There are two ordinances God has given to the church to celebrate together: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We talk a lot more about the Lord’s Supper because we participate in that every week. To the detriment of the church today, as we reflect on it, baptism is not typically seen in the light in which it should be seen and it is too frequently talked about in a very casual manner, with its significance, and the reverence for it, falling by the wayside.

Today, before we celebrate the ordinance of baptism in the lives of two believers, it is important to take time to teach the importance, to remind ourselves baptism is not just a tradition, to make clear what it is and what it means to us as a church.  It is not something that happens at a particular age or when a person can recite particular truths about the Gospel. We must understand its significance and the need to highly uphold it, to have reverence and awe at what we truly are celebrating.

The perfect place to begin in looking at baptism is the Law of God, as given through Moses, which can be divided into three parts, although there is frequently overlap between these (man-made) divisions:

• Moral Law

• Civil Law

• Ceremonial Law

Generically speaking, the Scriptures, the Law, that we have are a copy of God’s unchanging standard of holiness.  This is encapsulated in Psalm 119:89, “Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens”.  In Jesus’ teaching regarding the Law, we look at Luke 16:17, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.”  What a magnanimous statement from the mouth of our Lord regarding the significance of God’s Law!  Jesus, in His coming to earth as God, came to embody the Law, to fulfill the Law.  We see this expressed in Matthew 5:17-18, very early in the Sermon on the Mount, where He said, “17 Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.”  Christ fulfills the entire Law, including the satisfaction for all the ceremonies to which the Law points; therefore, we cannot simply dismiss the Law and only focus on Jesus’ teachings and the writings of the New Testament.  The Law is useful for teaching in the Church.

Today, at a sufficiently high level, let us look at four main aspects of the Ceremonial Law and what they teach, paralleling these teachings to baptism. Why focus on the Ceremonial Law?  Was not the Ceremonial Law fulfilled in Christ?  Was not Christ the “once-for-all” true sacrifice?  Absolutely!  But, the Ceremonial Law, fulfilled in Christ is summarized in the two ordinances given to the church.  The Ceremonial Law, at its highest peak, is to serve to keep us focused on God, by connecting us to the transcendent (divine truths) through solemnity, through reverence, through ceremony. Ceremonies are powerful teaching tools and help us mark and elevate important moments in our lives. God uses these ceremonies to teach us just as He did the nation of Isreal.

God, through ceremony, taught Israel through four main areas, which we will examine.  As we examine each, be mindful to highly uphold the ceremony of baptism reverently before God.  Also, it is important for us to see how the Ceremonial Law, as seen in baptism, is carried forward in the church today until we participate in it again in the Millennial reign of Christ.

1. Baptism illustrates our need for Spiritual Cleansing

Ceremonial cleansing was a removal of defilement, in a religious sense, a purification.  If any person was defiled in any way, he could not stand before God, he was separated from the temple, he could not fellowship with other believers.  He was completely separated, sometimes even having to go outside the encampment.  Rituals for restoration depended on the defilement but they had to be completed for full restoration to occur

Baptism is a visual recognition that we have been cleansed, washed and reconciled with God.  Before salvation we are unclean, tainted with sin, inwardly (in our hearts) defiled.  We see in Matthew 15:11 that it is our heart, not our external body, that needs to be cleansed.  Furthermore, we see in Romans 3:10 and 3:23 that all must be cleansed, all have fallen short of the glory of God.  To become clean, our sin has to be washed away, cleansed through repentance (Isaiah 55:7) and faith (Romans 10:9), passing through the, “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).  Once cleansed, we are clean for eternity.

2. Baptism grants us Remembrance

All of the Feasts, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Old Testament were times of remembrance.  At a high level, each points to some aspect of the coming Messiah, to Christ.  For instance, the Feast of Tabernacles was to serve as a reminder to Israel how they made shelters and tabernacled through the wilderness and God was them, providing for them along the way.  God provided both physical and spiritual deliverance for them.  

Jesus has gone before us into heaven to prepare a place so that the believer, sealed with the Holy Spirit as a guarantee, can tabernacle forever with God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22).  Baptism is a visual reminder that we are not going to stay in the ground but be raised up with new life to tabernacle with God in eternity.

3. Separation

The reason God gave Israel so many dietary, clothing and actionable restrictions is that He wanted Israel to be separate from the world for the point of being sacred, to be sanctified, just as we are separate, sanctified in Christ, set apart for Him.  Israel was supposed to be separate, noticeably different from the rest of the world. In this, the world would be drawn to inquire as to the God they worshiped.  Likewise, represented in baptism, God wants the same thing for the believer.  God purifies the believer through salvation and in baptism we are reminded of our salvation and that we no longer belong to the world but to God and to be separate from the world (2 Corinthians 6:14-15).  In baptism, we allow new believers to share the testimony of their past life, to share God’s provision of righteousness through faith, we affirm them before God that He has placed them into a new family, separated them from darkness, from their old father to their new Father, and from their former way of life.  Baptism is a vivid image of this transformation of, and separation for, the believer as well as a reminder of the need for the church to hold them accountable, to be separate from the world from which they have been taken.

4. Pointing to the Messiah (Christ)

God’s Ceremonial Law always granted us shadows and types of what was to come.  We see Christ in Sabbath rest, in circumcision, in Passover and we see Christ as we partake of the Lord’s Supper.  In every ceremony, we see their ultimate fulfillment in Christ.  And in every ceremony, Israel was to continue its focus on God, looking forward to the coming of His Messiah.  In baptism, we are reminded of who Christ is and we should be reminded of what Christ has done for each of us, of our own salvation and our own testimonies, and a refreshed joy should come over our hearts. Everything about baptism finds its resolve in Christ.  Romans 6:3-4 tells us, “ 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 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.”  When we are baptized, we are immersed into the person and the work of Jesus Christ.  If it were not for Christ, baptism would make no sense, it would be utterly ridiculous, an empty tradition. 

As we partake of the ceremony, God’s ordinance of baptism, let us reverently remember its magnanimous significance and all that it represents.  May we remember the Christ to which it points, to whom we are connected, and to whom we now belong and serve.

SELAH:

• Which of the four aspects of the Ceremonial Law, represented in baptism, provided you the greatest imagery of its significance?  Why?

• Does the life you live clearly demonstrate to the world from which you were delivered that you are no longer like them?

• If you have been immersed into the person and the work of Jesus Christ, does the world see Christ when they look at you?