Audio Download

What is The Purpose for Water Baptism?

Greetings Mike,

Can we say that the baptism of water is the effect the word has in us in renewing our minds to change us into God’s image, while the baptism of fire are the trials we go through because of the word in our hearts which are also working to transform us into God’s image?

Your brother in Christ,

M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

“Can we say that the baptism of water is the effect the word has in us in renewing our minds to change us into God’s image, while the baptism of fire are the trials we go through because of the word in our hearts which are also working to transform us into God’s image?”

No, we cannot say “the baptism of water is the effect the word has in us in renewing our minds to change us into God’s image.” I say that with complete authority because I was personally baptized with water on two occasions, once as a Pentecostal, and again when I joined the World Wide Church of God, and neither even began to “change [me] into God’s image”.

I got wet outwardly twice, and I was not changed in any way inwardly, which is where “the image of God” resides.

We are told that water baptism is for people who are where I was on both the occasions I was water baptized. It is for those who are still producing “works… of wood, hay, and stubble” and as such they cannot withstand the fire.

That is where all who are still clinging to the doctrine of water baptism are. They are yet unable to accept the fire of the holy spirit:

Num 31:23  Every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean: nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation: and all that abideth not the fire ye shall make go through the water.

Both the ‘fire’ and ‘the water of separation’ are defined as the Word of God:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Joh 7:38  He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

It is the word of God that purifies “every man”:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

So all that “abides not the fire” will in time be burned up, and only that which does “abide the fire” will remain and be purified by the fire of the Word of God. “The lake of fire” is composed of those in whose mouths are the fire of God’s Word as it is described in Jeremiah 5:14, Deuteronomy 33:2 and elsewhere.

Isa 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 
Isa 33:15  He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

“Speak[ing] uprightly” is speaking the Word of God in the face of Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, and Pilate.

Joh 19:11  Jesus answered, Thou [Pilate] couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

It was Jesus Himself who told us that “nothing from without” can defile us.

Mar 7:15  There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

Christ made this statement in the context of reproving the Pharisees for thinking that washing the outside would cleanse what was inside. It is right here is this same chapter :

Mar 7:8  For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.

Matthew’s gospel makes the point that outward traditions do nothing to cleanse us inwardly in much more depth:

Mat 23:24  Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
Mat 23:25  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. 
Mat 23:26  Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. 
Mat 23:28  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

Water baptism makes one feel so righteous, when the Truth of the scriptures is that it is nothing more than a part of the law of Moses which “is not for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.”

1Ti 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully;
1Ti 1:9  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1Ti 1:10  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

The “lawful” use of the law is as a “schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.”

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
Gal 3:20  Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
Gal 3:21  Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23  But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
Gal 3:24  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

The law of Moses, with its ritual baptisms, is for those who are still under the law of Moses, meaning they are still in Babylon and doing all the outward rituals of Babylon, going to great lengths to clean the outside of the cup and platter, but inside they are “full of extortions”, demanding tithes, which are also just part of the law of Moses, as they cannot yet abide the fire of the Word of God.

I hope all these verses of scripture have served to demonstrate the truth of our Lord’s words that cleaning the outside does nothing to cleanse the inside, and that cleaning the inside first will take care of the outside automatically.

Your brother in the “inward… Jew”, Christ.

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, [is baptized, is circumcised, is cleansed] which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Not only is he a Jew which is one inwardly, but it is equally true that “He is not a Jew which is one outwardly”, and our circumcision and our baptism are “of the heart…not in the letter” but are also inward and are “in the spirit.”

Mike