Baptism Scripture List

BAPTISM – CATEGORIZED SCRIPTURE LISTIntroduction

Throughout Church history, but more notably and rancorously within the past several hundred years,debates over Christian baptism – what the rite itself actually signifies and does, by what mode it oughtto be administered, and who may qualify as its proper subjects – have continued without abatement.One notable characteristic of the question, which has doubtless served to keep an easy and obviouslyirrefutable answer out of reach, is that the entire biblical witness to the nature of baptism is notexhausted by the relatively few passages directly addressing, by precept or historical example, theactual administration of the New Covenant sign, but on the contrary, many broad and far-reaching biblical themes and motifs have a necessary and compelling impact on virtually every point of thedebate. We will not understand what is intended by the sign of baptism until we know what it is to be incovenant with God in Christ Jesus; and we will not understand his Covenant until we go back to the beginning of his dealings with his people, and take careful note of how God has inaugurated, clarified,and expanded his covenant, to whom he has always made it firm, how he advanced it to its final state of immutable certainty in the atoning work of Christ, and what that means for us today who are heirs of the Covenants of Promise. Nor will we understand the manifold significance of the rite until we haveadequately accounted for God's saving of Noah and the children of Israel through the waters by whichhe destroyed the world, the washing rituals of the Old Testament priests, and many other such things.But although the question is multi-faceted and complex, and although many well-meaning persons havetherefore failed to take into account certain vital and necessary pieces of information pertinent to thesubject, and have thus become inadvisedly dogmatic in an opinion which cannot adequately account for great and inextricably related truths which are the most ardently and emphatically proclaimedthroughout the scriptures, it is my firm belief that the scriptures alone, when laid out in due order, maycast such a brilliant and inextinguishable light upon the whole topic as to render a few much-debatedconclusions firm beyond cavil. God grant that his holy scriptures may here dispel much fruitless andmisdirected groping after answers through the wrong means and reconcile all true and pious Christian brothers (of whom there are doubtless many on every side of the question) in a singleminded opinion!

The Nature and Progression of God's Covenants with Mankind

1.God's relationship with mankind has always been in covenant

A)Before the Fall, God dealt with Adam on a covenantal basis

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Creation itself is in a covenant relationship with God; so how much more the climacticcreature, for whom the world was made and who rules over it and represents it to God?Jer 33:20-26 "Thus says the LORD: If you can break my covenant with the day and mycovenant with the night, so that day and night will not come at their appointed time, thenalso my covenant with David my servant may be broken, so that he shall not have a son toreign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levitical priests my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiplythe offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me." The wordof the LORD came to Jeremiah: "Have you not observed that these people are saying, 'TheLORD has rejected the two clans that he chose'? Thus they have despised my people so thatthey are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my

covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject theoffspring of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his offspring to ruleover the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and willhave mercy on them."Gen 1:26-28 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And letthem have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over thelivestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." SoGod created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female hecreated them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply andfill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."Psa 8:4-9 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him withglory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have putall things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of theheavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!Psa 115:16 The heavens are the LORD's heavens, but the earth he has given to the childrenof man.Jer 27:5-6 "It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth,with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right tome. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon,my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.

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All of the elements of a biblical covenant are clearly displayed in the original creation of man: first, a preamble emphasizing the greatness of God as seen in his prior works; second, particular stipulations placed upon those with whom God is entering into relationship; third,the negative sanction of death, in the case of disobedience; which gives warrant for understanding, fourth, an implied positive sanction of eternal life for obedience , asrepresented by the “tree of life”.

Preamble

: Gen 1:1-5 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earthwas without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and therewas light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from thedarkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was eveningand there was morning, the first day....Gen 2:5-9 When no bush of the field was yet in theland and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up--for the LORD God had not caused itto rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up fromthe land and was watering the whole face of the ground--then the LORD God formed theman of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, andthere he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made tospring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was inthe midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Stipulations

: Gen 1:28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful andmultiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." ...Gen 2:15-17The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. Andthe LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of thegarden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the daythat you eat of it you shall surely die."

Negative Sanction

: Gen 2:17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shallnot eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."

Implied Positive Sanction

: Gen 3:22-24 Then the LORD God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now,

lest he reach out his hand and takealso of the tree of life and eat, and live forever

--" therefore the LORD God sent him outfrom the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out theman, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword thatturned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

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According to the likeliest interpretation, Adam is explicitly said to have broken covenantwhen he fell.Hos 6:7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

B)After the Fall, God dealt with Adam on a covenantal basis

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God established the first Covenant of Promise immediately after the FallGen 3:15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring andher offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." ...Gen 6:18 But Iwill establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you.

[Here, in the first mention of the covenant in scriptures, God says he “established” (“confirmed”) his covenant with Noah, whichimplies that it existed previously.]

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God gave a new sign: the covering of shameful nakedness with a slain victim, and ongoing blood sacrifice.Gen 3:21 And the LORD God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins andclothed them.Gen 4:3-5 In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of theground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And theLORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.Heb 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, throughwhich he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. Andthrough his faith, though he died, he still speaks.