When the writer of Hebrews tells us to, “leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation… of instruction about washings (Heb 6:1-2)” we have to ask the question what are the elementary Christian instructions about washings?  Many English translations translate Greek baptismôn into baptism and render the passage, “teaching about baptisms (LAB)” or “the doctrine of baptisms (NKJV)” but this can be a little misleading.  David Stern commenting on this scripture notes that the, “Greek baptismôn is the normal New Testament word not for the immersion which accompanies coming to faith (Act 2:37, 8:38, 16:32; see Mat 3:9) but for washings or purifications, of which the initial immersion is but one.” 

In the Old Testament there were laws relating to unclean people, food, and other objects as well as the requirements for cleaning them (Scott 1995, 254).  “There were indeed numerous prescribed ceremonial washings for all practicing Jews, both natural-born and proselytes; these washings were a major part of the requirements to become clean after contracting defilement (Scott 1995, 344).”  In the Gospel of Mark we read, “…the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders… (Mar 7:3-4).”  The Jews at the time of Jesus were so zealous that at the Wedding of Canna, recorded in the Gospel of John, were found six stone jars that could each hold twenty or thirty gallons of water (Joh 2:6).  That is from 120 to 180 gallons!

The Old Testament makes a clear distinction between clean and unclean; defiled and undefiled.  To be defiled or to be unclean was to be ceremonial disqualified from worship during special times and seasons.  But here is the rub, these ceremonies were never intended to make a person clean or undefiled.  They were used to teach the concept of clean and unclean and then to illustrate that we are all unclean.  Isaiah, prophesying to Israel, declared, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment (Isa 64:6).”  Isaiah was speaking to those who were practicing the ceremonies!  Jesus later explained, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him (Mar 7:14-15).”  It is our hearts that defile us and none of us are capable of changing our hearts.

If then, we are unclean and defiled, how are we to get clean?  That is the central question of all Scripture.  That is the central question of God’s plan of redemption.  How is God going to make us clean?  The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from our sin (1Jo 1:7).  That was the mission of His first coming and He was sufficient for the task and the task is complete.  “He [Jesus] is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the sins of the whole world (1Jo 2:2).”  He has washed us with His blood.  Grotesque when you take it word for word but when you understand that “His blood” is a reference to the only sacrifice sufficient to pay the debt owed to justice for your sins and that the debt has been, in fact, paid then it leaves the realm of the grotesque and enters the realm of the revolutionary.

Just the other day I was reading in Isaiah and found this gem.  “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes… (Isa 1:16)”  Do you know at the time that this was written there was not yet a propitiation for sin?  Jesus had not yet paid the penalty for their sins.  The command to wash yourself or make yourself clean from your evil deeds was impossible and God’s perfect justice could never forget the debt.  Almost 2,000 years ago God took care of that impossibility and today you can wash yourself and make yourself clean.  Confess your sins to God and He is faithful to forgive them (1Jo 1:9).  Revolutionary then and still revolutionary today!

“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1Pe 3:18-22).”

Baptism then, is not a washing that can remove your uncleanliness.  It is an identification with “the” washing that has removed your uncleanliness.  Your Baptism into Christ was an event in which you identified with His act of sacrifice on your behalf and became identified with Him as one of His own.  Soldiers speak of their baptism by fire.  That moment, after which they are forever identified with those who have also experienced combat.  It is something that they each share that binds them into an identity that apart from that baptism cannot be shared.  The Israelites were baptized into Moses through the sea and the cloud not because those things served as a ritual of initiation but because everyone who was not an Israelite could point to those things and say there goes someone who passed through the Red Sea and followed the pillar of fire (1Co 10:1-4).  I too can point to my own Christian baptism as the moment I was united with every believer in Christ as a believer in Christ not because the water made me clean but because going through the water pointed to the one who did make me clean.

People have asked me, “do you need to be baptized to be saved?”  The answer is yes!  You must be identified with Christ to be saved.  And although that baptism may not look like the baptism found in our contemporary church it must be there.  The thief on the cross was not sprinkled or immersed and yet he was baptized into the Cross of Christ!  The real question is not whether you need to be baptized to be saved the real question is have you been baptized?  Have you accepted the cleansing that can only come from the sacrifice of Jesus and have you identified yourself with Him in a way in which He will identify Himself with you?

This was a continuation of a previous post. You might want to check it out here. Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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