MORE ABOUT BAPTISM

Nearly everyone came to be baptized by John, even the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were the “good” Jews — the cream of the crop. The Pharisees were the self-appointed and self-righteous judges of Mosaic Law. The Sadducees were as much “royal priests.” Both groups distorted the Law of Moses to comply with their own assessments.

The Pharisees were hypocrites. Before Jesus was about to be baptized by John, they came to ridicule the Baptists and judge John. Later, they would be confronted by God Himself but failed to recognize Him, thinking Him to be Elijah.

Jesus knew what they were up to when he called them out, “O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Mat 3:7). Jesus was not name-calling. He recognized their natures for what they were! He was telling the truth.

Generation is in the Greek, “gennema.” It was something genetic in them! They were offspring of vipers (echidna) — the offspring of offspring of adders to be precise. They were of the cunning one, called the “Serpent.” Like Cain long before, they were of the Wicked One both in genealogy and spirit. It is accurate to say that they were reprobates:

²⁸ God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; ²⁹ being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents; ³¹ without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: ³² Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. (Rom 1:28-32)

Yes, they knew the Law and that they would be judged, but the King of the Jews was about to be washed as if He was about to be in the Presence of God. The thought might have been that the baptized were washing to prepare for a king. They all knew that He was the of the gens of David, and was even called, “son of David.” The bloodline of Jesus was like the man’s who was after God’s own heart (1 Sam 13:14).

David was after, not the actual heart of God, but the nature of the Almighty! He wanted to be like God, and here was a man who would claim that He IS God!

They knew scripture. Here was the generation of David, contrasted with them as the generation of vipers, and they would have recalled the words of David, “… blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:1-2).

Jesus was about to do what David had done after he sinned. They all were! David composed the “sinners prayer” because he was “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). David was a man that wanted to have the Genome of God, but instead, he too was the offspring of the offspring of the Wicked One. It was in the blood of David.

The Sadducees came from Zadok, who was the first High Priest in the reign of Solomon who served in Solomon's Temple. Their gens were of Zadok meaning that they were of the corrupt priesthood for the most part, albeit some were only political figures at that time.

On the other hand, the Pharisees were interpreters of the Law and as the gospels reveal, self-appointed judges who had great authority to accuse, but not mete out justice themselves. They were the political “string-pullers” of the Sadducees and of the chief priests at that time.

Both sects were of the Wicked One although they portrayed themselves as good stewards of the generations of Abraham (Mat 3:9). Jesus could see through them as if they had no flesh. He saw that their genetics were not of Abraham, but the cunning “Serpent” despite how they presented themselves! Yes, Jesus saw their iniquity — their genetic propensity to sin — even through their already ceremonially clean flesh.

Perhaps they had already washed in the zev that day to purify themselves; after all, there were public bathhouses all over Jerusalem in those days to maintain ritual purity. Each time those “snakes” even thought of beautiful women and had nocturnal discharges, they would “baptize” themselves and it had come to the point where ritual purification was self-administered.

Perhaps they thought it awkward that John purified in the Name of the One who would come after him (Mat 3:11). (They were expecting perhaps Elijah or some other prophet.)

There may have been fear in their hearts! Elijah had come before and was expected to come again at the end of time. Perhaps now was the time.

They were not so much worried about the end of days, but that Elijah had come to anoint himself King of Judah as he had done long before when he anointed Jehu as king of Israel. Perhaps they saw John’s baptism as an anointing of Jesus as King of the Jews, knowing very well the genealogy of Jesus as the “son of David” and legitimate heir to the then empty throne of Judea.

Surely, the Pharisees and Sadducees were not there to see ritual washings at all, but to see if Jesus would be anointed King of the ethnarchy — the genetically pure Jews in Judea. They were not there on a divine mission as their titles might imply but for political shenanigans, so commonplace then as now! Perhaps they preferred to see Jesus drown in the moving waters rather than anointed.

Jesus had no sin, but He was baptized anyhow. John said it was for the washing away of sins, they “were baptized of him (John) in Jordan, confessing their sins” (Mat 3:6) to “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Mat 3:30.

It is not obvious, but John was baptizing those who showed their repentance by baptism, preparing the Way of the Lord. They were baptized to prepare for something; what was it? The baptism of Jesus.

Theirs was a baptism of repentance — washing away sins. Jesus was without sin; His baptism was something different. “Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him” (Mat 3:16).

Jesus saw what was happening, and perhaps so did John and the others who confessed their sins with baptism. It may be that the Pharisees and Sadducees did not see it because they had not been baptized for their numerous sins, and certainly had repented of nothing.

Those who had been baptized saw the unseeable; they saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus in “bodily shape” with the motion like that of a dove (Luke 3:22).

Not only them, but artists throughout the ages saw the Holy Spirit of Jesus, not as the body of the Man, but the body of a dove. Perhaps, the Sadducees and Pharisees saw it the same way and failed to see the Holy Ghost of Jesus at all!

Most Christians to this day have been conditioned; they see the dove and ridicule the Holy Ghost.

It is easy to ridicule what you cannot see, and thereafter, those sects thought Jesus was crazy for His claim to be God. It seems that baptism is neither ritual to be done after conversion, nor conversion itself, but to prepare for the Way of the Lord — to see the Spirit of God in Jesus.

The thief on the Cross beside Jesus is said to have repented, but he had not been baptized… or had he? His was a vicarious baptism — one in his mind when he repented. He saw in his mind’s eye (thoughts) the Way of Jesus; that what He was seeing was the Way to Paradise.

What was Dismus, the thief, about to see but only after the Way was prepared for him to see? The last Words of Jesus were, “Father, into thy hands I commend My spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the Ghost” (Luke 23:46).

Dismus saw the Holy Ghost — the Spirit of God — leave Jesus. He saw the Way to salvation, and it was not in the flesh but outside the visual realm. That day, in a few minutes even, Dismus was with Jesus in Paradise because Jesus had said He would be (Luke 23:43). The Holy Ghost that the unrepentant did not see, accompanied Dismus to Paradise right then.

As it turns out, baptism was not the Way to Paradise but was a precursor to the Way. The Way was by the Holy Ghost that was the invisible Substance of the Man, Jesus, that proved that He IS God. (And He still is!).

Many of you saw the baptism of many, and even Jesus, in scripture, but few saw the Way. You were like the Pharisees and Sadducees who saw Abraham as the Way and even the Law and its rituals, but how many saw that the baptism of the Holy Ghost as the Way to salvation and eternal life? Many of you still see only water, like the vipers, but how many saw the Holy Ghost at the baptism?

So, which is the “One Lord, one faith, one baptism?” (Ephes 4:5). Was the baptism of John to prepare for the Way, or was it the Way itself — the baptism of the Holy Ghost?

Dismus may have seen the blood and water flowing from the belly of Jesus. Jesus gave up the Ghost before He died. To ensure that He was dead, Longinus, the centurion, pierced Jesus in the abdomen. Dismus saw the Way — the Holy Ghost — before Jesus gave up the waters from His belly. Was it seeing the water flow that saved Dismus or was it the “Living Water” that Jesus revealed with the exit of the Holy Ghost from within Him, proving that He was God in the flesh and the Way to eternal life and salvation?

Who is LORD? Water or God? Which was baptism? Water or Spirit? Which is faith? Trust in water or in the Holy Spirit of Jesus?

(picture credit; Holy Spirit Blog)