Chapter 8: What Baptism Meant to the Early Christians. I still remember the first time I read Jesus' words to Nicodemus: "Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." That's John 3:5. I was a young boy at the time, and I was reading that verse in a small Bible study group. The teacher asked the question, "Now, what does it mean to be born of water?" Well, I thought for a moment, and I quickly raised my hand.
"Jesus must have been referring to water baptism," I blurted out, feeling proud of myself for having figured this out. However, to my chagrin, the teacher explained that this was a common misconception and that being born of water was not water baptism. Well, through the years, I was able to correct others who mistakenly thought that this passage refers to water baptism.
I felt very knowledgeable to be able to explain the "correct view." So it really took the wind out of my sails when I discovered that the early Christians universally understood Jesus' words to refer to water baptism. And once again, it was the Gnostics who taught differently than the church, saying that humans can't be reborn or regenerated through water baptism. Irenaeus wrote about these Gnostics.
He said, "This class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial of that baptism, which is regeneration to God." In today's evangelical church, water baptism is often regarded as a rather insignificant matter, at least in the process of salvation. However, baptism carried the utmost significance to the early Christians. They associated three very important matters with water baptism. Number one, remission of sins. They believed that water baptism canceled all past sins.
For example, Justin Martyr wrote, "There is no other way to obtain God's promises than this: to become acquainted with Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken of by Isaiah for the remission of sins, and for the remainder to live sinless lives." Now, the early Christians based their views on baptism and remission of sin on the following Bible passages, among others: Acts 22:16, "And now, why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Titus 3:5, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." 1 Peter 3:21, "There is also an antitype which now saves us, namely baptism, not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God." And finally, Acts 2:38, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Since this washing was completely independent of any merit on the baptized person's part, baptism was frequently referred to as grace.
Now, I was surprised to find that the early Christians used the term grace to refer to a specific act such as baptism. Because several years before I wrote the book, will the real heretics please stand up? Our adult Sunday school class at church was studying the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church, and we discussed their use of the word grace to refer to sacraments administered by the priest. I remember thinking to myself, Catholics can sure get things fouled up.
Well, I realize now that the Catholic use of the term actually may be more akin to the way the New Testament Christians understood the word. Okay, so the first thing they associated with baptism was remission of sins. Number two, the new birth. Based on Jesus' words to Nicodemus, the early Christians also believed that water baptism was the channel through which a person was born again. Irenaeus mentioned this in a discussion about baptism.
"As we are lepers in sin, we are made clean from our old transgressions by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord. We are thus spiritually regenerated as newborn infants, even as the Lord has declared, except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Finally, number three, the third thing they associated with baptism was spiritual illumination.
The early Christians believed that the newly baptized person, after receiving the Holy Spirit, had a clearer vision of spiritual matters, receiving illumination as a child of God and as a citizen of his kingdom. Clement of Alexandria discussed all three of these spiritual events associated with baptism, saying, "This work is variously called grace and illumination and perfection and washing.
Washing by which we cleanse away our sins, grace by which the penalties of our sins are canceled, and illumination by which that holy light of salvation is beheld, that is, by which we see God clearly." In a letter to a young Christian friend, Cyprian explained his own baptism in a similar fashion, saying, "Considering my character at the time, I used to regard it as a difficult matter that a man should be able to be born again, or that a man who had been revived to a new life in the bath of saving water could be
able to put off what he had formerly been, that he could be changed in heart and soul while retaining his physical body.
I used to indulge my sins as if they were actually a part of me, inherent in me. But later, by the help of the water of new birth, the stain of former years was washed away, and a light from above, serene and pure, was infused into my reconciled heart. Then, through the Spirit breathed from heaven, a second birth restored me to a new man." Our next subheading is Baptism Was Not an Empty Ritual.
In short, baptism in early Christianity was the supernatural rite of initiation by which a new believer passed from being the old man of the flesh to being a newly reborn man of the Spirit. However, please don't think their practice was some empty ritual. The early Christians didn't separate baptism from faith and repentance. Baptism wasn't some magical rite that could regenerate a person if it wasn't accompanied by faith and repentance.
They specifically taught that God was under no necessity to grant forgiveness of sins simply because a person went through the motions of baptism. A faithless person was not reborn through water baptism. In his first apology, Justin Martyr explained to the pagans how faith, repentance, and baptism were inseparably intertwined, saying this, "Those who are convinced that what we teach is true and who desire to live accordingly are instructed to fast and to pray to God for the remission of all their past sins.
We also pray and fast with them. Then we bring them to a place where there is water, and they are regenerated in the same manner in which we ourselves were regenerated. They then receive the washing with water in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Savior Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit. For Christ said, 'Unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.'" Our next subheading, Were Unbaptized Persons Automatically Damned?
One thing that particularly impresses me about the early Christians is that they never put God in a box. For example, they always believed that God would do what was loving and just toward pagans who had never had the opportunity to hear about Christ. Likewise, they believed that although baptism was the normal channel of grace and the means of rebirth, God was not necessarily bound by it. For instance, they believed that unbaptized babies who died in infancy could still be saved.
It was Augustine, writing centuries later, who taught that all unbaptized infants are damned. Another example was that of martyrs. Many new believers were martyred before they ever had a chance to be baptized. The early church knew that the God of love wouldn't abandon such persons. The church said that in a sense they had been baptized in a baptism of blood because Jesus used that same expression in Mark 10:38 and 39.
So although early Christians stressed the significance of baptism and its role in the new birth, they didn't portray God as a cold, inflexible being who could work no other way. Our last subheading, The Evangelical Rite of Passage. Interestingly, we evangelicals seem to recognize the need for some type of initiation ceremony or rite of passage to mark the Christian rebirth.
But strangely enough, we have generally rejected the historical ceremony of the baptismal rebirth and have developed our own special ceremony, the altar call. But now, when Peter preached to the Jews on the day of Pentecost, his hearers asked him, "What shall we do?" Now, did Peter tell them to walk up to the front of the crowd and invite Jesus to come into their hearts? No.
He told them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." After Philip explained the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch, what did he do? Well, he immediately baptized him. Likewise, when God demonstrated to Peter that Christianity was open to Gentiles by the outpouring of the Spirit on Cornelius, the first thing that Peter did was to baptize Cornelius and his family.
When Paul preached in the middle of the night to the Philippian jailer and his household, did Paul then hold an altar call? No. The scriptures say, "Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and immediately he and all his family were baptized." So since we feel the inherent need to associate our spiritual rebirth with a fixed day and hour, why don't we tie it to baptism rather than to the altar call?
Yeah, actually, the altar call and associated prayers are a product of the revival movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, and they were virtually unknown to any Christians before that time.