Category: Devotional Grist

Scripture — I Peter 3:21f
Subject — Baptism
Theme — Peter’s explanation of Baptism
Proposition — … will cause us to appreciate the meaning of our Baptism.

Introduction

Re-cap

Main Body

This is a passage that makes most Christians sweat because of the intimate connection that it posits between Baptism and Salvation. It directly says that “Baptism Saves.”

What Peter is doing here by saying that Baptism saves is that he is suggesting that there is analogical relationship — a comparative touchstone — between the salvation of the 8 souls who were saved through water during the time of the Noahaic flood and the salvation of Christians who are saved through the water of Holy Baptism. This analogical relationship between the Nohaic flood and Baptism is the kind of relationship that exists between a person when they are three and a person when they are thirty-three. The former is an earlier and incomplete model of the latter so that by looking back through the latter we can understand the former more completely. Peter says the flood was an anti-type of Baptism. The flood was an incomplete picture of a fuller picture that would come later.

Now as we enter into this we must affirm that it was God who saved Noah and His family, but He did so through water as Peter says. As such it would be accurate for Noah to say He was saved by God or by the flood as long as it was understood that it was God who saved Him by the flood.

The same thing is true of Baptism. If we say we are saved by Baptism we never mean that we are saved by baptism apart from God’s saving work. And yet we can say with Peter that we are saved by Baptism through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Note in both Noah’s salvation and in our salvation it is God who is doing all the saving. In both the OT type and the NT anti-type (fulfillment) the emphasis is on God who is doing the work of saving His people.

Now the reason I spend time to point that out is to articulate again the Reformed and Biblical understanding that Baptism is not about our pledges to God. Baptism, as we see in this passage, is about God’s work of delivering His people.

Most of your Christian friends will not agree with this. Most of your Christian friends will insist that Baptism is about your making a commitment to Christ. That is a unworthy view of Baptism. Baptism is instead about what God is doing, promising and has done and not about what the Baptized person is doing or promising.

In Baptism we have the promise that God will be our God and we shall be His people and the command to repent and believe in light of that promise just as in the flood there was God’s promise to be the God of Noah and His family and the command to build an ark.

When we talk about Baptism we understand that it is a sign and a seal of God’s grace in Jesus Christ that has come to us. It is a sign of God’s promise to do all the saving. It is a seal that indicates we belong to God. The fact that Peter can come right out and say that “Baptism Saves Us” reveals the incredibly close relationship between the sign and what the sign indicates.

Because it is a sign and a seal of God’s gracious intentions towards us we must, in times of doubt, always remember our Baptism for in remembering our Baptism we are at the same time remembering God’s promise that He would be our God and we would be His people.

Now returning to the comparison between the Noahaic flood and Baptism we would say that Noah’s physical salvation through the waters of the flood through the waters of the flood was anticipatory of the fact that our Spiritual salvation is through the waters of Holy Baptism.

Just as Noah went through the destruction of the flood unto renewed life so God’s people are buried with Christ through the waters of Baptism into His death only to be resurrected with Him unto renewed life. (Romans 6:4) Noah and His family, as God’s people, were saved through the flood. The Church as God’s people are saved through Baptism. And it is God who used the flood and who uses Baptism as a means of Grace who does all the saving.

This idea of being saved through water repeats itself through Scripture. Not only is it Noah who is saved through Water but later it is the Children of Israel as they pass through the Red Sea who are saved by God through Water. In both cases the waters are at the same time judgment to God’s enemies and grace to God’s people. With the same waters God both condemns and gives life.

So it is with Baptism. The waters of Baptism are judgment to those who will not submit to a Christian Baptism that proclaims that God does all the saving while at the same time being grace to those who will embrace the promises of God found in Baptism.

Now from his emphasis on Baptism Peter turns to clarify the issue.

Baptism is not about the removal of physical filth from the body. The point here is that Baptism, as a means of Grace, is not about the performance of a misunderstood empty bathing ritual. In Baptism it is not the water itself, apart from Christ, that saves. The means of grace is not found in the water stripped away from the understanding that Baptism is the means of grace whereby we have union with Christ in His death and resurrection (Romans 6:4). In Baptism it is not the filth of the flesh that God removes but the filth of the soul.

It is because God has done all the doing in Baptism that Peter can say that the result of this is the answer of a good conscience towards God. Since God has claimed us through Baptism and has done all the saving we have a good conscience towards God.

The fact that Baptism is only to be understood in light of the work of Jesus Christ is seen by how Peter goes on to say that all of this is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Baptism we die to sin and self and are resurrected with Christ.

Peter then reminds us that this Christ is not only resurrected but also ascended and ruling. By bringing this forward Peter gives great comfort to Christians that all that comes their way is through the hands of their sovereign King who has delivered them for His glory.
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Sundry unrelated observations on Baptism

In Baptistic thinking faith and the sacraments are not presuppositions but attainments. It is as if man were supposed to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Tree of Knowledge and Ethics, before he can eat of the Tree of Life. Rationalistic and evidential apologetics, encourage men to approach faith by way of reason. Faith is not seen as the foundation of thought, but as an attainment. Naturally, the sacraments are seen the same way: men are to make a decision, and then be admitted to baptism (the Baptist view). The Bible, however, indicates that faith is presuppositional. The child is to be taught to believe from the beginning. It is not his initial decision which evidences his faith, but rather his perseverance to the end. He participates in the sacrament, in both its forms, from the beginning. The sacrament of God’s grace is not something he must attain by making a decision, walking an aisle, memorizing a catechism, or going through a rite of confirmation; but rather the sacrament of eating dinner with Jesus at His House is the presupposition of the child’s growth in grace. The difference between these two approaches, let me say it gently but straightforwardly, goes back to the Garden of Eden itself.

James Jordan

Baptists, and unfortunately the majority of Reformed folks, confuse being with doing. Faith is understood to be an act–trusting or believing for example–rather than the condition from which those actions proceed. Actions reflect a persons nature. Actions don’t cause a person’s nature. A proper understanding of God’s covenant promises requires that one give the judgment of charity to the regenerate condition of covenant children.

Christopher Hitchens is a well known, well publicized and frequently published Christ hater. He has become a bit of a poster child also for Christian yearning that God might send Reformation and awakening to increasing numbers of people in America who, like Hitchens, hate Jesus Christ.

So here is my prayer for Mr. Christopher Hitchens,

God of all mercy and grace open the eyes of Mr. Hitchens to your wrath against him and your intent to crush him, both temporally and eternally, if he does not find refuge in your expressed love of Jesus Christ for sinners such as myself and Mr. Hitchens. In wrath remember mercy, gracious God, and extend to Mr. Hitchens your irresistible grace that he might be a trophy of your ability to take captive even the most hardened against you.

And most Sovereign and Benevolent God we implore thee that you would also send forth the Spirit of Christ to convert many of the Christopher Hitchens in our own lives, that we meet every day, that your name might be honored among the nations.

Yet Holy Father, whatever you might do, in rescuing or damning, we pray that we would bless you that in all your actions you are pursuing the highest and best love — the love for yourself and the intra-trinitarian love of each person of the trinity for the other.

The below prayer is the invocation given by Rev. Paul Jehle at the Glen Beck Rally held last week in Washington DC. I’ve had an opportunity to hear Jehle speak several times in a close setting and I was impressed with the man’s knowledge on our founding era, though his Charismatic – pentecostal lean gave me pause.

This prayer at this event has my Spidey sense tingling overtime and has raised a multitude of questions in my mind about just exactly Dr. Jehle was doing in this prayer.

The prayer can be accessed at,

I have transcribed it word for word from Dr. Jehle’s mouth. I’ll give the prayer first and I’ll offer some analysis and questions.

Lord God, Sovereign Almighty, Ruler of the Nations, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, The Holy One, The Righteous One

You are the King of the Earth

All nations belong to you and you are the one addressed in the first 1606 charter that opened English settlements to these shores. It was you that was addressed, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ should be the central focus of every settlement. It was you our forefathers knelt too erecting a wooden cross on the sandy shores of Virginia. It was you that was addressed in the Mayflower Compact whose first words were, ‘In the name of God, AMEN.’ It was you who the pilgrims knelt too and blessed the God of heaven. It was you that Governor Winthrop wrote, ‘We shall be a city set upon a hill.’ It is you lord gods that brought William Penn and modeled peace with the first peoples. It was you lord gods that brought the black regiment of preachers to all across the continents to preach your words to prepare your people to be able to stand for liberty and it was you who was addressed in the Declaration of Independence as the, ‘Creator,’ — ‘as the Author of all inalienable rights.’ It was you lord gods that was declared as the one who created all equal and it was you lord gods who called us to account when we broke the treaties with the first peoples. You called us to repentance and you O gods called us to repentance when we did not live up to our creed and we did not treat everyone as equal. But Lord we found out that you are a God of forgiveness, you are a God of covenants, you are a God of restoration, you are a God of healing, and you have healed us and you are healing us.

And we come now to the mall in Washington. And we come now to you now in humble repentance for the shedding of innocent bloods. And we come to you in repentance for not modeling marriage among your people. And we come to you once again asking for healing, for restoration, for recovery and for reconciliation and we know you’ll do it because you’re gods and your Son Jesus Christ is the eternal Redeemer, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords and so we honor you for your word declares, ‘you will honor those who honor you.’

We come back to you today and we see you — the restoring gods, the King of Kings. And in Christ’s name and for the advance of your Kingdom, we once again say, ‘May you God bless America.’ May we be one nation under gods.

In Christ’s name — AMEN

1.) I find it hard to believe (though not impossible) that the flip flopping that Jehle has done here between “God,” / “Lord God” and “gods” / “lord gods” is accidental or coincidental. Though I have conceded it is possible that this is accidental, I again say that there is so much flipping back and forth between deities that is not unreasonable for someone to want an explanation. This is especially so since the gathering was an ecumenical gathering.

2.) I can not discern any pattern or reasons for the ongoing switching in Dr. Jehle’s prayer from God to gods. We have the singular God through Winthrop’s desire that Plymouth colony would be a “city set on a hill.” Suddenly with the arrival of William Penn (an anabaptist) we go to lord gods, and we stay with lord gods through the breaking of treaties and the lord gods call to repentance for previous generations not treating everyone equally.

Suddenly though, we revert back to God when it is ascribed to Him that He is a God of forgiveness, covenants, restoration and healing. However, a few sentences later it is gods who are ascribed with the power of healing, recovery, restoration and reconciliation. These (this?) gods apparently have a singular Son named Jesus Christ.

3.) Dr. Jehle finds peroration with an attribution to the “restoring gods” followed by a plea that the singular God would bless America finishing with the desire that we would be “one nation under “gods.”

Look, I understand that the man was praying before 500,000 people. I understand that can make a man nervous, and maybe all the plurals sprinkled throughout this prayer can be attributed to the guy being nervous. Or maybe it can be attributed to something else?

How about this for an explanation beyond being nervous. Given the ecumenical nature of this event (Christian Ministers, Mormon Elders, Jewish Rabbis, Muslim Imams, etc.) it is not beyond belief that some kind of concession was made for the invocation to use language that would satisfy everyone there. Such language, in order to satisfy everyone there would have to be both inclusive (hence the use of “gods) and exclusive (hence the use of “God”). The invocation thus becomes a least common denominator invocation that satisfies all the different religions and offends nobody.

Postscript,

A person called Dr. Jehle’s church and the secretary told him that Dr. Jehle could not hear himself and he was trying to project his voice and the result was that he could not hear himself speak and that led to the added “s’s,” on his words.

Dr. Jehle has not changed his theology. Dr. Jehle’s added “s’s” were accidental.

I.) Of This Salvation — First Note, it is not the personal individual salvation of each individual here that is being spoken of. Rather the salvation that is here spoken of is the unfolding of Redemptive History throughout Scripture. The Salvation that Peter speaks of is an objective reality which takes people up into it.

Try to imagine this salvation like a gathering storm you see from a distance. On the Radio and television you have people who are keeping you informed of the nature of this storm and its intensity. They would be the equivalent of the prophets inquiring and searching carefully and who prophesy of the grace (rain & wind) to come to you. But the storm is objective. It is not merely that is something that is subjective to you — although to be sure when it finally hits it is also something you personally know and experience. It is outside of you and it is coming upon you.

Now in vs. 12 this coming storm … this unfolding of salvation that was so intensely reported upon was for those whom the end of the ages (I Cor. 10:11) has come upon. All the unfolding of Salvation that we find in Redemptive History was an unfolding whose culmination was for those who live in the New Covenant age and who have been embraced by Christ.

What Peter is saying here is somewhat similar to what the writer of Hebrews writes,

39And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.

The culmination of Salvation comes w/ Christ and for those whom will be drawn unto Christ in the new covenant age. Peter says that this Redemptive storm drenches us w/ grace (vs. 10) — God’s favor. We are that era of covenant people who live in the age who can fully know the abundant fulsomeness of God’s grace that is found in the Redemption that is Jesus Christ.

To change metaphors …. in the earlier ages of the covenant they dined on merely the appetizers of salvation but now w/ Christ we in the covenant have had the full feast of Redemption set before us.

II.) The Importance Of Revelation & Inspiration

The intimate relationship between Revelation & Redemption

Peter clearly intimates to us that there is a close relationship between the way God acts (Redemption) and the way God interprets his action (Revelation). God has acted in Redemptive History for His people but we only know the meaning of those redemptive actions through God’s revelation of Holy Scripture. The Salvation (Redemptive) events of History come to us only as reported in Revelation by the inspired Prophets who have inquired and searched carefully.

It is because we believe that Redemption and revelation are inextricably bound and it is because we know that when God spoke in times past and in various ways that speaking was always a Redemptive speaking that as Reformed people we have historically been suspicious of any supposed word from God that comes to us that isn’t intimately related to what we find in Scripture. Scripture is God’s revelation speech to us that speaks of God’s redemption. It is the only place where we can be certain that God speaks an a objective revelatory word that can be trusted in matters of Redemption.

Because this is true God’s Reformed and Reforming people have eschewed notions like the Quakers “inner light,” or the Pentecostal “word from God,” or the anabaptist’s (Zwickau Prophets) extra Scriptural word. We have always been slow to the siren call of dreams and visions. We believe all of this takes away from the prophetic work recorded in Scripture which Peter speaks of here.

III.) This Salvation That Has Come Upon Us Is Christ (vs. 11)

Phrase — “Spirit of Christ”

The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of Christ” twice in the NT. It would seem that the Holy Spirit is designate as the “Spirit of Christ” because He is sent by the Ascended Christ along w/ the Father to apply the Redemption that was won by Christ on the Cross.

Phrase — “He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.”

Note the theme of first Humiliation and then Exaltation.

Note especially that the labors of the Prophets in the earlier covenant ages was to see Christ. As on the Road to Emmaus we learn again here that the Scriptures, before they are about anything, are about Christ and the salvation He brings w/ Him.

25 Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

Little flock, if there is anything I would desire for your future in terms of where you will make church homes I would desire that you find churches that preach the centrality of Christ. If the prophets in the previous covenant age made Christ their business then it certainly is the case that we whom the end of the ages has come upon should be preoccupied with Christ being declared to us in Word & Sacrament.

Note close relationship between OT prophets & NT apostles. (vs. 12)

The same spirit that animated the Prophets animates the Apostles.

Note the close relationship between Word & Spirit

Calvin notes that the main object of Peter’s first epistle,

“is to raise us above the world, in order that we may be prepared and encouraged to sustain the spiritual contests of our warfare. For this end, the knowledge of God’s benefits avails much; for, when their value appears to us, all other things will be deemed worthless, especially when we consider what Christ and his blessings are; for everything w/o him is but dross. For this reason he highly extols the wonderful grace of God in Christ, that is that we may not deem it much to give up the world in order that we may enjoy the invaluable treasure of a future life; and also that we might not be broken down by present troubles, but patiently endure them, being satisfied w/ eternal happiness.”

In summary then Peter’s goal is to remind his readers that what is to be gained by the certain future by the faithful Christian far exceeds the hardships and struggles of the present as well as what might be considered as perceived loss of the present.

Surely, we can understand the necessity to speak words of promise and hope to a people who are suffering for the cause of Christ. Surely, we can understand the temptation that might be present to conclude that the promise of the unseen as held out by Christianity was not worth the perils of the seen as brought by the tormentors of these Christians.

Consequently Peter, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes to these recipients encouraging them to press on doing so by means of the Character of God and the abundance of mercy.

In the midst of their trials, Peter, following his salutation, opens with

I.) A Blessing Of God For His Goodness

By doing so, Peter subtly reminds his readers that this whole life is about God. Yes, trials may be present and hardships may descend upon us but even under these constraints there is a necessity to bless God and to remind ourselves of the objective truths regarding his goodness.

A.) Note the specific God that Peter references is brought to the fore by God’s sui generis (one of a kind) relationship to Jesus Christ

1.) Pursue the idea of the exclusivity of God
God can’t be known apart from a known Christ.
There is no knowing God in his naked majesty apart from Christ

2.) Pursue the idea that God is God to us because of the relationship
that both the Father and the Church has to Jesus Christ

3.) Pursue how Peter references Christ – 1.)Lord 2.) Jesus 3.)Christ

B.) Note The Piling Up Of God’s Blessings Upon God’s People As The Reason Why Peter’s Open’s With a Blessing of God

1.) Abundant Mercy

As I stated at the outset the spotlight is cast upon God here. To a people who are grieved by various trials the Apostle becomes radically God-centered.

He immediately reminds them, in a general way, of God’s abundant mercy and from there Peter will get into specifics as to the character of that abundant mercy. The emphasis here is on the objective truth of God’s goodness. Hardship and persecutions may come but in the midst of those subjective experiences we must remain mindful that God is good to those who trust in him.

It seems what is happening here is that Peter is reminding his readers to view their circumstances through God’s character and not begin reading God’s character through their dire circumstances. Trials may come and go, but God remains always full of abundant mercy (Covenant hesed) towards his people.

The radical God-centeredness of this passage continues as the specifics of God’s abundant mercy are named. Note in all that is to be named here as instantiations of “abundant mercy” the repeated emphasis is on the fact that God has done all the doing for His people.

God has begotten us to a living hope (cmp. John 1:13). We did not beget ourselves to a living hope.

The Father is the one who raised Christ from the dead as the foundation of our living hope. We did not raise Christ from the dead so that we could have a foundation for our eventual living hope.

The Father is the one who has given us an inheritance. We did not give ourselves an inheritance.

The Father is the one who keep us. We do not keep ourselves.

All of these markers that testify of God’s goodness are received by us passively. God is the one who does all the doing. God is the one, through the work of Christ, and by the ministry of the Spirit who both makes us alive and who causes us to contend till the very end.

This is why we say … “To God be the glory.” This is why we dwell so much on the idea of “grace alone.”

It is the greatness of God that is dwelled upon here and so upon which we dwell.

But let us look at each of these blessings a little more carefully.

— Begotten — regeneration

— Living hope — This living hope is characteristic of the one who patiently waits for the salvation God has promised to his people. It is living because it is a sure and real thing. It is hope because it raises our minds beyond our trials to God’s sure and certain promises.

It stands in contrast to the dead hope of the pagans. Whether their hope is Nirvana, or the voluptuaries of Allah’s paradise, or the reincarnation to progress of the Hindu, or the pagan after life of the Jew, or the envisioned utopia of the humanist. All of these are dead hopes. Only the Christian has a living hope.

— This living hope comes through the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

In the middle of this God centered passage that is intended to give encouragement to believers Peter puts the Cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

— Inheritance

Described as — 1.) Incorruptible 2.) Undefiled 3.) Doesn’t fade
4.) Reserved

Application

1.)God is the center of every narrative and the center of that center is that God has done all the doing in Christ to rescue and redeem His people.

2.) A Christian’s plight and sorrows are never so defeating that they lose reason to bless God. Despite the greatest opposition or the greatest hardship the Christian remains the person who blesses God for His goodness to him.

3.) It is this living hope that Peter describes that keeps our dying and resisted efforts alive. We keep on contending for the crown rights of King Jesus because we have this living hope.