Living Water Produces Spiritual Fruit

In the Bible there are several natural symbols for the Holy Spirit (HS).  e.g. dove, oil, fire, wind, cloud, (“living”) water.  Here we’ll focus on the water of the Spirit.  (Symbolism will build as we proceed.)

God wants to fellowship with humanity and His saints through the HS.  And God wants us to deeply desire or “thirst” for His ways and for fellowship in/with His Presence.  Jesus said in Mt.5:6, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied”.

Ge.2:15 at the beginning, God placed the first human Adám in the garden of Eden to cultivate it.  Ge.2:9-10 “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden.”  This river watered the trees of Eden.  Ge.3:8 the Presence of the Lord God was there in the garden with Adam & Eve.

Ge.2:16-17, 3:6 but they sinned, and hid from God!  (see “Tree Symbolism in Scripture”.)  The Lord is holy and wouldn’t fellowship with sin.  Ge.3:24 so God cast mankind out of the garden, away from His Presence.  But He had a plan…humanity wouldn’t forever be separated from God!  Skipping ahead….

800s BC Joel prophesied that God’s Spirit would be poured out, eventually becoming available to all.  Jl.2:28-29 “I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind.”  Again, water is symbolic of the HS.  Also Is.44:2-5 “I will pour out water on him who is thirsty; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring.”

Fulfillment began around 30 AD.  In Jn.16:7, Jesus said it was necessary for Him to depart, so the Helper, the HS, could be sent to His disciples.  Jn.19:34 “One of the soldiers pierced His [Jesus’] side and out came blood and water.”  Symbolic availability of the water of the Spirit.  Reappearing after His crucifixion death, Jesus is with His disciples in Jn.20:22. “He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.”  The disciples inhaled Jesus’ breath into their lungs.  Jesus gave them a pledge or foretaste of the HS, soon to be sent. (cf. Ge.2:7, Job 32:8 the breath of life and human spirit were given.)

We read of the miracle sending approximately 50 days later in Ac.2:4. “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues.”  v.13-18 “But others mocked saying, ‘They’re full of new wine’. Peter declared, ‘These men aren’t drunk; this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel.”  Those newly full of the HS weren’t drunk with wine. (see the topic “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Tongues”.)

Prior to Ac.2, other of Jesus’ encounters prefigured this outpouring of the HS.  In Jn.7, Jesus was at the Jews’ annual Feast of Booths in Jerusalem.  A traditional water-pouring libation ceremony was part of this October festival.  Priests would draw a pitcher of water at the pool of Siloám, then in procession enter the Temple’s south Watergate, and pour the water at the base of the altar.  It reminded them of God’s promise in Jl.2:23. “Rejoice, sons of Zión, He has poured down for you the early [Nov-Dec] and the latter [Apr] rain. The threshing floors will be full of new grain and the vats of new wine.”

Jesus’ Hebrew name is Yeshúa (Strongs h3442 masc), shortened from Yehoshúa (h3091), meaning ‘YHVH saves/is salvation’.  (see “Savior’s Name in Bible Languages”.)  He figuratively linked their water libation to the soon-coming HS.  Jesus said there in Jn.7:37-39, “If any man thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water. This spoke He of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him would receive.”

The scripture to which Jesus/Yeshua referred is Is.55:1. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.”  Also Is.12:2-3 “Behold, God is my salvation [yeshúah h3444 fem]. Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation [yeshuah h3444].”  Is.12:3 was sung annually at the Feast water-pouring ceremony!  Is.25:9 regarding Yeshua/Jesus, “Behold this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation [yeshuah h3444].”  Amen…Jesus/Yeshua is God and Savior!  Believers receive the living water of the HS.

An earlier encounter was Jn.4:5-7. “He came to a city of Samaria called Sychár. Jesus sat by Jacob’s Well.”  A woman of Samaria came to draw water from it.  v.10-15 “Jesus said to her, ‘You would have asked [Me/Jesus], and He would have given you living water. The water that I shall give will become a well of water springing up to eternal life.”  Jesus is the giver of living water, the HS.  The name of that town, Sychar, meant ‘intoxicating drink’!  And when the HS was sent, in Ac.2:13 some wrongly said Jesus’ disciples were full of new wine!  (But the HS is the Spirit of a sound mind, 2Ti.1:7.)

1Co.12:13 the apostle Paul wrote, “We were all made to drink of one Spirit”.  And Ep.5:18 “Don’t get drunk wi th wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.”  The apóthegm ‘Holy Ghost wine’ (Ac.2:4, 13 KJV) is intoxicating drink, but in a spiritual sense only!  Ac.2:15 they weren’t inebriated!  Although Paul advised a little wine therapy for Timothy (1Ti.5:23), drunkenness is sin (Ro.13:13).

Jacob’s Well is thought to be at the site of ancient Shechém, where Jacob lived upon his return from N. Mesopotamia.  ref Ge.33:18-20.  To water their herds, Bible patriarchs’ servants laboriously dug wells, sometimes through limestone.  Ge.26:15-19 Isaac re-dug the wells of his father Abraham.  From this, there’s a lesson in perseverance.  If the flow of the HS has been hindered, we can ‘re-dig the ancient wells’ by worship and prayerfully pressing-in.  I’ve heard the admonition preached, “When you appear before God without worship, you’re like a well without water; you dry up”.

Jesus said living water would flow from believers (Jn.7:38).  Paul calls believers the temple of the HS.  1Co.3:16 “You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  Christians are the temple!

Ezk.47:1-7 was an inspiring allegory of the future ‘temple’ with water increasingly flowing from it.  v.12 “By the river on both sides will grow all kinds of trees. Their leaves won’t wither and their fruit won’t fail. They will bear every month because the water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food and their leaves for healing.”  Trees with fruit and healing leaves on the banks of the “river”.

Je.17:7-8 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by the water. Its leaves will be green, and it won’t cease to yield fruit.”  Also Ps.1:1-3 “Blessed is the man who delights in the law of the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by streams of water which yields its fruit in its season.”  Men symbolically as a tree which bears fruit from the living water of the HS; it won’t wither.  (Interestingly, Mk.8:24 the blind man Jesus healed initially saw men who looked like trees walking.)

Jn.15:16 Jesus said, “You should bear fruit and your fruit should remain”.  Pr.8:19 the HS Wisdom said in 1^st Person, “My fruit is better than gold”.  Wisdom of Sirach 1:14-18 Orthodox Bible (ref KJV 1611 Edition) “The gratification of Wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and she intoxicates them with her fruits; sprouting peace and well-being for healing.”  (It’s not drunkenness.)  And in Ga.5:22 Paul writes of “the fruit of the Spirit”.  The fruit & attributes of the HS (within the saints) are better than gold!

Ezekiel’s river reappears in the final book of the Bible.  Re.22:1-2 “He showed me a river of the water of Life, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. On either side of the river was the Tree of Life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the Tree were for the healing of the nations.”  From the beginning in Genesis, there was also a river and the Tree of Life (Ge.2:9-10).  In Revelation, twelve kinds of fruit are produced from the living water of the Spirit.  (And there’s twelve months in a year.)  Let’s look at the twelve kinds of fruit which heal the nations:

Ga.5:22-23 “The fruit [g2590, Greek] of the Spirit [g4151] is love [g26], joy [g5479], peace [g1515], patience [g3115], kindness [g5544], goodness [g19], faith [g4102], meekness [g4236], self-control [g1466]; against such there is no law.”  This one passage reflects nine kinds of fruit.  There’s more….

Ep.5:9 KJV “The fruit [g2590] of the Spirit [g4151 pneúma] is in all goodness [g19], righteousness [g1343] and truth [g225].”  Barnes Notes “The fruit of the Spirit; that is, since the Holy Spirit through the gospel produces goodness, righteousness, and truth, see that you exhibit these in your lives.”  Gill Exposition Ep.5:9 “Where the Spirit of God, and the work of grace are, there will be more or less an appearance of these fruits.”  Meyer NT Commentary “The fruit of the Spirit is also the fruit of the light.”  So two more here, righteousness and truth, bring to eleven the subtotal of healing kinds of fruit/co-product of the HS.  (Goodness [g19] was counted among the nine in Ga.5:22 previously.)

Ro.6:22 “Having been freed from sin…you have your fruit [g2590 karpós] unto holiness [g38 hagiasmós, sanctification], and the end everlasting life.”  Gill Exposition Ro.6:22 “Holiness is a fruit of freedom from the bondage of sin, begun in regeneration. It is a fruit of the Spirit.”  Holiness has been called the ‘ultimate fruit of the Spirit’.  (Others might say that “love” is.)  This brings the total seen in Paul’s epistles to twelve kinds of fruit, as Re.22:2 also indicates!  Praise the Lord!

For emphasis, here’s two more verses which associate some of the twelve fruit with the HS.  2Th.2:13 “God has from the beginning chosen you for salvation, through sanctification [g38] in the Spirit and faith [g4102] in the truth [g225].”  Ro.14:17 “The Kingdom of God is righteousness [g1343] and peace [g1515] and joy [g5479] in the Holy Spirit.”  Both of those verses reflect three (different) fruit.

Recounting…the twelve fruit/co-product that heal the nations are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, righteousness, truth, holiness (sanctification).  As we bear these positive attitudes/traits which the HS produces in our lives, we and others experience spiritual healing.  And the mustard seed grows (Mt.13:31-32)…and Ezekiel’s symbolic river becomes deeper, and deeper!

The Odes of Solomon, the earliest Christian hymnbook, was probably written in Aramaic Sýriac pre-125 AD.  The following is from Ode 6:7-13 (translated by James H. Charlesworth): “Our spirits praise His Holy Spirit. For there went forth a stream and it became a river great and broad; indeed it carried away everything, and it shattered, and brought it to the temple. And the restraints of men were not able to restrain it. For it spread over the face of all the earth, and filled everything. Then all the thirsty upon the earth drank, and thirst was relieved and quenched; for from the Most High the drink was given. Blessed therefore, are the ministers of that drink, who have been entrusted with His water. Because everyone recognized them as the Lord’s, and lived by the living water of eternity. Hallelujah.”  In this inspiring Ode, we see glimpses of Ezk.47, Jn.4:10-15 and Jn.7:37-38.

Also Re.7:17 “The Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their Shepherd and guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.”  Re.21:6 “And He said to me, ‘It is done. I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”  This Giver is Jesus (Re.22:13, 16).

Conclusion: In Genesis, mankind began in the garden of Eden with a cosmic river and the Tree of Life.  They sinned, and humanity wasn’t allowed access to the Tree of Life.  Millennia later, after Jesus died and rose again, the symbolic Spirit of the water of Life was given in Acts 2.  Our Bible canon ends in the paradise of Re.22 with the river of the HS issuing from the throne (cf. Ezk.47), nourishing trees of life which bear twelve fruit of the Spirit month after month.

Re.22:17 “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’. And let the one who hears say, ‘Come’. And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of Life without cost.”  Come to salvation’s living waters!  It’s a wonderful spiritual future, available for us…in eternal Life!  To God be the glory!

Baptisms and Washings

Many Christians view water baptism as a requirement for all who believe that Jesus died for their sins.  Others don’t.  Some churches consider it a sacrament.

Water baptism is apparent throughout the New Testament (NT).  But when did this practice originate?  Actually, Biblical cleansing and immersion originated before John the Baptizer and NT baptisms.  In He.6:1-2 the writer to the Jewish Christians reminded them of the foundational “instructions about washings” they should have known.  The Greek term here for “washings” is baptismós (Strongs g909).  Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates describes baptismos. “Washings, as constituents of rites of Old Testament law.”  Let’s look at some Old Testament (OT) background for the practice of baptism.

The OT priests of Israel were required to wash (racháts h7364, Hebrew) before serving God.  Le.8:5-6 Moses washed Aaron & his sons for their initial priestly consecration.  Nu.8:5-7 Levite non-priests were also cleansed.  Those acts were a type of baptism.  At God’s ancient tabernacle, a copper/bronze laver was filled with water for washing, and placed near the altar of burnt offering.  Ex.30:17-20 priests must first wash their hands and feet in the copper laver before ministering in the tent (copper kills bacteria).

In the OT, washings and purifications were applied to various unclean conditions (He.9:10), and were for sanitation.  Some examples: Le.14:7-9 the procedure for cleansing the leper.  Le.15:1-7 the man who had an infectious discharge and whoever came into contact with him.  Le.15:16-18 after sexual relations.  Le.15:19-22 after a woman’s monthly menstruation and whoever came into contact with her blood.  (Menstruation is a state of being, not a sin.)  Le.15:25-27 the woman who had an infectious discharge and whoever came into contact with her.  Le.15:31-33 uncleanness could be a dangerous condition!  And it defiled God’s tabernacle.  YHVH didn’t ‘tabernacle’ with those unclean, or in sin!

Also, the person who ate an unslaughtered animal which had died of itself (“strangled”, Ac.15:29) was unclean until his evening shower, so to speak (Le.17:15-16).  Nu.9:10-11 relates to the person who was unclean in the first month of the sacred year due to contact with a corpse, and therefore couldn’t take the Passover then (Nu.19:18-19).  A corpse was the most virulent kind of pollutant.  In Jn.11:55, many were going up to Jerusalem to purify themselves before Passover.  Whitewash was customarily applied to grave stones in the Holy Land so pilgrims going to the feast could easily spot them and avoid contact.  (Jesus alluded to this in Mt.23:27, calling the scribes & Pharisees “whitewashed tombs”.)

There were many washings in OT scripture.  And spiritual realities were portrayed in the OT by outward physical signs & actions.  Also we read in scripture of unclean diet (Le.11, De.14:2-20) and unclean demons (Lk.4:33).  The apostle Paul tied ‘unclean’ symbolism to unbelieving idol-worshipers (2Co.6:14-18), in whom the Holy Spirit (HS) doesn’t reside.

God doesn’t fellowship with sin, and uncleanness can be a type of sin.  Christians desire to stay filled with the HS, but the HS won’t actively dwell with the person who remains in a spiritually unclean state.  Cleansing has a spiritual application in Is.1:16. “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.”  After committing adultery & murder, David pleaded with God in Ps.51:1-23, 7 to cleanse and purify him from his sins.

To be cleansed/healed from leprosy, Elisha instructed the Syrian general Naamán to wash (rachats) seven times in the Jordan River, 2Ki.5:10-14.  Naaman immersed (tabál h2881).  That healing relates to Le.14:6-7, the priest “shall then sprinkle seven times the one who is to be cleansed from leprosy”.

Ezekiel prophesied a purification ceremony of spiritual renewal in Ezk.36:25-27. “Then I [YHVH] will sprinkle clean water on you, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness. I will put My Spirit within you.”  (Water and the HS in the future!)

A complete bath was required to rectify some impurities & uncleanness.  Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogues have a mikváh (Strongs h4724) tank for ritual cleansing, while prayers are spoken for them.  It’s customary in much of today’s world for a person to take a routine evening bath or shower.

With that background, let’s trace the baptismal thread in the NT.  The concept of purification washings wasn’t unfamiliar to those Jews.  The forerunner John the Baptizer’s mission was vital…water baptism for repentance, Mt.3:1, 6, 11!  The Greek term here is baptízo (g907); it occurs 80 times in the NT.  It meant ‘to immerse, submerge’ (Dr. Zodiates).  In a pickle recipe, Greek poet Nicánder (200 BC) said a vegetable should be dipped (bápto g911) in boiling water, then baptized (baptizo) in a vinegar solution.

Mt.3:13-16 John baptized Jesus.  The sinless Jesus had no uncleanness, and no sin to repent of.  He didn’t need purifying.  Jesus’ baptism showed that He was in harmony with John’s teaching & mission, and it symbolized the transfer of priesthood from the OT Levitical order (John) to the order of Melchisedek (Jesus)!  Also Jesus’ baptism is our example.

At His water baptism, the dove/Spirit descended.  John came to water baptize, Jesus to Spirit baptize.  Jesus declared in Jn.3:5, “Unless a person is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”.  Strong words from Jesus…an able-bodied person who willfully refuses water cannot enter His Kingdom!  Vincent Word Studies Jn.3:5 “The water points definitely to the rite of baptism.”  Cambridge Bible Note “The outward sign and inward grace of Christian baptism are here clearly given, and an unbiased mind can scarcely avoid seeing this plain fact.”  ref Ezk.36:25-27 for the water–Spirit association.  They both go together as necessary components…there’s water baptism and HS baptism.

In Mt.16:17-19, Peter was given the keys to the (Kingdom) city.  Peter will keep reappearing as we continue this thread.  Jn.20:21-22 Jesus gave His disciples a pledge or foretaste of their receiving the HS.  Then Jesus told them in Ac.1:5, 8, “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit….you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.”  Their soon-coming HS baptism would saturate and empower them, including Peter (who’d even denied Jesus, Mk.14:66-72)!

As Jesus promised, they were soon baptized in (and filled with) the HS, Ac.2:1-4.  Peter, who was given the keys to the Kingdom, was the one who instructed the hearers at that Pentecost in Ac.2:38. “Repent and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  v.41 that day 3,000 believing Jews were baptized, ‘mikvahed’, perhaps in the 40–50 mikvah pools reportedly located outside the south wall of the Temple mount there in Jerusalem.  Repentance precedes baptism.  A goal of life for baptized believers is to be/remain filled with the HS!  (see the topic “Holy Spirit-Filled”.)

Later in Ac.8:12-17, Samaritans too were baptized in Jesus’ Name.  Peter was there.  Then when Peter and John laid hands on them, they received the HS.

In Ac.8:32-39, Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian Jew/proselyte (a court eunuch) returning from the Temple area.  He was literate, able to read Isaiah.  Upon hearing of Jesus, the eunuch immediately asked to be water baptized.  Philip must have included baptism in his teaching about Jesus to this foreigner.  Philip then baptized him by immersion.  That eunuch’s name won’t be “cut off” (ref Is.56:3-5)!

In Ac.10:1-ff it was Peter to whom the vision of unclean creatures was given.  v.28 “God has shown me that I shouldn’t call any man common or unclean.”  Gentiles aren’t to be considered unclean.  v.44-48 “Surely none can refuse water for these who received the HS.”  Peter ordered that gentiles be water baptized in Jesus’ Name…even after they’d received the HS!  This outward act was necessary!  God may give the HS before or after water baptism.  Peter was there, when the first gentiles were saved.

According to Ac.18:24-28, Apollós knew the OT well and believed Jesus is the Messiah.  But apparently in Ephesus he’d only taught them about John’s baptism of repentance (Mt.3:11), and not about HS baptism.  Consequently, those Ephesians hadn’t received the HS.  Then in Ac.19:1-6, Paul told them more about belief in Jesus, and even re-baptized them…in Jesus’ Name.  Water baptism was that important to Paul!  He then laid hands on them, they received the HS, and the church at Ephesus had its beginning.

In Ac.22:7-8, 16, Saul/Paul recounted how he too was water baptized and had his sins ‘washed away’, calling on the Name of Jesus (Yeshúa, in Aramaic).  Paul’s water baptism happened after the Lord Jesus had identified Himself to him, and after Paul received the HS (Ac.9:16-18).  Paul was still obedient to the rite of water baptism!

Water baptism is done in the Name of Jesus, since Jesus died for us (Ro.5:6-8).  Paul didn’t die for our sins.  (Paul personally baptized only a few in Corinth, so Christians there wouldn’t be tempted to exalt Paul, 1Co.1:12-17.)  Peter preached in Ac.4:10-12, “By the Name of Jesus Christ…there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name by which we must be saved.”  Not Buddha, not Kríshna, not the Talmud, not Mohammed.  Jesus!!

Jn.4:1-2 Jesus had His disciples water baptize even more than John the Baptizer’s did!  Cambridge Bible Note Jn.3:22 “It was a continuation of John’s baptism.”  Benson Commentary “It wasn’t proper to baptize in His [Jesus’] own name.”  (It wasn’t in the name of a denomination, of course.)

The risen Jesus said in Mt.28:19-20, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them….”  Jesus commanded baptism…in water!  Pulpit Commentary Mt.28:19 “They had seen it employed by John the Baptist (Mt.3:6), and had used it themselves (Jn.4:1-2).”  Gill Exposition Mt.28:19 “In water, for with no other baptism could the apostles baptize, not with the Holy Ghost.”  Jesus, not the 12 apostles or other men, baptizes with the HS, Lk.3:16.  As Jesus’ name is invoked at water baptism, one comes up into new life with the triune God.  The NT doesn’t say water baptism is optional for Christians!

There’s more to the significance of baptism.  Ro.6:3 Paul wrote, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death”.  We’re symbolically buried with Jesus.  And death precedes burial.  Paul in Col.2:12-13, “Having been buried with Him in baptism, when you were dead in your trespasses. He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”  Total forgiveness!  The old man/person is dead, and we no longer follow our old sinful ways.  Water baptism is as a glorious funeral service!  Paul didn’t say it’s optional.  Paul even wrote in Ti.3:5, “He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit”.  Water baptism and the HS.

Water baptism is part of the salvation process, as the outward public witness of inner cleansing.  Peter even wrote in 1Pe.3:21, “Baptism now saves you; not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience”.  It’s so much more than a bath to wash off dirt/sweat.  Again, in Jn.3:5 Jesus indicated that being born of water and the Spirit is necessary to inherit the Kingdom of God.

So this sacred ceremony is very significant and commanded by Jesus as an act of obedience (for able-bodied believers)!  Watchman Nee “Baptism is faith in action.”  It is understood that circumstances beyond one’s control: failing health, imprisonment, a “thief on the cross” (Lk.23:42-43) after Jesus rose, e.g….may make one’s water baptism impossible.  (Of course, neither the thief on the cross nor anyone else was water baptized in the name of Jesus before Jesus rose!)  God knows the intents of the hearts.

Baptism symbolizes a state of spiritual cleanliness to God, and our watery grave is a type of Jesus’ burial.  Then we surface to eternal life!  The baptism of the HS is the kernel of resurrection life.  The HS cannot die.  Ro.6:4 “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead…we too might walk in newness of life.”  Real Life!  Regardless of our race, skin color or status, the HS imbues us with eternal Life!

But people whose sins aren’t washed away are still in an unrighteous and unclean state to God.  Paul in 1Co.6:9-11, “Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.”  Praise God!  As Jesus said, Jn.3:5, water & the Spirit are essential to Kingdom entrance.

Now there’s no need to continually perform other OT ritualistic washings based on their typology.  (Yet some washings are still beneficial health practices.)

And we don’t have to ‘feel worthy’ to be baptized!  None of us are worthy, of ourselves!  Ro.5:8 “God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.”  We were all sinners, Ro.3:23.  No need to delay water baptism until we somehow feel more ‘righteous’ or think we’re a ‘better’ person.  Just confess your sins to God and desire to have all your sins forgiven and ‘washed away’, and for Jesus to become Lord of your life!  Then continually try to do as scripture says and as we feel led to do by the HS…and what we think Jesus would do if He were in our shoes today.

What about infant water baptism?  Some churches practice it, but most don’t.  In Lk.18:15-16, Jesus laid His hands on infants saying, “Permit the children to come to Me”.  The (gentile) Philippian jailer in Ac.16:30-33 asked what he must do to be saved.  He believed, and was immediately baptized with all his household.  In a sense, infants could ‘come’ to Jesus by being carried to Him, and the jailer’s household possibly included infants who were baptized.  Yet the churches who don’t perform infant baptism point to other verses to support their position.  Jesus said in Mk.16:16, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved”.  As Ac.16:33, baptism is necessary.  And belief is a prerequisite for baptism .  Ac.2:38 repentance is a prerequisite for baptism.  But an infant doesn’t know to believe or repent.  Neither does an innocent baby have any sins to repent of or be ‘washed away’ via baptism (Ac.22:16).  It appears the weight of scriptural evidence doesn’t support baptizing a person in water until that one is old enough to make the decision to be baptized…a decision of Christian obedience and a public witness.

It’s been said…‘God has no grandchildren’.  Not even pastors’ kids are God’s grandkids.  Although people should pray for each other, no one can represent someone else in the Kingdom of God by proxy.  Everyone must come to know God and have faith first-hand.

Should a person ever be re-baptized?  In Ep.4:5 we read there’s “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”.  In this verse, “one baptism” indicates that a valid baptism can only relate to Jesus the one true Lord (not to some heathen so-called god/lord).  If a person had insufficient understanding of salvation, but yet was water baptized and didn’t receive the HS…then a re-baptism may well be in order.  Or perhaps one was baptized into a denomination…rather than baptized in the Name of Jesus or into the Father, Son and HS.  Re-baptism may be necessary.  I view re-baptism as one’s personal decision…how the individual feels in his/her own heart about the validity of their water baptism.

What about when we sin after being baptized in water and into the HS?  One reason the elderly apostle John (not John the Baptizer) was writing his first epistle was, “That you may not sin” (1Jn.2:1).  Yet we all still have weakness in the flesh.  John went on to write, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin….” (1Jn.5:16).  Yes, Christian brothers/sisters may still commit sin.  How is that remedied?  1Jn.1:7-9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us for our sins.”  As we confess and repent, the life/blood of Jesus continually cleanses us from sins we commit (v.7)…after baptism too!

The Bible never says one doesn’t have to be water baptized.  There’s no scriptural example of a believer refusing water baptism.  (There may be circumstances where a person desires water baptism, yet is unable to be baptized before their physical death.)  Scripture indicates baptism should be performed.  Verses such as Mt.28:19, Jn.3:5 & 4:1-2, Ac.2:38 & 10:47-48, Mk.16:16, Ac.16:30-33, 1Pe.3:21, and the personal examples of Jesus & Paul’s own baptisms make that clear.

The NT is quite clear…under normal circumstances, all Christians are expected to be water baptized!  It’s not just for Jews!  Samaritans too were water baptized (Ac.8:12).  The water baptism of Cornelius’ household (Ac.10:47-48) and the Philippian jailer’s household (Ac.16:33) shows that it’s for gentiles too.  Water baptism is for all believers.

True believers aren’t ashamed of this public declaration in the presence of likeminded witnesses.  It’s been said, ‘Baptism separates the tire kickers from the car buyers’.

The Biblical sequence: Believe and repent…then water baptism followed by HS baptism (or vice versa).

Water baptism in the Name of Jesus is a wonderful and meaningful ceremony for repentant believers.  And having believed, we’re sealed with the HS…given to us as a pledge or guarantee of our eternal inheritance with God, Ep.1:13-14!  (see the topic “Saved, Sealed, Preserved”.)  Thank You, Lord!!