Introduction
Believer’s baptism (or credobaptism) is one of the most obvious Baptist distinctives. It is, after all, what gives us our name. Often the debate focuses on the mode of baptism: is biblical baptism immersion only, or are other ways of “baptizing” permissible? (Side Note: The word “baptism” is a transliteration of a Greek word that means “immerse.”) While that is certainly a crucial question to answer, we also need to ask another question: Why do Baptists only immerse believers? This question shows us that the issue of baptism is not one that begins and ends in the realm of church practice, but finds its roots in covenantal theology. Baptists immerse only believers because we have a different view of the covenants than our paedobaptist (infant baptizing) brethren.
One of the unique aspects of Baptistic theology is that we understand the Old Covenant and the New Covenant to be fundamentally different. There are some points of commonality between the two. For instance, the Lord Jesus Christ has always been the only Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). The Old Covenant saints were justified before God by faith alone in the Messiah (Gen. 15:6). The two covenants are related to one another, as the promise is related to the fulfillment. But the two covenants are essentially different, inasmuch as the substance and the shadow are different. We will plan on exploring some more of these differences in upcoming posts. The difference we will be focusing on in this post is that of membership. The New Covenant and the Old Covenant have different members.
Old Covenant Membership
Belonging to the Old Covenant was predicated on being a Hebrew, a descendant of Abraham. Of all the peoples of the earth, God chose Abraham and his descendants as the physical people through whom to bring in the promised Seed of the Woman (Gen. 3:15). The Abrahamic Covenant is the first iteration of the Old Covenant, with both unconditional and conditional promises (Gen. 17). On Mt. Sinai, only the people of Israel were present and sprinkled with the blood of that covenant (Ex. 24:8). It was Israel who agreed (multiple times!) to keep the terms of the covenant, and it was Israel who failed to do so. In order for a Gentile to become part of the “covenant community,” they had to be circumcised and live like a Hebrew; in other words, they had to become as much as possible a Jew. Yet even still, there were restrictions for the Gentile. They were only allowed in a certain part of the Temple (see Edersheim, The Temple: Its Ministry and Services, Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1980, 45-46).
Old Covenant membership was hereditary: children were included in the covenant by virtue of their father. One example of this is Obed. He was the son of Boaz and Ruth, the Moabitess. Obed was a Jew because his father was, and so his children (Jesse and later David) were also included in the covenant people. This necessarily meant that the spiritual condition of the individual was irrelevant. As long as you were a physical child of Abraham, you were a member of the covenant (see Saul). This is why the Old Covenant included the various ceremonies and civic laws; the people of Israel were to remain distinct, because God had promised to bring the Messiah through Abraham. So, the children of Abraham had to remain separated from the nations of the Gentiles. Further, this is why the entire nation was punished for breaking the Old Covenant. Even those who were faithful suffered through the exile into Babylon, like Daniel. The Old Covenant was made with Israel collectively.
But the Old Covenant itself foretold and pointed to something different (as Heb. 7:22 says, a better covenant). Consider the following texts:
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
(Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
(Ezekiel 36:25-27)
And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.
(Isaiah 49:5-9) *N.B., this is Jehovah speaking to his Servant, the Messiah (i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ)
In all these texts, we find that the New Covenant will include the Gentiles, and will be made with those whose spiritual condition is renewed. Those in the New Covenant, as it says in Ezekiel, will be those who have been given a new heart.
New Covenant Membership
Belonging to the New Covenant, according to Scripture, is predicated on faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant had its blood, and the New Covenant has its blood: “After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25; cf. Ex. 24:8). Unless we partake of this blood, we cannot have eternal life, which is the promise of the New Covenant: “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you” (John 6:53). This a fulfillment of the text in Isaiah quoted above. Notice: “I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people.” Unless we partake of Christ Jesus by faith, we are not partakers of the Covenant in his blood.
Another promise of the New Covenant was that the members of the New Covenant would be the people of God (see the texts quoted from Jeremiah and Ezekiel above). Who does the New Testament describe as the people of God? The apostle Peter says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (1 Pet. 2:9-10). Who is the “ye?” It is the audience to whom Peter is writing: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied” (1 Pet. 1:1-2). The audience is those who have been sprinkled by the blood of the Lord Jesus, who love the Savior though they have not seen him, who were redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. In other words, those who believe are the people of God, the members of the New Covenant.
Furthermore, in the New Testament, those who are immersed (baptized) are those who believe. Acts 2:41 reads, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” The ones who gladly received the word were baptized. Consider the interaction between Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch:
And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
(Acts 8:36-38)
What about the household of Cornelius? It was those upon whom the Holy Spirit fell who were baptized:
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
(Acts 10:44-48)
We could continue with other examples, but a sufficient ending point would be the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mark 16:16). One must believe, then be baptized. This faith is the gift of God, and so those who are made the sons of God (members of the New Covenant) are not so made by the will of the flesh or the will of man (Eph. 2:8-9; Jn. 1:12-13).
This is why Baptists only immerse believers: only believers are members of the New Covenant. Baptism is a figure of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our submergence in the water signifies our death and burial in Christ Jesus; our emergence out of the water signifies our resurrection unto newness of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:3-4ff). Only those who believe are thus united to the Lord Jesus Christ (see the end of Romans 5). Therefore, only believers are to be immersed. Every other form of “baptism” is unbiblical, and actually undermines the significance of the ordinance.
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