THREE OLD TESTAMENT PICTURES OF BAPTISM YOU SHOULD KNOW by Adriel Sanchez for Core Christianity
If you’ve been around Christian churches for a while, you’ve probably heard the saying baptism is an outward sign of your inward faith. I remember being told this as a young believer. Short theological tweetables like this can be helpful, but they rarely do justice to the richness of the doctrines they define. Indeed, baptism is a sign of something, but Scripture doesn’t primarily call it a sign of our faith. Whether you believe in the baptism of infants or think that baptism should be withheld until a person makes a profession of faith, here are three Old Testament pictures that help us understand, according to the Bible,what baptism is a sign of.
Baptism is a Sign of New Creation (Gen. 1:1-2; cf. 2 Cor. 5:17, Jn. 3:5).
The Old Testament prophets were well aware of how sin had ravaged God’s people and planet. They spoke of a coming new creation that would involve the whole earth (Isa 65:17). The church is the beginning of this new creation according to the apostle Paul, who said, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come(2 Cor. 5:17). Interestingly, the first creation involved water and the Spirit. Genesis 1:1-2 says, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.Insofar as baptism involves water and the Spirit, it is a sign of the new creative work of God. Jesus told Nicodemus, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God(Jn. 3:5). Your baptism, along with every other baptism, is a picture of the inbreaking of God’s kingdom. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!
