Foundations of the Christian Life. Chapter 17 - Baptism in the Name.

Foundations of the Christian Life.
Chapter 17 – Baptism in the Name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

Matthew 28:18-20.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

These are last words of Jesus to his disciples. One would think that these would be the most important thing he could say to them, the one thing he would want them to remember.

In them is his plan for the salvation of the world.

Jesus says five things:

(i) All authority has been given to Jesus.
(ii) Therefore we should go and preach the good news.
(iii) Those that receive the word should be baptised.
(iv) We should teach/disciple those who receive the word and are baptised.
(v) He will be with us to the end of the age.

If we accept the premise that this is the most important thing Jesus could say to his disciples before his departure we are compelled to conclude that baptism, in the mind of Jesus, was incredibly important.

"Baptising them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

The wording he uses about baptism is important because for the first time in human history we are introduced to a Trinity of beings who are all God. Up till now the Jews had thought that God was “one” in the sense of one single personality. The “Spirit of God” in the OT age was understood to be simply God in action. Jesus, in his ministry, introduced the idea that God was Father and he was the Son of the Father. This was radical enough, but now he puts “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” on an equal footing indicating in his words that each one is a separate and complete personality and that they are all equally God.

As we have already seen, in N.T. understanding, Baptism IS Conversion.
The Bible was written in the context of a Church in which there were no unbaptised believers. To become a Christian meant you got Baptised. Baptism was conversion.

This makes a difference in the way we read what is written here. What we are seeing here is a summary of what becoming a Christian is. It is a tremendously powerful and meaningful formula so we need to spend some time looking at what it means. However before we can do this we need to look at another idea that has repeatedly cropped up in the history of the Church.

A POPULAR IDEA:

At various points in Church history there have arisen groups that have made the claim that Baptism needs to be administered using the phrase, “In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (the Christological Formula). Such groups reject using the phrase, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (the Trinitarian formula).

There seems to be three main types of groups that have argued for this:
1. Various small groups in Church history have rejected the doctrine of the Trinity altogether and have centred on Christ. The wider Church has always deemed such groups to be heretical. They are/were anti- Trinitarian, Jesus only groups.

2. Since the rise of Liberal Theology there has been some doubts as to whether the Trinitarian formula was original or added to Matthew later in church history. Liberal theologians rejected its authenticity because it didn't fit with their idea of the development of doctrine in the Early Church. Until this Liberal attack it was never doubted except by the heretical groups. However, as far as we can tell from Christian literature the Trinitarian formula was the formula used at Baptism throughout the whole Church from the beginning. Because of this historical fact the Liberal position is wrong because it is simply unhistorical. They have devised a schema of doctrine development in their own minds and are trying to force the facts of history to fit their own ideas.

3. In recent years there has been a movement that has gone around the world that argues for the Christological formula and this has caused a bit of controversy. I shall give a short outline of the idea and some reasons why I feel it fails the test of truth.

1. Short Statement of the Teaching for using the "Lord Jesus Christ" formula.

(i) Starts with Matthew 28:19,20 where the words "the name" are singular, not plural (“names”). Hence it cannot refer to the three names given here.

(ii) In Acts it seems as if the formula "in the name of Jesus" was used, or some variation of it.

(iii) The title "Lord Jesus Christ" is interpreted to mean:
Lord = God, the Father.
Jesus = the Son.
Christ = the Anointing, the Holy Spirit.
Hence this interpretation guards itself against being another anti Trinitarian, or the "Jesus Only", heresy.

(iv) Some exponents of this theory claim that the phrase “Baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” is not Christian baptism at all but is the baptism of John the Baptist.

2. Answers to this theory:

(i) The singular, “the name” does not imply necessarily a reference to one person following. This is particularly true when we are talking about the Trinity who, though being three, are one. Also the idea of “Name” in Hebrew thought is important – it refers not so much to the actual name but to the person. I shall develop this further below.

(ii) Baptism in the Book of Acts.

G.R.Beasley–Murray and R.E.O.White (see note last chapter) are distinguished theologians and Church historians. They have studied Acts and also the literature of the Early Church to see how baptism was conducted. In their understanding the following procedure was followed:
* The candidate for baptism would go to a pool with those baptising him.
* Once in the water he would confess his sins and accept Jesus as his Saviour and Lord. If he had already done this he would be asked to make a confession of Christ as Lord. Thus the candidate would say, “I believe Jesus is Lord.” “Lord” here is used in the sense of “the Supreme divine being”.
* Those attending would then baptise him, using the formula “in the name of the Father, The Son and the Holy Spirit.”
* Following this hands would be laid on the candidate for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, often with anointing with oil.

In other words, the phrase “I believe Jesus is Lord” was used by the candidate as a confession and not as a formula pronounced over him by others. The formula, used by those administering the baptism, universally seems to have been the Trinitarian formula. This seems to be the pattern from all literature from the Early Church period.

The procedure was thus almost identical to Jewish proselyte baptism. Baptism was not new to Jewish culture with John or Jesus. When Gentiles converted to Judaism they were baptised. The procedure was like this:
* A period of Discipleship would take place, instruction in the Law. At some stage he would undergo circumcision in preparation for the ceremony of conversion.
* When the candidate was ready to make the commitment to Yahweh he would go to a pool with some priests. He would enter the water alone; the priests were only witnesses.
* In the water the candidate would confess his sins and recite the Law of Moses.
* Then he would immerse himself in the water. The Baptism would be a self-baptism.
* On coming out of the water he was accepted as a Jew.

Christian baptism was similar, with these differences:
* The baptism was administered by someone else. It was not a self-baptism.
* Reciting the Law was replaced with the confession: “Jesus is Lord.”

The Early Church seems to have followed the practice of Judaism and other religions in baptism, with the ceremony containing both a confession by the candidate and a formula spoken over the candidate by the Baptiser. In Judaism the confession was the Ten Commandments, in the Church it was the name of “Jesus as Lord”.

What happened in Acts?
* It is unsure what formula the Church in Acts used at Baptisms. Possibly both formulas were used in different situations and were seen to be equivalent.
* The phrase "in the name of the Lord Jesus" appears four times in Acts, but there are several other baptisms in Acts where no formula appears.
* It is not clear in Acts that, in these four instances, the phrase is the Baptismal formula said over the candidate. Acts 8:37 and Romans 10:9 are both confessions made by the candidate, not formulas spoken over him. The other Acts instances are probably the same.

(iii) The Interpretation of the title, “The Lord Jesus Christ”.

Answer: The division of "Lord Jesus Christ" into three separate people is simply hair splitting to attempt to justify a difficult position. We have only to consider the use of this phrase elsewhere in the NT to see how ludicrous this interpretation is:

Acts 2:36; 11:17; 15:11,26; 16:31; 20:21; 28:31.
All of these can only mean Jesus himself.

2 Corinthians 13:14 - if we use the suggested interpretation here we end up with God and the Holy Spirit being mentioned twice.

“Christ" is never used anywhere as a proper name for the Holy Spirit. It is a special word meaning "Messiah", and in the NT is nearly always "The Messiah" i.e. the Anointed one, the King, i.e. “Jesus the Christ”.

Conclusion: The title "Lord Jesus Christ" is not in Acts, nor anywhere else in the Bible, a title for the Trinity. To suggest it is a way of referring to the Trinity is to introduce a novelty and the burden of proof is on those making the suggestion. In my view the proof is lacking.

(iv) The Trinitarian formula is the Baptism of John.

Answer: This is patently wrong.
(i) John was an OT prophet and as such he had no idea of God being “Father”, nor of Jesus being “the Son”, and the “Holy Spirit” was not, to him, a separate personality, but was understood to be “God himself in action”. The revelation of the Trinity came through Christ and John was not party to it. In fact he was beheaded before it was revealed.
(ii) The foolishness of this idea is clearly shown by the fact that when Jesus gave this command to his disciples John had already been dead three years. There is no way “Baptism in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” is the Baptism of John the Baptist. The Messiah was never considered to be God until Jesus suggested the idea. Hence John could not, and did not, baptise in a threefold formula. If the Trinitarian formula is the baptism of John then why did Jesus command his disciples to baptise with John's baptism during the Church age? If this is Christ's command shouldn't we be doing it?
(iii) John’s baptism was a “baptism into repentance” but there is no indication in his preaching that he saw himself founding a new community. Considering his background in the Essenes this is startling. They did create a separate community. John did not. Rather he was calling Israel back to its ancient faith. To baptise, “Into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” would be to make a radical break with Israel and to form a new community of faith, and John is clearly not trying to do that. It would be to form a community that believed there was a “son of God” and Israel did not and could not do that.

It seems to me that the “Baptism in the name of Jesus” theory is lacking in proof and is contrary to common sense. It does not stand up to good exegetical criticism. It is, to say the least, another idea that ends up robbing people of the fullness of the Gospel, as we shall outline in the next section of this chapter.

The Matthew Trinitarian formula is clearly very old and certainly reflects the practice of the Jewish church in Judea (Matthew was written in Judea), at about 70A.D. This in itself suggests that it is the original practice of the church in Palestine and so is original to the Gospel of Matthew. Most scholars now accept its authenticity.

By 100A.D. Church writings indicate that the Trinitarian formula was universal, often with threefold baptism (see Didache). The normal practice was for the candidate to confess "Jesus is Lord" and then the Baptiser to recite "In the name of the Father,… the Son… and the Holy Spirit" when Baptising him/her three times. This established practice indicates that the Acts instances are all confessions, not formulas.

THE MEANING OF THE TRINITARIAN FORMULA.

The Trinitarian formula has tremendous meaning, and sums up the meaning of Christian commitment and Baptism.

Greek:- "into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

In Hebrew thought the name of a person stood for his whole being, his personality, power, authority and sphere of influence.

Therefore the formula means: "into the person and power/authority of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit".

The first thing to note here is that this then is not just an identification with God in the way we might identify with a political party or some, other group by “giving ourselves a name”. This is not the meaning at all. The idea Jesus is speaking out here has far more depth – we are being grafted into a person so that we become part of him, part of his body. We become a corporate body “in Christ”. As such we take on his life, authority and power in a real way, not just in some nominal way.

Two Aspects:

A) "Into the Person of..."
i.e. into the sphere of their life.

B) "Into the Authority / power of..."
i.e. into their power/authority.

A) "Into the Person of..."
i.e. into the sphere of their life.

(1) The sphere of the Father's life = the Family of God.

Implied in the name "Father", but the Bible tells us this many times:

John 1:12
" to all who received him, who believed on his name He gave the power to become children of God."

This wonderful truth speaks of:

(i) A new family nature.
Genesis 1 teaches us that every creature propagates "after it's kind". God created every creature with it's own character and nature. Mankind was created to be "in the image of God".
Unfortunately sin has marred the image of God in man. It is not destroyed, but sin has so corrupted the image of God in man that the Bible calls us "Fallen". This is the basic meaning of sin - that we have "fallen short" of what God intended for us a human beings. Because Adam sinned and gained a Fallen nature before he fathered any children, when he had children he propagated "after his kind", i.e. with a fallen nature.

This was Satan's greatest triumph - to corrupt the image of God in Man. God had made no other creature which so fully expressed what he himself was like, and Satan set out to destroy it.

The miracle of the Gospel is that, through faith in Christ, there is a Redemption - a restoration of what was lost to Adam. The nature of God is made available to us again.

In Christ we die a death to Adam. In Baptism this old nature is buried and we are born again into the family of God. We die to our fallen inheritance from Adam, and are born again with a new uncorrupted nature made in the image of God.

(ii) A new inheritance.
One of the things the Bible continually calls us is the "Sons of God". This title is given to us all whether male or female, for a particular reason, not because the Bible is sexist. In the culture of the Bible times it was normally the sons that inherited the Father's property, the daughters only inherited if there was no sons.

By calling us all "sons of God" the Bible indicates that no believer is going to be left out of partaking in the inheritance that God has provided for us. It is a title which speaks of inclusion, not a sexist title intending to exclude.

Ephesians 1:5
“…he (God) predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…”

Ephesians 1:13-14
“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”

Galatians 4:1-7
“What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, <"Abba>, Father." So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.”

What is the inheritance God has for us?

Colossians 1:12.
"an inheritance of the saints in light"

God does not tell us in any detail what the inheritance will be - he simply says in Ephesians 3:20 that it is “greater than we can even ask or think’. It is beyond the comprehension of our human intellect. It is to share in God himself in some mysterious way.

As a proof, a guarantee, that we have this inheritance awaiting us God has given us a down payment, a deposit, on it. This down payment is the Holy Spirit.

2 Corinthians 1:22
“…he set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Ephesians 1:13,14 (above)


(2) Into the sphere of the Son's life = the kingdom.

Colossians 1:13.
" He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son"

We read before how we have an inheritance in light, now we are told that we have escaped from a kingdom of darkness. There is a kingdom, unseen but real, that has a nature what can only be termed "darkness". This kingdom thrives on those negative experiences that cripple and bind us and make us less than human. By this we mean things like fear, hatred, jealousy, enmity, bitterness, violence, depression, anger, greed, selfishness, covetousness, pride, self seeking, lying, cheating, and the like - of these things Paul tells us that "those that practice these things shall not inherit the kingdom of God".

It is these things which bind us to evil and to darkness.

But Paul tells us here that we are delivered from the dominion of darkness.

This means that we are under a different authority structure - instead of being dominated by darkness - fear, hatred, resentment, anger, depression, enmity, etc, we are under the rulership of light - love, joy, peace, etc.

Instead of oppression and tyranny, we can experience freedom.

(3) Into the sphere of the Holy Spirit = the community of the Spirit.

In conversion we become members of a new community, a new fellowship, one in which the unity is based not on personal likes and dislikes, but on a common experience of Christ.

Ephesians 4:3ff
"maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. For there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, One faith, one Baptism. One God and Father of us all".

It is a community which has a unity based in a Spiritual reality, a common experience of the Spirit, not on anything that draws us together in a fleshly way.

For this reason Baptism has always been seen as the doorway to church membership - a sort of initiation rite if you like. When we understand that baptism WAS conversion, we see why it became the initiation rite to church membership.

It is this community that God is going to use to demonstrate his love and power to the world. It is this community that is going to inherit the world at the end of the age and rule it on behalf of God.

This community is the Church, created and lead by the Spirit of God.


B) "INTO THE AUTHORITY / POWER OF..."

(1) Into the Authority or power of the Father = Eternal life.

Ephesians 2:4,5
"But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."

In this life in God is a new quality of life which we can experience and enjoy.
It is resurrection life - it is not just a restoration of the life Adam had before he sinned.

Adam had two trees in the Garden that were special.
There was the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, which was prohibited to him.
The other was the tree of life, which God said would give eternal life. This was not prohibited to Adam in the beginning - it was only after Adam fell that the way to it was barred.

Adam was not created eternal - he was given life by God, but there was an aspect of life that Adam was not given automatically - an aspect that he had to choose to receive by going to the tree and eating of it. It is this eternal life that becomes ours the moment we receive Christ as Lord and Saviour.

Paul defines it more thoroughly in:

Ephesians 1:19 -22
"and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every
title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come."


Here he talks of an incredible power available to us as believers, more than just available, but resident inside us. This is the eternal life of God, resurrection power which overcomes death and all of its works. It becomes ours in our baptism.

(2) Into the Authority, or power, of the Son = Authority, kingship, victory.

We are not only made members of the kingdom as we saw before, but we are made RULERS in the kingdom. The whole point of the kingdom is that it is so vast there is room for every person in it to have an area of rulership. So God made us kings to rule in his kingdom with him.

Revelation 1:5,6.
"To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father."

To enable us to do so God has given us the Spirit of God.

(3) Into the Power, or Authority, of the Spirit = fullness of the Spirit - resurrection power.

Ephesians 1:17 (above)

What a mighty calling, what a mighty experience Baptism is - We are baptised INTO the name of the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

HOMEWORK:
Seek out a group of Christians who will baptise you by immersion, if you have not already done so.
In some countries, especially those under Islamic rule, this may be a very costly act, and very dangerous. Jesus warned us to consider the cost before we act. Don’t do anything rash. Take advice from senior Christian leaders as to when and how to go about this act.

TRANSFORMER VERSES:
Matthew 28:18-20.
“Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

PRAYER:
Father I thank you for the tremendous gift you give us in Baptism when we enter into the life and ministry of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Release this life and ministry through me I pray, in Jesus name, Amen.