Question 94

Liddell and Scott in their Greek Lexicon give only the classical senses of the word baptism. The example, taken from Homer, is that of a smith tempering the red-hot steel by plunging it in water. The word was used of the dyer also who steeped his fabrics in a vat; of a vessel also when let down to draw up water; and of a ship dipping when launched or loaded. These are the original and root ideas in the word baptism. The scriptural and ecclesiastical use of the word is familiar to all through John’s ministry as the forerunner of our Lord. The epithet of “The Baptist” was given to him because of the prominence he gave to that ceremony. In his ministry baptism symbolized the purifying of the unclean heart and character of the penitent, and his entrance on a purer and holier life. And this Johannine idea is at the root of all those Pauline passages where Christian baptism is alluded to and enforced. New ideas are added; more evangelical and more sacramental ideas were added to the original idea and doctrine of baptism after Christ’s mission and work were fully understood in the Church. But the Catechism here gives both the original and the fuller contents of the word with admirable clearness and completeness.

The washing with water—“Whether the person baptized is to be wholly immersed, and that once or thrice, or whether he is only to be sprinkled with water, is not of the least consequence. Churches should be at liberty to adopt either, according to the diversity of climates, although it is evident that the term baptize means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive Church” (Calvin). “Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary; but baptism is rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person” (Confession). (See Macpherson’s notes.)

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost—In or unto the name. That is, the washing, dipping, or sprinkling, symbolizes the separation of the baptized person from all his evil past, and his entrance on a new life in and unto the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Their names are themselves; as Candlish points out, their names are all “that whereby they make themselves known.” Unto all that the baptized person is delivered over. Butler points out how, as the dispensations of Revelation are developed, new obligations of duty, unknown before, are revealed; and he instances baptism into the names of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as an illustration. But in the evangelical system, baptism is less an entrance on new duties than an admission into new privileges and blessings out of which both duty and ability arise (Analogy, ii. 1).

doth signify and seal—On the true meaning of these terms in the sacramental system, see Answer 92, and the works there recommended. Those who have read Church history, and who are observers of contemporary Church life, and who have been taught the truth about the sacraments, as it is drawn from the Scriptures and embodied in the best Reformed and Puritan symbols, will not think Dr. Cunningham’s words one whit too strong, when he says, “The doctrine of baptismal regeneration has been perhaps as powerful and extensive a cause of deadly error as any doctrine that Satan ever invented.” (See chap. xxii. of his Historical Theology.)

our ingrafting—The classical passages in the Scriptures for the use of this metaphor are of course John xv. and Rom. xi. 16–24. And Paul connects the figure of ingrafting with the ordinance of baptism in Rom. vi. 1–6. Baptism does not effect our ingrafting into Christ, it only signifies and seals it. The ingrafting is performed in regeneration, which is union to Christ as our Life, our Head, and our Root.

“He who is baptized puts on Christ, the Second Adam; he is baptized, I say, into a whole Christ, and so also into His death, and it is the same thing as if, at that moment, Christ suffered, died, and was buried for such a man, and as if such a man suffered, died, and was buried with Christ” (Bengel).

and our engagement to be the Lord’s. “An open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord’s” (Larger Catechism). “His giving himself up unto God through Jesus Christ to walk in newness of life” (Confession). “Who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord?” (Jeremiah). “On our part, baptism is a badge and a bond to oblige us to the duties of the covenant,—a badge of the profession, and a bond to engage us to the duties which that profession calls for” (Manton).

“Them who shall believe
Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin to life
Pure, and in mind prepar’d, if so befall,
For death, like that which the Redeemer di’d.”—Milton.

Questions

1. Give some examples of the original use of the Greek word baptism.
2. Show that it is not the amount of water used, nor the manner of its application, that is the essential thing in baptism.
3. Explain the metaphor of ingrafting, and give examples of its scriptural uses.