It is significant that John the Baptist baptized those who confessed themselves to be sinners. The law says:
"The soul that sinneth,
it shall die."
(Ezek. 18:4).
The New Testament says:
"The wages
of sin is death."
(Romans 6:23).
It appears, then, that John's
ministry of baptism was to plunge confessed sinners beneath the
waters of the Jordan, thereby symbolically putting them to death
for their sins. At the same time, John raised those whom he
baptized from their watery grave.
His baptism thus seemed to prophesy that there was to be provided
a way in which a repentant sinner could die for his sins and yet
live to walk in a newness of life. When Jesus appeared, John
identified him as the one through whom this gracious salvation
was to be manifested. We know that this salvation was effected
by Jesus' taking our place under the judgment of God. But that
is not the whole story. When we believe on him, his death and
sufferings are reckoned to be ours. We are considered to be
legally dead. Baptism since the death of Christ has therefore
been a dramatization of our identification with him in death,
burial and resurrection. (Romans 6:1-11).
John's baptism was performed in the Jordan. The name Jordan
means the descender to judgment, or the one who descended to
judgment. The Jordan is, therefore, rather plainly a type of
Christ as the one who descended to judgment in our place. After
Christ"s descent to judgment had become an historical reality,
there was no reason to confine baptism to the Jordan;
and therefore baptism was performed anywhere sufficient water could
be found.
Water is the appropriate medium for baptism, because it is symbolic
of the Word of God, which demands the sinner's death and
is the means by which the believing sinner is put to death
judicially. When baptism is seen in its proper light, it is
obvious that it can be administered properly only by immersion
and only to one who has the capacity to repent of his sins; and
who has, in fact, done so. Only by plunging a candidate beneath
the baptismal waters can his death, burial and resurrection with
Christ be truly pictured.
John H Mattox