Refusing to See the Importance of Water in God's Cleansing

 

It’s amazing how the Scriptures have a way of showing the foolishness of those who prefer their church traditions to the word of God. Matthew 15:1-14. You often hear well-intentioned souls ask: “How can a physical act, like being baptized in water, possibly have anything to do with spiritual salvation from sin?” It’s a bit like asking: “How can dipping seven times in the Jordan possibly cure a Syrian army commander of leprosy?” 2 Kings 5:1-16

 

Though Naaman commanded respect,

Leprosy his hygiene had wrecked;

News from a slave girl

Put hope in his world,

So down south, to Israel he trekked.

The prescription seemed quite spurious!

Hearing it, Naaman grew furious!

In Jordan, to dip?!

How wasted, his trip!

Wishing now, he’d not been so curious!

But advice was given to the Syrian:

“Try the Jordan — go washing therein!”

And so, trusting in Heaven,

Self-immersed, times seven;

Cured he was — with the cleanest of skin!

 

https://rockdoveblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/02/commander-naaman-the-syrian-cured-of-leprosy/

 

There are a number of ways of showing that water baptism is essential to salvation, but none better than simply reading and accepting the word of God!

 

Let’s see the clear connection between grace, Jesus, faith, obedience, born again, baptism, purification and salvation. I’ll highlight key words or expressions:

 

1 Peter 1:3-25

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for

“All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers, and the flower falls,

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

 

Summarising the key elements of this 1 Peter 1 Scripture, we see that the precious blood of Christ purifies and saves us when:

1)    God causes us to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and

2)    We obey the truth of the gospel preached to us.

 

Then, when we look at chapter 3 of Peter’s same letter, we see the following:

 

1 Peter 3:18-21

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, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 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. 21 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,

Summarising the key elements in 1 Peter 3, we conclude that Christ saves us through his death and resurrection when we are baptized in water. “Because they formerly did not obey” so as to be brought safely through the water in the days of Noah, so today there are many who will not obey in water baptism to be saved! I believe you can see why obedience is mentioned in this 1 Peter 3 context, just as it is included in the 1 Peter 1 teaching.

 

If we then harmonize the 1 Peter 1 words of God with the 1 Peter 3 words of God, we have to conclude that God causes us to be born again and purifies our soul through the death, blood and resurrection of Christ, when we obey the gospel in being baptized in water.

 

This has to be the case. Neither the Holy Spirit nor Peter contradicts himself. Then notice in 1 Peter 5:12 where Peter said that what he had written in his letter was the “true grace of God,” which he then urges we are to “stand firm” in!! Everything in God’s word is an aspect of His true grace. Compare Acts 20:32; 18:8,27.

 

Let us see this by also harmonizing some more Scriptures:

 

Hebrews 5:8-9

Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

 

Hebrews 9:11-14,26

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God … But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

 

Hebrews 10:19-22

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

Notice from these Scriptures in Hebrews that in our obedience in water baptism (which can only be what “bodies washed with pure water” in 10:22 refers to), our hearts are “sprinkled clean from an evil conscience” (another way of saying our souls are saved) and our bodies are “washed in pure water”. In other words, the blood sacrifice of Jesus brings about our eternal redemption when our hearts are purified in the waters of baptism. The ceremonial washings in water and sprinklings with blood of the Old Testament foreshadowed the saving blood of Christ and washing in baptism of the New Testament. Compare John 3:5,23-27; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 6:2; 9:9-12; 1 Peter 3:21.

 

Note “pure water.” Why pure water? I’ll let you think on that before we come back to it later.

 

So we essentially have 1 Peter saying the same thing that Hebrews says.

 

Now let’s see a few more Scriptures that wrap up a conclusive argument:

 

Acts 15:3

describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles,

 

Acts 15:7-11

Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. 8 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, 9 and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. 10 Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? 11 But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

 

God bore witness by giving Cornelius the Holy Spirit to speak in tongues, just as God bore witness when He gave the Holy Spirit to the apostles to speak in tongues on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2. God bearing witness is not God saving! The Spirit didn’t save them in the act of speaking in tongues; He enabled them to speak in tongues so the Jewish Christians would accept Gentiles as being eligible for baptism wherein was salvation! What Peter says here in Acts 15, after the conversion of Cornelius and his household, as recorded in Acts 10, has to agree with what Peter said in 1 Peter 1 and 3! Believing the gospel, having hearts cleansed by faith, and saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, as stated by Peter in Acts 15, has to be equivalent to being born again by obeying the truth in being baptized in water - as in 1 Peter!

 

Let’s confirm this by noting some verses from the actual conversion of Cornelius:

 

Acts 10:33,43,47-48; 11:18

Now therefore we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the

Lord … To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins

through his name …

Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ …

11:18 … they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

 

Paul’s conversion:

 

Acts 22:16

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

 

When the sinner obeys the gospel by being baptized into Christ, he connects with the death and resurrection of Christ and is thus set free from sin to walk in newness of life in Christ:

 

Romans 6:16-18,3-4,6

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness …

… Do 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 … We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

 

In other words: sins washed away,  born again, slaves of righteousness … just as Jesus taught:

 

Mark 16:15-16

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

 

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5

 

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:19-22

 

1.    Because we have confidence to enter heaven because of Jesus’ blood,

2.    we can draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,

3.    having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience

4.    and our bodies washed with pure water.

 

Why “pure” water? Because in the water of baptism, God “purifies” the heart and conscience of the sinner who has come to Him with a true heart in full assurance of faith!!

 

What God causes and grants in salvation is effective when we believe and obey in baptism.

 

In the same way, the Syrian commander was cleansed of his leprosy when he did as God commanded. The water may not have looked very effective, but God used it to cleanse his body.

 

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:18-20

 

Dear friend, trust God. Do it His way. Many things that may seem a little foolish to us, are, in truth, full of God’s wisdom and power … even water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus. Note in Colossians 2:11-12 what God’s power can accomplish in baptism if we have faith: remove our sins and raise us up to live with Christ.

 

to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge … In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2:2-3,11-12.

 

Let the word of God speak! Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. James 1:21

 

--David Hunter