In order to fully understand what baptism is to Peter we need to go back to what Baptism meant to the Jews of his time. The Jewish term for baptism is “Tevilah”. Tivilah is a ritual bathing (totally immersion) within living water such as a stream or using a mikvah (a specially constructed ritual bath which required to hold at least 120 gallons of water and came from a natural source such as rain. The water for a mikvah could not come from a well or cistern.
Tevilah is required when someone converts to Judaism. When the person was baptized he would walk down into the water and crouch down under it so that he was totally covered. That way no contact with the person overseeing the baptism prevented the water from reaching their whole body.
John the Baptist (Yochanan ha Matbil) would preach to the crowds for repentance of their sins. People were convicted and came down to express their change of heart by baptism. To show that they were converted to a new way of life they would immerse themselves under the water. John would not do the actual immersion himself, but oversaw their Baptism. John would make sure that the ritual was done properly and that the person completely immersed himself under the water.
Baptism was the outward action of the person to show, in a spiritual ritual, what had occurred within their heart. A person who converted to Judaism believed that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was the one true God and the old testament was God’s word. They gave themselves to God so that they might worship, serve and know Him. The Tevilah was simply the ritual to show that he was now dead to serving his previous gods and was now alive to serve the one true God.
The word we translate as Baptism literally means “ total immersion”. It refers to something being immersed into another substance so that it might take on the attributes of that substance. It is like immersing a cloth into a dye so that the cloth can take up the color of the dye.
When Tevilah takes place it is done in living water (moving water). Jesus uses the term living water when he speaks in John 7: 37-38 “On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him. But the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet entered into his glory.)”
When we are baptized we are performing a ritual to express what has happened with us in the spiritual realm. We are buried in Christ. We are no longer living as our old sinful self but our sins are removed from us by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are immersed in living water (the Holy Spirit) who permeates our being and now lives within us. We are raised alive in a new birth with God indwelling inside us.
Now that I have spoken on what Baptism is I will say more on its relation to Salvation in my next post.
Photo Credit: River baptism in New Bern by Jaaziel
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