Why do we baptize as a part of our relationship to God and what is this intended to accomplish?
Various types of washing have been required for people to have a relationship with God for a very long time. When the Israelites lead by Moses were camped in front of the mountain in Sinai, they were told to consecrate themselves and wash their cloths before God came down to the mountain (Exodus 19:10-11). Their priests were instructed to wash or be washed with water before offering sacrifices (Exodus 29:4; 30:17-21). Those recovering from an infection were to wash their cloths (Leviticus 13:6) and sometimes their entire body (Leviticus 14:8) before being declared to be clean and allowed to enter the camp and be near other people.
As time went on, washing was poetically mentioned as a way for God to remove the “stain” of wrongdoing, or sin (Psalm 51:2; Isaiah 1:16), but washing alone was not sufficient without a change of belief and behavior (Jeremiah 2:21-23; 4:14).
When the New Testament was first translated into English from the ancient Greek, the Greek word baptizô was usually rendered to be “baptize” rather than translated using the actual meaning in Greek of “dip” or “sink”. This was done to avoid conflicts with the common practice of the time, when the translation was done. Thus when “baptize”, “baptized”, etc. is found in the New Testament writings, it normally means dip or dipped as in immersed.
When John the Baptist started his ministry, he was calling for people to change their belief and behavior (repent), confess their sin, and be baptized to complete their cleaning (Matthew 3:1-6). John needed a lot of water for this (John 3:23), but not everyone was willing to change their belief and behavior (Luke 7:29-30).
When Jesus started his ministry, his followers (disciples) were also baptizing while John the Baptist was still baptizing people himself (John 4:1-2). John the Baptist recognized and admitted that his own ministry was to be replaced with the ministry and teaching of Jesus (Mark 1:7-8; John 3:25-30).
After Jesus had been killed and brought back to life by God (Matthew 28:5-7), he instructed his followers to teach and baptize disciples (other followers) in the name of the three parts of the Godhead (Matthew 28:18-20). We see this taking place throughout the early Christian church as people were taught, believed the teaching, changed their belief and behavior (repented) and were baptized (Acts 2:37-39; 8:35-36; 9:17-19; 10:47-48; 16:14-15; 29-34; 18:8 and others).
The purpose of baptism as Jesus instructed is the final step in removing the “stain” of wrongdoing or sin (Acts 22:14-16). It gives us the clean clothing of Jesus, makes us equal between each other (Galatians 3:27-28), and allows us to have a relationship with God (Galatians 4:4-7). It is a symbolic death and burial with Jesus so that we can also join in with his return to life and be freed from the “stain” of wrongdoing or sin (Romans 6:1-7).
The promise tied to baptism is ongoing indefinitely (Acts 2:37-39), extending to future generations including ourselves. We all need to remove the “stain” of our wrongdoing while receiving the promise of a return to life having a relationship with God, in his house (John 14:1-3) where there will be no death, mourning, crying or pain (Revelation 21:3-4). Thus, we baptize today for the same reason the people mentioned in Acts were baptized when we change our belief and behavior, and take the final step to remove the “stain” of wrongdoing.
Written by Cliff Copass