Today we are baptizing the Brodrecht children "into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." We will come back next time to Question Four--What is God?--and turn our attention today to the Holy Trinity. It is fitting that we discuss the Trinity in the context of baptism, because seventeen centuries ago, it was baptism that convinced many people to believe in the Trinity.

During the fourth century a pastor named Arius (they called them presbyters back then), began to teach that the Son of God was entirely different in essence from the Father. He claimed that the Son the first of all creatures, though above all creatures. His bishop, Alexander, objected, insisting that the Son was one with the Father. This launched the Arian controversy, the debate that resulted in the production of the Nicene Creed. The church wrestled with the questions, "Who was it who became incarnate?" and "What is the relationship between the Father and the Son?" Arius said that God is so exalted and so transcendent, that it was simply impossible for God to get directly involved with his creatures. So Arius claimed that the Father begot the Son as a lesser being who would do his dirty work for him. The church wrestled with this for sixty years. Most understood from the start that Arius was wrong. But just because you know that one view is wrong, doesn't mean that you've figured out which view is right! They knew that Arius was wrong because their practice of baptism followed Matthew 28:20: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." We are baptized into the ONE name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. If these three names are called one name, then we have to say that these three are one God.

And so our Shorter Catechism follows the whole Christian tradition: 

Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one?

A. There is but one only, the living and true God. 

Q. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead?

A. There are three persons in the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

For the early church the question was more precise: "How is Jesus, the Son, related to God the Father?"

Why is this question so important? Does it really matter whether we can figure out how the Father and the Son are related? The question is not merely an abstract point of doctrine. The question is "who is our savior?" And "how are we saved?" The reason why the early church was convulsed with controversy for sixty years (and indeed, the continuing discussion on the person of Christ lasted for another three hundred years!) was because they understood that what was at stake was nothing less than our salvation.

This is what Matthew reveals in Matthew 3. There are very few things besides the death and resurrection of Christ that are recorded in all four gospels. Only Matthew and Luke speak of his birth. Only John speaks of his eternal dwelling with the Father. And the four recount all sorts of different stories about Jesus. But all four tell of his baptism. The first revelation of the Trinity occurs in baptism. There is a lot going on here. First, we have the image of priestly consecration. John the Baptist, who himself is the son of a priest, is consecrating Jesus for service in a new priesthood. Every priest who entered holy service had to be washed with water, and sprinkled with blood. Jesus baptism in the Jordan is his washing with water, and his death on the cross is his sprinkling with blood (which is why Jesus refers to his death as a baptism (Mark 10:38). 

Second, we have the image of Israel crossing the Jordan River. Joshua 3-4 recounts the crossing of the Jordan when Israel entered the Promised Land. For John to proclaim a baptism of repentance in the Jordan River was to call Israel to repent of their rebellion against God, and to look for the Joshua who would restore the Kingdom of God. And now Jesus (in Hebrew, Joshua) has come. 

But third, we have a more subtle echo of creation itself. Remember from Genesis 1:1-3 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (There you have the Father). "And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (There you have the Spirit). "And God said, 'Let there be light'" (There you have the Word). In John's gospel this is made explicit: "In the beginning was the Word." In Genesis 1-2 God breathes his Spirit into Adam, the Son of God, and places him in a garden full of rivers. In Matthew 3, Jesus is declared by the Father to be the Son of God, and is anointed by the Holy Spirit. These three themes are woven together. The Promised Land was in its own day a symbol of the new creation. And the priesthood of the Old Testament was designed to maintain the holiness of the Land so that it could serve as a symbol of the new creation.

The coming of the New Creation is heralded by the presence of the Triune God. There are at least two things happening in Matthew 3. On the one hand you have something profoundly Jewish. The whole passage reverberates with the language of the coming of Messiah, and the restoration from Exile. The quotation from Isaiah 40:3, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight" is all about return from exile. Jesus is being portrayed as the one who would bring about the Spirit and fire baptism promised by Ezekiel, the one who would bring vindication to Israel, and destruction to their enemies. And the consecration of Jesus as priest, by a divine anointing with the Spirit, demonstrates that this Jesus is the Messiah.

But when you read Matthew 3 in the light of the rest of the New Testament, you realize that something else is happening as well. Indeed, just reading Matthew 28:20--"baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"--suggests that there is more happening at the Jordan River than meets the eye. We are witnessing the first clear revelation of the Trinity. The unity of God was never in doubt. Deuteronomy 6:4 had made it clear that "the Lord our God, the Lord is ONE." No Israelite had any excuse for missing that one. But now God is revealing his threeness. If in Genesis 1-2 we saw the unity of the Triune God in the work of creation, here in Matthew 3, we see the three persons of the Trinity in their personal relations.

You may have wondered at times, how do we express the difference between the persons of the Trinity? Since they are one in essence, one in glory, one in power, how are they different? This is expressed in their personal relations. The Father is not the Son. The Father always relates to the Son as his father. This is revealed in Matthew 3:17 when the voice from heaven declares, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." And while the Son is equal in glory and power with the Father, he is not the Father. In his being, he is equal with the Father, but in his relationship to the Father, he is always Son; and in their work of creation and redemption, he submits to the Father. We see this in the Father's words as well. While "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" is giving honor and glory to the Son, it is the statement of a superior. A son would never say, "This is my beloved Father, with whom I am well pleased" It is not a father's job to please his son--it is a son's job to please his father. And likewise, we see at the Jordan River the personal property of the Holy Spirit, to serve as the bond of love and glory between the Father and the Son. The Spirit of God descends as a dove and came to rest on Jesus. We so often focus on the deity of Christ, that we assume that he didn't need the Holy Spirit. But if the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, and if the Spirit is the bond of love and glory between the Father and the Son, then the Son needs the Spirit. And the Spirit sustains and empowers the Son in his work of redemption.

As a man, Jesus is the Son of God, and as the human Son of God (the second Adam) he needs the power of the Holy Spirit in order to succeed where Adam failed, and to pay the price for Adam's fault. But the only way that the second Adam (the new Israel) can succeed is if the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, becomes a man.

This is Jesus. He came, as John said, to "baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire." In other words, he came to bring salvation to his people, and destruction to their enemies. But in order for him to do this, he himself first had to endure baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And at the Jordan River he was baptized with water and the Spirit, and in his death he was baptized with fire: "I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:49-50). Baptism is an act of judgment. Just think of the baptisms in the Old Testament: The Flood (1 Peter 3) which saved Noah and his family, but destroyed the rest of the world; The Red Sea (1 Cor 10) which saved Moses and Israel, but destroyed the Egyptians. The Spirit and fire baptism that Jesus came to bring is no different. On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit and fire are poured out upon the church, what was the response of the people? "They were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" (Acts 2:37) They understood that if the Spirit and fire had been poured out upon the church, in other words--that salvation had come to the disciples of Jesus--then all that was left for them was destruction. And so Peter replied: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). If you want to participate in the new creation, the restoration of the Kingdom of God, if you want to escape the wrath of God's judgment, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Water baptism does not guarantee that you will go to heaven (don't forget Simon Magus in Acts 8), but it does visibly mark the difference between those who belong to the Kingdom of God, and those who don't. If we take seriously the words of the apostle Peter, then it is also a means that God uses (together with repentance and faith), to bring the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Just as Jesus had to be baptized "to fulfill all righteousness," so also we must be baptized if we wish to partake of him. It is no accident that Jesus received the anointing of the Holy Spirit in his baptism. And it is no accident that Peter says that if we wish to receive the Holy Spirit, then we must be baptized into the name of Jesus Christ.

The United Pentecostals (and others) only baptize in the name of Jesus because of this. They argue that since the apostles only baptized in the name of Jesus, the triune formula of Matthew 28 should be ignored. This means that they reject one part of scripture and obey another. But we, by baptizing in the triune name, obey all of scripture. Because when I baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I am baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ. You see, Gentile proselytes to Judaism were baptized into the name of God. So when we baptize in the Triune name, we baptize in the name of Jesus, because Jesus is the eternal Son of God.

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace