The Seven Baptisms: Water Baptism for the Gentile - Part 4 of 8
Posted: Sunday, July 13, 2008
by Teresa Ortiz
Freelance writer/Speaker
During our study of John's baptism, we noted the importance of his message and that was the message of repentance to prepare the way for the Messiah.
In this study, we will see an important shift in the message--from Repentance to Salvation, and in the timing of water baptism. This baptism is physical and most notably, comes after the message of salvation is received and after the Holy Spirit is given to the one who receives the message.
Looking back for a moment, we remember that John said he baptizes with water unto repentance(which will lead to the remission of their sin) , but He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." And so it was, that each Jew (Israelite) who received the message of preparation, and was baptized in water, later received the Holy Spirit after the death of Jesus.
So why the shift and why is it important? Because this baptism takes place after the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the message of salvation was opened to the Gentiles (Any peoples who are not Jews). Furthermore, in my opinion, it tells us that water baptism is not a requirement to receive the Holy Spirit, thus salvation, as many teach and believe.
The book of Acts is a book commonly referred to as a book of transition. It records for us the transition from the Old Covenant into the New Covenant. Keeping this thought in mind, helps to keep the teaching on baptism in perspective and I believe, clarifies what seems to be a contradictory teaching.
The first of converted or "saved" Gentiles is recorded for us in the book of Acts. Let's go to Acts 8:26, where we pick up the story.
"Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip [a disciple], saying, "arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza."…And behold a man from Ethiopia, a Eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury had come to Jerusalem to worship…He was reading Isaiah the Prophet…So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?" "How can I unless someone guides me?"
The place in the Scripture which he read was this: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation, His justice was taken away, and who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth." (Acts 8:26-33)
It goes on to say the Eunuch asked Philip of whom the prophet was speaking. At this, Philip began to share Jesus and the message of salvation to him as they walked along the road. The Eunuch responded to the message. Continuing their walk, the Eunuch saw water and asked Philip if there was anything to hinder him from being baptized.
"Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may". And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."…And they both went down into the water, and he baptized him." (Acts 8:37-38.)
We see here that the requirement for baptism is believing with all one's heart that Jesus is the Son of God. This is confirmed repeatedly throughout the New Testament. Interestingly, we never read again about a baptism of repentance. We only read of baptism that follows receiving the message of Christ. This again, is because the death and resurrection accomplished and fulfilled every law under the Old Testament in which the Jews were required to follow.
"But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preached): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 9:8-10.)
The second example of a Gentile who was saved is in chapter 10 of the book of Acts.
God came to Peter with a vision to prepare him to go and preach to a Gentile. This God did, because he knew the hearts of his people were stubborn and couldn't imagine they should keep company with Gentiles (This is another story with many other lessons), but suffice it to say, unless God made it abundantly clear, Peter would not have gone, nor would have the men he chose to go with him.
Cornelius was a Gentile man who believed in God, prayed, and did the best he could with the information he had. God saw his heart and He chose to send Peter to preach the Gospel of Salvation to Cornelius and his family. (Read chapter 10 for the complete account.)
Peter goes to his home as commanded--where Cornelius was anxiously awaiting his arrival. Once there, Peter began to preach the message of salvation.
"And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He [Jesus] who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. And those of the circumcision [Jews], who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also…Then Peter answered, Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." (Acts 10:42-48)
The account of the Eunuch and Cornelius reveal to us the transition that took place between the Old Covenant-which in short, is having faith in the coming Messiah and the requirements that follow, to the New Testament, which in short, is having faith and trust that Jesus was and remains the Messiah.
The Jews had to wait for the remission of their sins until Jesus resurrected; for those who believed after the resurrection, it was instant. It had nothing to do with baptism.
What can we conclude? It seems that water baptism follows a change of heart and putting faith and trust in Jesus. We also see that having faith in God is not enough. God made it clear to this wonderfully righteous man named Cornelius that He needed to receive the Holy Spirit as a seal and guarantee of salvation, by having faith in Jesus, the Son of God.
It also shows us that all who are sincere in their desire to know the truth about God, will be blessed with those who will help them. It was true for me. It is very encouraging to know that God will send us someone to lead the way to Jesus. The question is-will we respond?
These accounts of Gentiles being converted and baptized are a wonderful example of one of the many things God did by sending His Son to pay the price for the sin of mankind-that is he made a new race of people. He did this by breaking down the wall that separates Jews from Gentiles. For in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, only His children--the body of Christ. (Ephesians 2:1-21)
This subject will be addressed in The Baptism Into Christ - part 5 of this series which will follow shortly.
© Teresa Ortiz
This Article has been viewed 1,484 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)Teresa, this was a very interesting and well researched article. I've never been to keen on attending "bible study" in the traditional way. After reading this, I see what I've been missing.Hi Roschelle, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm so glad you found it interesting. I do hope it encourages you to seek out a good bible study. Of course, you are always welcome to join me :-) A lot of people assume Bible study is boring, but nothing could be further from the truth. There are so many amazing historical events to research and their is always a practical application! God has an amazing sense of humor on how he deals with His creation. I love it more than anything! And you have paid me a great compliment in saying "Now I see what I've been missing".
It is why I write--for this reason and to give others something to laugh about. Thanks again, and do hope you stay with me for this study and in the future. You might enjoy "Thoughts, Stupid Machines, and Heaven's Front Row."
God bless you and may you come into a deeper understanding and love for the things of God.
I found the article to convey passion and a solid knowledge of the subject matter.
She also tried to be enthusiastic without hype which is the sure mark of someone trying to instruct rather than pressure her readers.
Good for you!
YvonneThank you for the kind words, I am glad you didn't feel presssured. My only intent is to instruct or to give some insight to the Bible and why many Christians believe the way they do. It is surrendering our thoughts and views to that of God's word. If it helps, I am happy. If not, I will try again another time :-)
Lord bless you and thank you for reading.
Teresa, I don't know where I've been to have missed Parts I-III but I will read them. You are an anointed Bible scholar. I enjoy Biblical history over any other. Thank you for your in depth research, knowledge and willingness to share for the edification of others. Bless you, my dear friend. Hugs 'n love!Hi Avis, thanks so much for the support--it is my favorite also. I love teaching and teaching in the form of an article is pretty new to me, so I hope I improve. I'm glad you were blessed. Yup, you'll have to go back and catch up :-)
Love and hugs right back to ya!
You are a very gifted Bible teacher. I have always loved the story of babtism. It reminds me of the same message Mark shared at church not long ago. Then to follow up, our Monday night Bible study was also on babtism. I too will have to go back and look at lesson 1-3. I hadn't been on SW for almost a year until the last month or so. As you can see, Mark does the SW writing in our family while I do more of the Praise and Worship. Speaking of tonite(Monday), better go get ready!Blessings.Hi Michelle, thank you. I'm so grateful the Lord has given me the ability to teach. Nothing makes me happier than to encourage and teach others in the ways of the Lord. May God bless your study tonight and may everyone come away closer to Jesus than when they first walked in the doors! I do have to confess, I do covet the gift of singing. I can muttle through, but definetly not my gift :-)Lord bless you!!
Wonderfully inspirational article. I loved it, Teresa. You sound like such a wonderfully sweet person. God bless you and yours. Sandra.Hi Sandra, what a sweet thing to say :-) You sound like a sweet,sweet person yourself. I love reading your stories :-)God bless you and yours as well. I am glad you like the article, I hope it the teaching was clear and understandable.
Great article Teresa, You laid it out and made it easy to follow and understand. I like that. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement: >>It also shows us that all who are sincere in their desire to know the truth about God, will be blessed with those who will help them.<< When I was thirty five years old and living on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, the Lord set up a situation and brought people to me that led me to Him. He will go to great lengths to find those who seek Him.Hi Jay, thanks for bearing witness to that statement. Praise the Lord for what he did for you and what he does for all who want to know Him. As He says "When you seek me with your whole heart, you will find me" Jeremiah 29:10-13 One of my fav's!
Lord bless you!
hi t,
i tried as hard as i could to understand the scripture parts, to no avail, but the way you wrote your article was wonderful. you have come a long way in being precise and direct, and honest, as well as spreading the word. keep doing it. i wouldn't change a thing,
my best,
sueHi Sue, thank you for the wonderful comment and for your support. It means a lot to me for many reasons. :-)
I just came back from the other house....I am telling my story right now, while it is on my heart :-) It probably won't show up until tomorrow!
Actually Teresa,When Paul was discussing confessing with one's mouth that Christ was the risen Messiah he was speaking in response to a sect that did not believe in the afterlife, and to those who preached that Christ was merely a man.Also, baptism ( water immersion for the repentance of sins ) was certainly nothing new to Jews, for the purity laws required them to immerse themselves in pools of water known as mikvahs. This was so commonly practiced that it became almost an obsession. In fact, in Hebrew, baptism simply means to immerse oneself or to go under.Also, I agree that saying that the hearts of Jews were stubborn in the negative sense of the word is unfair. They were obedient to G-d. G-d had instructed them to keep themselves a separate people. Even Jesus had said to the Samaritan woman " Salvation is from the Jew's " and told the apostles to at first appear only to the lost sheep of Israel.I'm studying the Hebraic origins of the Church and Judaism of the 1st century formerly at the moment ( I am getting my Master's in Religious Education and Middle Eastern History ), and it is quite a fascinating study. Many, many of the parables of Jesus came straight from the Talmud, for example.One of the most important things to keep in mind in exegesis is context: who was the Scripture being written to, and what exactly was it referring to. Often times, Paul changes his meaning of the word law and to which law he is referring to in his letters. If you read them very closely with this in mind, it will increase your understanding.ShalomHi Jennifer,How are you today? Are you feeling better?If you read the introduction of this study, you will see that I explained purification and cleansing was nothing new to the Jews and that "baptism" in its basic sense of meaning, just means to immerse something in water.Remember, we had this conversation a few months back when we were discussing the importance of baptism ?As far as talking about the stubborness of the Jews in a negative sense - I think you know me better than that. However, if we get down to the bottom line, there is nothing positive about being stubborn. And that goes for anyone who rejects Christ as Messiah, no matter what the culture.And yes, context is everything, we talked about this on several occassions.I think its awesome that you are studying Theology, I know God , or if you now prefer G-d, is going to bring about some amazing things for you. We both know he already has.I would only ask you one favor, please do not start assuming that those who teach and speak as the Bible speaks of the stubbornish or rejection by the jews for the Messiah, are being disrespectful, arrogant, or unfair. It is a biblical and God revealed fact. We also had this conversation many times as well.My whole point in this particular article was to point out that beginning with Cornelius, the Holy spirit was given to a Gentile, before water baptism. It had significant meaning to the the jews, because the first thing they did was acknowledge that God indeed brought salvation to the Gentiles. The power of God is in His Spirit.It's good to hear from you, take good care!Love and hugs,TeresaPlease try to understand,We are not meaning to attack the writers in these articles..( I shouldn't even be commenting, I honestly don't have the time ).It is only what we fear that readers might infer from certain phrases, if however subconciously, as being disrespectful of the Jewish people, or failing to recognize their contribution to the whole development of the Church in the first place.So, and I think that Rabbi Stanley would agree, please don't take it personally. This is strictly commentary on certain wording that might be misunderstood. And as scholars of the origins of the Church, we are well aware of the misunderstanding that have led up to antisemetism, as if the Jewish people had no part in bringing the Church alive, which it was in all Truth, entirely comprised of the Jewish people: Jewish thought, philosophy, exegesis, and spirituality. Thereby, Jesus was the fulfillment of the very Jewish Scriptures.And I am not saying that you don't know this, Teresa. I know that you do. I only want others to know this as well because it is part of the Truth. And it is a beautiful thing.Shalom,JenniferHi Jennifer, thank you for clarifying, I can see how there is this fear from Jewish believers, and each person with differing perspectives need to be sensitive, I agree.But also, it helps when the commentor states this fear rather than assuming the writer is unaware of Scripture or is one who believes the church is the new Israel.I suppose there is hypersensitity on both sides, but some people are rather mean in their delivery and when that is addressed, even more apparant anger follows.I fully appreciate what you are doing in being a tool to bridge the gap for both sides. Thank you.Hugs,Teresa
It was a good article until..the sensitive people got involved...get realHi Corinth Ians, thanks for reading and for the comment. I suppose when this subject is discussed there is always the possiblity of tension. It's all in how we respond as the good Lord says :-) Blessings to you! Teresa
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