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days totally unseeing- blinded by
the brightness of Jesus Christ's
appearance. That unprecedented
experience began the t ransforma–
tion of Saul from a self-righteous
religionist into perhaps the most
publicized Christian of his time.
Saul's future lifework was out–
lined rather immediately after bis
total about-face. But before he
cóuld become the famous Paul, or
even begin to commence to fulfill
his Christ-given commission, Jesus
inducted him into God 's Church
through the deeply symbolic cere–
mony of baptism.
But why was such a ceremony
necessar y? Would not Paul 's
obvious repentance be sufficient?
Why go to the trouble of being
plunged under water? How could
the baptismal ceremony wash
Paul 's sins away?
To begin to give an answer to
these questions, it is necessary to
understand that the cleansing con–
cept of baptism is richly rooted in
the pages of the Old Testament.
Old Testament Antecedents
Water baptism is prefigured by a
number of graphic accounts in the
Old Testament. Perhaps the most
poignant example is the symbolic
baptism of all of ancient Israel in
the Red Sea- leaving the old, cor–
rupt way of life and emerging into
the prospect of living thei r lives
anew through the vehicle of the
freshly revealed righteousness of
God's law.
The apostle Paul really grasped
the Old Testament role of baptism
and was deeply moved to teach its
meaning to the G reeks in the
Corinthian church. He wrote: " I
want you to know, brethren, that
ou r fathers were all under the
cloud, and all passed through the
sea, and all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea"
(1
Cor. 10:1, 2, RSV) .
Accounts of ceremonial cleans–
ing by water in ancient Israel are
too numerous to fully document.
The high priest Aaron was not
aJiowed to enter the Holy Place
without first bathing his flesh in
water (Lev. 16: 1-4). Naaman, chief
general of the Syrian army and
affiicted by leprosy in the time of
20
Elisha, approached God 's prophet
to solicit total recovery. Elisha's
instructions ? "Go and wash in the
Jordan seven times." That seemed
silly to this dignified, perhaps even
pompous, general of the army.
Naaman just didn't want to do it
according to Elisha's explicit direc–
tions. His reply: "'Are not Abana
and Pharpar, the rivers of Damas–
cus, better than all the waters of
Natalie Wood 1938-1981
It
is difficult to digest a
sudden dea th-especially if
the deceased is a
well-known personality or a
loved one. . . . We
are immediately confronted
with the stark fact tha t
there are limits to human
life. At least temporarily we
are forced to stop and think
about the possible meaning
of our existence.
Israel? Could 1 not wash in them,
and be clean?' So he turned and
went away in a rage"
(1
1 Kings
5:12, RSV).
His aides later persuaded Naa–
man to cool off and put aside his
vanity. He followed Elisha's seem–
ingly stupid instructions and was
totally healed of a terminal skin
condition.
The point is that the bathing of
the nesh and the clothing that
touched the flesh was the pre–
scribed formula for symbolically
ridding the lsraelites (and willing
gentiles) of a whole host of physical
and sometimes spiritual problems.
God has always wanted bumanity
to be clean: pbysically, mentally
and spiritually.
These water-based ceremonies in
the Old Testament were a type of
the New Testament spiritual
cleansing that finds its fulfillment
in Jesus Chr ist and the Holy Spirit.
These pre-Chr istian an tecedcn ts
could not really cleanse sinners of
spiritual defilement and make them
eligible candidates for God's King–
dom.
Jeremiah put his finger directly
on the problem: "Though you wash
yourself with lye [a harsh cleansing
agent] and use much soap [in
water], the stain of your guilt is
still before me, says the Lord God"
(Jer. 2:22, RSV).
~
The apostle Paul puts the Old
~
Testament ceremonial washings
1
~
into even sharper focus: " ... Ac-
j
cording to this arrangement, gifts
~
and sacrifices are offered which
~
cannot perfect the conscience of
the worshiper, but deal only with
food and drink and various ablu–
tions [washings], regulations for
the body imposed until tbe time of
reformation [Christ's blood sacri–
fice on the cross]" (Heb. 9:9-10,
RSV). Those ablutions were only a
sign. They could never really
cleanse the mind itself.
J esus Christ did what all of the
offer ings, sacrifices and ceremonial
washings combined could not do.
The shedding of His life's blood
broke the barrier between God and
man forever.
The Baptismal Bridge
Man 's repentance followed by
Christ 's ministration to man of the
Holy Spirit actually changes the
mind. All of those Old Testament
washings did symbolically prefig–
ure important New Testament
principles- not the least of which
is water baptism.
John the Baptist built a bridge
between Old Testament rituals and
Christ. lt added more clarity to the
picture of God's plan of salvation.
The
PLAIN TRUTH