A Bible History of BaptismBaird, Samuel J. (Samuel John)
Religion
A Bible History of Baptism
Baird, Samuel J. (Samuel John)
Baptism -- Biblical teaching
This view of the work of the Holy Spirit is exhibited very clearly in
Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, and the promises therewith
addressed to Israel respecting the latter days. “Behold, O my people, I
will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and
bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord,
when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of
your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live.”—Ezek.
xxxvii, 12-15.
In the same sense Paul interprets the Levitical baptisms. Having
designated the ordinances of which they formed a part as figures of the
heavenly things, he says: “If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the
ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ ... purge your
conscience from dead works, to serve the living God.”—Heb. ix, 13, 14.
Here he contrasts the dead works of the unregenerate with the living
works of those who, as they are alive unto God, serve in newness of life
him who, being the living God, “is not the God of the dead, but of the
living.”—Matt. xxii, 32. Of this he recognizes the sprinklings to be a
figure.
The doctrine thus involved in the water of purifying sheds a beautiful
light on one of the most interesting facts in the life of our Savior.
Upon the death of Lazarus, Jesus so timed his coming as to reach Bethany
on the fourth day. On the previous day, or, more probably, on that very
same day, the sisters and household of Lazarus had been baptized with
the water of purification. And now, as He stands by the sepulcher, the
resurrection, in its highest sense, as including both soul and body, and
rendering both superior to death, is the theme of his discourse. “Thy
brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall
rise again, in the resurrection, at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I
am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.”—John xi, 23-26.
SECTION XXIII.—_The Gospel in the Water of Separation._
Much of the spiritual significance of these rites has already appeared.
But in order to an adequate appreciation, they should be viewed in
connection.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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