MOLD ME, FILL ME, AND MAKE ME IN YOUR IMAGE

  There is great contention regarding the soterial of water baptism. In other words, does salvation flow from water? Examine the baptism of Jesus. He was baptized in the River of God, but what was said about the water? John remarked, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance. but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Mat 3:11).

  Water baptism, called the “Baptism of John” was minimized by John as not soterial. It was not unto salvation, but unto repentance. As such, the Baptism of John should precede the baptism of the Holy Ghost, but not necessarily in that repentance comes anytime. Jesus had nothing to repent of, so He immediately received the Holy Ghost, that no others received with the baptism of John (John 1:33).

  What happened with Jesus? No thing happened from the water, but from the heavens, to wit: The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). The Holy Ghost came from heaven with shape, not from the water that is fluid. God had again separated the waters from the waters just as the generation (Gen 1:6). From the Hebrew “waters” is literally “semen” or the “Seed of God. One “Seed” is from the waters below (for Adam’s flesh) and the other “Seed” from the heavens above for Adam’s Soul. The same goes for regeneration.

  Jesus did say something about water to the woman at the well. He dismissed the water from the ground as not soterial when He told the woman: “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give me to drink;’ thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water” (John 4:10). Just what is “Living Water?” Well, Jesus explained that too!

³⁷ If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. ³⁸ He that believeth on me, as the scripture h  th said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. ³⁹ (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)  (John 7:37-39)

“Living water,” at the time Jesus spoke, was the Holy Spirit. After His death, because of experience, the Holy Ghost that was in bodily form for Him, had the bodily form of Jesus, and thus the Holy Ghost of Jesus. Living Water flowing as a dove is the baptism of Jesus, or as it is called, “the baptism of the Holy Ghost.” Jesus baptized nobody with water but with Spirit, but all those who were persuaded that Jesus is Lord, He baptized with the Holy Ghost. There are not three baptisms. There are only two, to wit:

¹ And the apostles and brethren that were in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God…  ¹⁴ Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. ¹⁵ And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. ¹⁶ Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. ¹⁷ Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God? ¹⁸ When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. (Acts 11:1,14-18)… I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. (Mark 1:8) 

  Baptism with water is for repentance. Baptism with Living Water is the “Baptism of the Holy Ghost” and is soterial. Luke, called it “sozo” which can be translated either as “safe” or “saved” just as soteria can be translated as “safety” or “salvation” (Strong’s Dictionary). However, this commentary is not about the doctrine of soteria but the means of sozo.

  John’s baptism was minimized by John when He referred to Jesus: As, “mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.” It is the baptism of the Ghost of Jesus that is mighty for salvation, not John’s. He was not worthy to provide grace but only water for repentance.

  Neither is baptism “regeneration.” To understand regeneration, it is necessary to understand generation. Generation can be found, where else? In the Book of Genesis!

⁶ But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. ⁷ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. ⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (Gen 1:6-8)

  I gather that you have never been taught “regeneration” before in this manner! I would bet that you were taught that it is “born again” (John 3:7) or that you must be saved (from nowhere)! The second birth (born again) is not as you were naturally born from the womb but born of the “water and the blood” (1 John 5:6).

  Let us examine the original water birth first at the generation: From Gen 1:6, God provided the water, not from the “water” from heaven, but the water from the ground. God made Adam’s (man’s) flesh from molded dust from the ground (Gen 1:7). The water was to mold Adam into bodily form. Adam was shapen in righteousness, but due to sin, all mankind were “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). Mankind was made in the flesh by God but sinful flesh by Satan whose DNA (seed) was inherited through Adam.

  The process of generation was twofold: (1) Adam’s body was formed with flesh. It was originally formed with glorious flesh (entirely good; Gen 1:31) in the image of God (Jesus by Name). “Regeneration” is made in the image of Jesus, and those reborn become a picture of Him (Heb 6:40; photizo); not as Him (God)! (Gen 3:5).

  Thus, the water at generation was for the flesh, and not for the spirit of Adam. God “breathed unto him the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Out of God’s belly flowed Living Waters. Adam became a living soul; a “cup” in bodily form that would hold the Living Waters of God. After Adam was created, Eve was created, not from Adam’s rib, but from his belly. Out of Adam’s belly flowed Living Waters to provide Eve’s flesh in bodily form with Living Waters. Therefore, the second phase of generation was providing Living Waters from Heaven to generate the new creatures with the souls that provided life via the Holy Spirit of God.

  Now the reader should better understand “generation.” Now apply that to “regeneration:” Since all have sinned, then everyone is born with corrupted flesh. However, rather than God taking perfect flesh and reviving it, He takes imperfect flesh and imbues it with His Spirit. The Spirit of God has experienced death on the Cross in the Flesh of God. Hence, thereafter, the Spirit of God is the Holy Ghost of Jesus because Jesus was glorified (John 7:39). 

  Hence, the Spirit of God that breathed life into Adam is the same Spirit that is the Holy Ghost of whom Jesus said, “Out of His belly shall flow Living Waters” — Waters in the bodily form of Jesus to replace the body shapen in iniquity by the Devil; hence the new creature from the old, to wit: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor 5:17). “In Christ” is the photizo of Christ, a negative image exposed to the Light of God, or” enlightenment” (photizo).

  Adam did not become even “As God” (Gen 3:6) but was covered with the flesh of a lamb (Gen 3:21). [1] Adam and Eve, once covered by the blood of the lamb, were safe until the day they are raised from the dust and become regenerated wherein living souls reunite with new flesh At the Rapture). Thus, regeneration, just as generation, is a process, not an emotional one-time event, and it takes time now for God to remold and make the new creatures. Glorification is synonymous, not with rebirth, but the resurrection.

  Even the glorification of Jesus was time dependent. It commenced with the Baptism of John where the Spirit of God came down on Him, continued with His transfiguration where on the mountain, Jesus had the Breath of God breathed unto His New Flesh, and was finished at His death on the Cross. What was finished? The death of Satan on a tree nearby and the assumption of New Flesh that would overcome death!

  Now back to “the water and the blood” for the soterial: Adam’s flesh was from the water but after he sinned, his soul was safe because of the blood of the lamb that God killed. On the Cross, as Jesus was pierced, out came both water and blood (John 19:34). The blood was to save the souls of Adamkind, and the water to save their bodily form — their image of God, remembering that God used water to mold Adam’s body in the beginning. “Water,” therein, does not mean water baptism, but the resurrection of the body when regeneration is complete!

  Hopefully, you will consider this. There were two main points: (1) That water is not saving, and (2) that regeneration is time dependent; it is a remolding by God, and that takes time. The soul is saved at death, and that is the “gain” of which Paul wrote. The flesh is saved when the dust is raptured (snatched up) and remolded into glorious flesh that is incorruptible and shall never perish!

  (I want to note that we have been taught that the Holy Spirit was in the form of  a dove. That is not true. It was it the bodily shape of Jesus whose motion was as a  dove. Hahlbohm's rendering below is one of the few accurate concepts.)

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[1] Skin of a lamb comes from sacred literature, and although not canon, makes sense for continuity.

(picture credit: "Holy Spirit - Print" by Danny Hahlbohm)