\u00a0by Louis Rushmore<\/p>\n
The late David Lipscomb is attributed with saying, “There is no more propriety in calling baptism the work of the man baptized than there is in calling the burial the work of the person buried.” Stop and think about that analogy for a moment. The dead neither dig the hole in which they are buried nor do they shovel the dirt into the hole upon themselves. Someone else besides the dead is responsible for the activity associated with the burial.<\/p>\n
Yes, Christian baptism resembles a burial, and it imitates the death, burial, resurrection, and walking in newness of life observed in Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection<\/em>” (Romans 6:3-5 NKJV).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Just as in the literal, physical burial of the dead, in Christian baptism, there are also administrators responsible for bringing about the figurative, spiritual burial of souls who die to sinful lives (Romans 6:6-7). The apostle Paul penned that one such superintendent of Christian baptism is the Holy Spirit. “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body<\/em>…” (I Corinthians 12:13).<\/p>\n
A second administrator of Christian baptism is Jesus Christ Himself. Notice John 4:1-2, which reads, “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples)<\/em>” (John 4:1-2). Here, we learn that John the Baptist was the administrator of the baptism prior to the baptism of the Great Commission (Mark 16:16). Jesus Christ also participated in baptizing people-an extension of the baptism attributed to John the Baptist (Acts 19:3) while it was still valid. Yet, our Lord did not personally with His own hands do the actual immersing of persons.<\/p>\n
Now, Jesus Christ is also an administrator of the baptism of the Great Commission, the “one baptism<\/em>” of Ephesians 4:5 that is effective in the present. It is into the name of Jesus Christ one is baptized today (Acts 2:38) or by His authority. Or, it is by the name or the authority of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit a person is baptized in the Christian Age (Matthew 28:18-20). Although our Lord is the administrator of Christian baptism, even while on earth, He used proxies or deputies-human hands-to do the immersing. In our day, human hands do the baptizing, but Jesus remains as co-superintendent with the other members of the Godhead regarding Christian baptism.<\/p>\n
In truth, neither the ones doing the immersing today nor the ones being immersed or baptized are responsible for the efficiency of baptism. Divine Administrators are responsible for Christian baptism. “…Christ, buried with Him in baptism<\/em>” (Colossians 2:11-12) is primarily a divine work and not merely an activity of men, or either the baptizers or the baptized.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0by Louis Rushmore The late David Lipscomb is attributed with saying, “There is no more propriety in calling baptism the work of the man baptized than there is in calling the burial the work of the person buried.” Stop and think about that analogy for a moment. The dead neither dig the hole in which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-94436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-baptism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68549,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-baptism-is-a-burial-shouldnt-everything-be-under-simultaneously\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":0},"title":"Since baptism is a burial, shouldn’t everything be under simultaneously?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Minister, I was recently baptized. The water was not very deep, but the baptizer said it was deep enough. It was deep enough to be immersed in, but still shallow enough to be risky to have part of the body not fully immersed at the same time. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29048,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-spiritual-significance-of-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":1},"title":"The Spiritual Significance of Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Larson via Gospel Power, Vol. 16, No. 6, Feb. 8, 2009. \"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":69774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/dead-and-raised\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":2},"title":"Dead and Raised","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton Paul describes our pre-conversion state as \"dead in trespasses and sin\" (Ephesians 2:1). We walked like others in the world, but we were spiritually dead toward God. But from our dead state, He \"made us alive together with Christ\" (Ephesians 2:5). We were \"raised up together\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2034,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-baptism-make-jesus-sacrifice-insufficient-for-our-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":3},"title":"Does baptism make Jesus’ sacrifice insufficient for our salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Baptism is a representation of us being born into Christ.\u00a0 It is something every Christian should do.\u00a0 It is not something one should do to be saved.\u00a0 Putting baptism as a requirement for salvation makes Jesus\u2019 sacrifice not enough for our salvation and with this, I disagree. Answer: It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":79303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-baptism-a-symbol\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":4},"title":"Is Baptism a Symbol?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Jesus's blood saves us. It has nothing to do with baptism. Water baptism is symbolic of what happens to us when our sins are washed away by His blood.\" Answer: Why do we need a symbol? If the real thing happened, it happened. How does baptism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52697,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-passing-of-billy-graham\/","url_meta":{"origin":94436,"position":5},"title":"The Passing of Billy Graham","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan Gatlin Billy Graham passed away today. Some may not be familiar with what he taught. He said, \"I believe baptism is important, and I have been baptized. But I think we violate the Scriptures when we make baptism the prime requirement for salvation \u2026 Paul's central theme was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}