16
means to dip or stain. Baptizo, on the other hand is of frequent occurrence, namely 79 times. Its primary
meaning is to immerse or submerge. The secondary meaning is described by Dr. J.W. Dale in his Classic Baptism p.
354:
`Whatever is capable of thoroughly changing the character, state, or condition of any object, is capable of
baptizing that object; and by such change of character, state or condition does, in fact, baptize it'.
It is in this secondary sense that the word is used in most of its occurrences in the New Testament. We do not
intend here to deal with the doctrine of baptism in its various usages in the Bible. We have touched upon this
subject in The Unfolding Purpose of God pp. 92-96. Our theme now is the Holy Spirit and His relationship to
baptism; specially baptism as presented by the apostle Paul in Romans 6, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 2. Here we
believe that we are dealing, not with an external type but with a great spiritual reality, the work of God and not the
work of man. The baptism that the above Scriptures present is one that has permanent effects. Believers were not
just baptized with water but into Christ's death (Rom. 6:3). Neither man nor water could do this. It is solely the
work of God the Holy Spirit, and such became permanently united with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection,
so that all of their spiritual values are secured eternally. The saved in this chapter of Romans are not taken back to a
day when they were immersed by a human being in water. Rather they are taken back to Joseph of Arimathaea's
tomb where Christ was buried and there, by the work of God, they were crucified, they died, were buried, and rose
again IN HIM (Rom. 6:3-6). No amount of water could do this. It could only touch the body not the mind or spirit.
In any case how can water baptism represent crucifixion?
Sunthapto, the word used by Paul, was only used of burial in a tomb, never in water, either literally or
figuratively. As Colossians 2:12 expresses it, this spiritual baptism is `the work (operation) of God' and not the
work of any man, Christian or otherwise. What needs to sink into our minds is the fact that Biblical types are only
shadows; they are not the reality. As an illustration they only imperfectly set forth the reality.
Hebrews 10:1 is not only true of animal sacrifice. It is true of all types or pictures of spiritual truths when the
reality has come:
`For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect'.
The Hebrew believers, now that they had the spiritual reality in the death and resurrection of Christ, were asked
`to go on to perfection (maturity)' and leave the shadows behind. Believers today are asked to do the same thing,
but many, however much they may want to do this, feel they must still cling to the `picture book'. For them this is
more real because it is appreciated by the senses, something they can see, touch and feel. Such should remember
that all ritual is but an illustration, a `shadowing forth'. It can never be the reality which is eternal and spiritual and
God asks us to walk by faith in these glorious realities and not by sight or feeling. Dr. Merrill Unger in Bibliotheca
Sacra writes:
`In these passages (Rom. 6:3,4; Col. 2:12; Eph. 4:5) the holy apostle is not considering ritual baptism at all. The
sublimity of thought, the context of the argument, the exalted nature of the spiritual verities taught, support this
position. He is speaking of something infinitely higher, not of a mere symbolic ordinance that is powerless to effect
intrinsic change, but of a divine operation which places us eternally in Christ, and into His experience of crucifixion,
death, burial and resurrection'.
In his book on Romans (chapter six), Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones states, in expounding verses 2 and 3:
`The conclusion therefore at which I arrive is that baptism by water is not in the mind of the apostle at all in
these two verses; instead it is the baptism that is wrought by the Spirit .... Again take the statement which the
apostle makes in Galatians 2:20 which is so frequently misquoted: "I have been crucified with Christ;
nevertheless I live; yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me ...". Now there you have the identical doctrine (as Rom.
6:2,3), but baptism is not mentioned. That is because water baptism does not achieve union, it does not produce
it; indeed at that point it does not even represent it. This is a baptism which is carried out by the Holy Spirit
when He incorporates us into, engrafts us into the Lord Jesus Christ' (page 36).