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1. WHAT IS THE ESSENTIAL THING IN THE SYMBOLISM OF BAPTISM?
According to the Baptists
immersion, followed by emersion, is the essential thing in the symbolism of baptism. A
surrender of this would be equivalent to giving up baptism itself. The real baptismal idea, they
say, is expressed in the going down into, and the coming up out of, the water. That such an
immersion naturally involves a certain washing or purification, is something purely accidental.
Baptism would be baptism even if one were immersed in something that has no cleansing
properties. They base their opinion on Mark 10:38,39; Luke 12:50; Rom. 6:3,4; Col. 2:12. But the
first two passages merely express the idea that Christ would be overwhelmed by His coming
sufferings, and do not speak of the sacrament of baptism at all. The last two are the only ones
that really have any bearing on the matter, and even these are not to the point, for they do not
speak directly of any baptism with water at all, but of the spiritual baptism thereby
represented. They represent regeneration under the figure of a dying and a rising again. It is
certainly perfectly obvious that they do not make mention of baptism as an emblem of Christ’s
death and resurrection. If baptism were represented here at all as an emblem, it would be as an
emblem of the believer’s dying and rising again. And since this is only a figurative way of
representing his regeneration, it would make baptism a figure of a figure.
Reformed theology has an entirely different conception of the essential thing in the symbolism
of baptism. It finds this in the idea of purification. The Heidelberg Catechism asks in Question
69: “How is it signified and sealed unto you in holy baptism that you have a part in the one
sacrifice of Christ on the cross?” And it answers: “Thus, that Christ has appointed the outward
washing with water and added the promise that I am washed with His blood and Spirit from the
pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins, as certainly as I am washed outwardly with water,
by which the filthiness of the body is commonly washed away.” This idea of purification was the
pertinent thing in all the washings of the Old Testament, and also in the baptism of John, Ps.
51:7; Ezek. 36:25; John 3:25,26. And we may assume that in this respect the baptism of Jesus
was entirely in line with previous baptisms. If He had intended the baptism which He instituted
as a symbol of something entirely different, He would have indicated this very clearly, in order
to obviate all possible misunderstanding. Moreover, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that
baptism symbolizes spiritual cleansing or purification, Acts 2:38; 22:16; Rom. 6:4 f.; I Cor. 6:11;
Tit. 3:5; Heb. 10:22; I Pet. 3:21; Rev. 1:5. This is exactly the point on which the Bible places all
emphasis, while it never represents the going down and coming up as something essential.
2. IS IMMERSION THE ONLY PROPER MODE OF BAPTISM?
The generally prevailing opinion
outside of Baptist circles is that, as long as the fundamental idea, namely, that of purification,
finds expression in the rite, the mode of baptism is quite immaterial. It may be administered by
immersion, by pouring or effusion, or by sprinkling. The Bible simply uses a generic word to
denote an action designed to produce a certain effect, namely, cleansing or purification, but