we could ask kind of a chicken and the egg question there. Does the water make us pure or is it something else? I think most Christians will go into these passages and think it's the water that is washing us and making us pure. And maybe that's right, but maybe the reason for that is still in Christ, and maybe it's not against all of these other ideas that like the Qumran community had.
[00:47:04] Now, again, we have definite moral plus cosmic realities here. It's attached to forgiveness of sin. It's attached to readiness for sacred space, almost as if baptism is something that makes you fit to approach or draw near to God.
[00:47:23] Depending on your tradition, baptism could remove original sin. It could infuse sanctifying grace. It's kind of a Roman Catholic idea. For the Lutheran, it is a washing of regeneration through the word and water. For someone from a reformed tradition, they could describe it as a sign and seal of covenant grace, even if it's not salvific apart from faith.
[00:47:50] Again, water is a boundary marker. Circumcision as a covenantal entry sign into the people of God, well, that's kinda what we have with baptism here. Public declaration of belonging, separation from the world, or perhaps pagan identities, and an entrance into the people of God, which isn't just spiritual, but it's social and political. Because you are now in a kingdom. You are declaring allegiance to a king.
[00:48:22] So baptism becomes a kind of a line in the sand. Romans six tells us that we're no longer slaves to sin. Galatians three tells us that we're no longer divided by ethnicity, gender, or status.
[00:48:36] And as for how different denominations will emphasize these things, it depends on how people are viewing covenant, how people are viewing the continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Are we emphasizing the entry into a covenant tradition where all people within a family, perhaps, are then entering into that allegiant relationship themselves? Or is there a stronger kind of Anabaptist emphasis on voluntary entry into a distinct countercultural community in the first century?
[00:49:15] And there's things to be said for all of these traditions, which is why I really think we should study each other's beliefs. And see what those things can actually bring for us in our own faith and traditions.
[00:49:28] Obviously, baptism and the Holy Spirit are very connected and as I said, there is no single sequence of events, which tells me, personally, that it's not mechanistic. Although it does raise the question. Is baptism only water or is it Spirit plus water? The early church seems to have emphasized a Spirit- filled baptism linked with laying on of hands and possibly confirmation.
[00:49:56] Pentecostal or charismatic traditions will see baptism and Spirit baptism as distinct but related. They emphasize the empowerment for mission, like in Acts one and Spirit baptism is a post-conversion experience. And of course for many people in the reformed tradition, Spirit regeneration must happen early on. Again, we'll be getting more into this context of water and Spirit in Scripture because it is quite the rich theme to trace.
[00:50:30] Now, of course, we have baptism and sacred space, intimately connected. People would have to wash before entering holy space. And in the New Testament, we get a transformation of idea where us individually and us as a community now become the temple where the Spirit unites with us.
[00:50:52] Another concept here is that baptism can be a kind of consecration of the body for holy use. So a Spirit- indwelt person becomes kind of a mobile tabernacle, a priestly figure prepared for worship and intercession. And Dr. Heiser brought all of this out quite well with the idea of spiritual warfare. When we go out and we make disciples of people, we are creating that space. We are creating that reality.
[00:51:24] And again, this is why I want to kind of lean into the question of whether or not this makes a material difference. When we are growing the faith and we're growing disciples, and we're growing the church, does that make a real difference in the world? And I would say yes.
[00:51:42] Now of course, also included in these ideas are some things that some of us might think are a little bit more mystical. Like in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, baptism is part of the idea of theosis, union with God and the indwelling of the divine presence.
[00:52:03] Whereas Protestants will kind of lean more into the idea that it inaugurates the believer into a priesthood of all believers who are then empowered and sent. I mean, I think these are two different ways of describing a very similar reality that is connected to something we might say is metaphysical.
[00:52:24] Okay. We will be talking about this more, but again, the question of what does baptism do? For the Catholic, it's a sacrament of initiation, removes original sin, infuses grace, and it incorporates the person into the church. And the church being a place where you get those sacraments.
[00:52:45] Now, I've talked to Catholics before and almost universally they will say that that does not mean that this is completely necessary for salvation as if no one can be saved without it. And I think some of us in the evangelical Protestant world will think that that's what they're saying.
[00:53:04] But I've had many Catholics who say that that really isn't the case. But it does put you into the church where you're going to participate in the fullness of the reality of the life of Christ according to them. So that's something important that we should understand for that. It's not the dividing line in the sand as if, if you're not a baptized Catholic, then you can't possibly be saved. I don't think that's the point here.
[00:53:32] Okay. So moving to a Lutheran view, we do have the idea of regeneration through word and water. For the Lutheran, it's not only symbolic, but it is effective and it is something that, again, you might see it very similarly to the Catholic view in some ways, which kinda makes sense because Luther himself really understood Catholic theology and it's not like he wanted to dismantle all Catholic theology. That's not what he was doing. So this is kind of a little bit of an in-between view.
[00:54:05] Then you might have a kind of a reformed view where baptism is a covenantal sign and seal and its efficacy is tied to the Spirit and faith over time. So really there's kind of an emphasis of the Spirit and faith over baptism but they're definitely connected.
[00:54:25] A Baptist view has it as a symbolic act of obedience, public profession. That doesn't mean it's not formative.
[00:54:34] Again, Eastern Orthodox view is that it's a mystery that joins the person to Christ, renews the image of God. And it begins the process of theosis or deification or unity with God. So it's very transformative there.
[00:54:51] Let's see, who else haven't I talked about? Oh, the charismatics. For them baptism can be accompanied by baptism in the Spirit, but they're not one in the same thing. And usually there's an emphasis on empowerment, not just cleansing from sin.
[00:55:08] And to offer you just a few things that you could consider for yourself. What story does your baptism tell? How did your baptism mark a shift in identity, in access, or in allegiance? And then what rituals are shaping your identity now today, and how does your baptism continue to speak into that? Just some fun questions to consider as we're thinking through all of these things.
[00:55:39] Lots of things we'll talk about in the future about infant baptism and believers baptism. But first, we kind of want to really dwell in the biblical story and try to see how these themes are going to intersect with our modern questions, and hopefully we'll be able to see a little bit more of how these questions can be informed by those biblical themes.
[00:56:02] Of course, we have a lot of common questions like, what about people who weren't baptized? Is baptism a command? Is it a requirement? For some people, these are really tough questions and they're worth wrestling with, I think.
[00:56:18] In the end, even if baptism isn't salvific in a mechanistic sense, for sure, what it does is it invokes the frame of new creation, cleansing, initiation, and allegiance, and all of those things are so crucial to the Christian life.
[00:56:37] I would suggest that ritual frames can help us to move past false binaries. Because they remind us that symbolic and real do not have to be opposite, but really they can overlap.
[00:56:53] Communion isn't just a symbol and baptism isn't either. At minimum, it's performative symbolism and you are living into something real that has lasted through time. I mean, we're often so stuck in either or thinking, aren't we? Either it saves or it doesn't matter at all It's only for adults or it's a completely invalid thing.
[00:57:20] But rather, I would suggest that we invoke frame based thinking. What conceptual world is the ritual opening us up to? What story does it enact? How does it form identity, allegiance, and belonging within that? I expect most people think that baptism isn't a checkbox or a magic spell, but it's at least a covenantal drama that's enacted with water, faith, Spirit, and community.
[00:57:53] Now, our doctrinal debates often focus on the mechanics and these specifics, but the ritual frame of it points us back to the meaning and formation of it. Who are you becoming? What reality are you stepping into? What does this say about your relationship to God, the church and the world?
[00:58:16] All right. So we've looked at baptism as kind of this idea that stretches through time and it fits within the idea of a ritual. And ritual can fit us into a larger story, even if it seems like we shouldn't belong in there. So the question to kinda sit with at the end here, what frame do you live in? Is your life shaped by the narrative of new creation, cleansing, resurrection?
[00:58:46] What other rituals, which can include our daily habits, our cultural rhythms, and even digital things that we do every day? How do those shape you in ways that you haven't named specifically? Are they good or are they bad? Are they pulling you towards this story of community with the body of Christ and how much of that is pulling you away in a different direction?
[00:59:15] Even though we're usually only baptized once, that meaning is something that should permeate our Christian lives.
[00:59:24] Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and wrap up and we'll be continuing our theme with water. I will be introducing some things about Spirit. We'll probably get into some other questions that people have had for me as well, but I appreciate you all listening. Thank you guys for your support. Thanks for sharing these episodes with other people.
[00:59:46] I would invite you to come on over to my community at On This Rock where you can find
[email protected], but you have to put hyphens in between the words on this rock.com and you can join my community and come talk about some fun things about theology and let's participate in Christian life together.
[01:00:13] If you have any questions about baptism, please do let me know. I would love to field any of those that you have. At any rate, I think I will wrap up for now. But I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.
