Ephesians 4:3-6; One baptism, part 3. Conflict of ceremonial washing with the grace of God.

Class Outline:

Thursday May 6, 2021

 

Baptism meaning: immersion, identification, abiding condition, and controlling influence.

 

Last time we looked into the Levitical washings that God prescribed for making the unclean clean. The section in Leviticus 11-15. Lev 1-7 is about the offerings and sacrifices. Lev 8-10 are about the priesthood. Lev 11-15 are about the clean and unclean, and then in Lev 16 we find the celebration of the Day of Atonement by which the sacrifices cleansed Israel.

 

True cleansing would only come to the people through a substitute sacrificed for them, and this of course was fulfilled in the cross of Christ.

 

And God promised Israel that He would cleanse them, and that of the heart within.

 

EZE 36:25-26

“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;”

 

TIT 2:11-14

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

 

This is the New Covenant, the spiritual aspects of which have been given to mankind even though Israel rejected the first presentation of their Messiah.

 

The issue of “purification” was intensely argued in Christ’s day, but only on the shallow ceremonial, traditional level, JOH 3:25.

 

The New Testament brings the Old Testament’s revelation to fruition by making men holy through the blood of Christ. The issue of OT purification, of which the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes would only view ceremonially and by tradition, was debated so prevalently that when they viewed John’s and Jesus’ water baptisms, it led them to discussion.

 

MAT 23:25-26

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”

 

JOH 3:22-25

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and they were coming and were being baptized. 24 For John had not yet been thrown into prison. 25 There arose therefore a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.

 

They wouldn’t understand, but John is going to give them the answer. See if you can see it.

 

JOH 3:26-30

And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have borne witness, behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him." 27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 "You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' 29 "He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. And so this joy of mine has been made full. 30 "He must increase, but I must decrease.

 

“To whom you have borne witness,” means that they understand that John has pointed Jesus out as the Messiah. Jesus’ disciples were baptizing and more were going to Him than to John. John’s crowd decreased and Jesus’ increased. A likely part of the purity debate was if the Messiah’s water baptism was greater than John’s. But John understood what they didn’t. No water anywhere, no matter who used it, was going to purify anyone. “A man can receive nothing, unless it has been given him from heaven.” John received a ministry and he fully carried it out, but he was not the Christ and it was his time to decrease; his ministry ending and Jesus’ starting. No water took away sins, only the Lamb of God could and would take away the sins of the world.

 

So then, all washing or baptism is ceremonial, even Jesus’ water baptism, but there is a reality behind them all which they represent.

 

The Law of Moses provided for ceremonial applications of water for the purposes of purification. The practice applied to human beings as well as to inanimate objects. He who touched the carcass of an unclean animal was unclean until evening as was his clothes. Uncleanliness attached also to a person who touched the dead body of a human, a human bone, or grave, making that person unclean for seven days. On the third and seventh days a clean person sprinkled the unclean person and only then was he cleansed. The one who touched the water of purification was himself unclean until evening and had to wash his clothes (Lev 19).

 

Also a man’s discharge [literally: flow out of his flesh] and a woman’s monthly discharge made them ceremonially unclean for seven days and had to wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water, and then offer a sin offering and a burnt offering. Anyone and anything who touched them was unclean until evening and had to wash his clothes and himself (Lev 15).

 

There is another ceremony for the cleansing of a leper who was cured in Lev 14.

 

Did any of the scholars or leaders in Israel at the time of Christ realize at some level that real cleansing or purification was done by God and not by ritual? Last time we read the homily of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai who had no sound answer for the seeming contradiction that the ashes of a red heifer cleansed a man who touched an unclean carcass.

 

In the gospels, we find the leadership only concerned about ceremonial cleansing, which Jesus openly convicts them of.

 

According to MAR 7:4; LUK 11:38; HEB 9:10 baptizo appears to have been at the time the technical term for these ceremonial washings.

 

This really gets to the heart of the conflict in the world between those who claim purity, forgiveness, holiness, and eternal life by grace as a gift from God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and those who seek to merit God’s attention through work, effort, self-sacrifice, and ritual. A stem of this conflict is the conflict between God’s truth and man’s tradition.

 

Jesus had already violated the Sabbath traditions of the religious leaders and it wasn’t too long before they became openly hostile to the Lord and His ministry and it wasn’t unusual for them to follow Him in the hope of catching Him in something to criticize, and in this case they accused the disciples of failing to practice the Jewish ceremonial washings.

 

Jesus had already made clear in His teaching that holiness was an inward matter and not only an outward act, which act could be performed by the hypocrite. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

 

MAR 7:1-13

And the Pharisees and some of the scribes gathered together around Him when they had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of His disciples were eating their bread with impure hands, that is, unwashed. 3 (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they carefully wash [nipto] their hands, thus observing the traditions of the elders; 4 and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they cleanse [baptizo] themselves; and there are many other things which they have received in order to observe, such as the washing [baptizmos] of cups and pitchers and copper pots.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, "Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?" 6 And He said to them, "Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written [29:13],

 

'This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

7 'But in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.'

 

8 "Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men."  9 He was also saying to them, "You nicely set aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 "For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death';  11 but you say,' If a man says to his father or his mother, anything of mine you might have been helped by is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' 12 you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother;  13 thus invalidating [rendering void or removing force] the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that."

 

Jesus defended His disciples and exposed the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes using Isaiah and Moses. He used things that they claimed to believe. He made plain to them that they were eroding the word of God by adhering to their own traditions. This practice continues in the church.

 

In vs. 7 teaching their precepts as the word of God.

Vs. 8 neglecting the word of God for tradition.

Vs. 9 setting aside God’s word for tradition.

Vs. 13 depriving the word of God of its force.

 

There is a progression beginning with accepting tradition as equal to or greater than the revealed word of God. In some Christian societies, water baptism has been that tradition. In some Christian denominations, they have set many rituals on the level of God’s word. It is revealing that we see the organizations that have the most ritual have the least emphasis on the truth and text of the written word.

 

Rabbi Eleazer said, "He who expounds the Scriptures in opposition to the tradition has no share in the world to come." The Mishna records, "It is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the Rabbis than to contradict Scripture itself"

 

People who revere tradition over God’s word eventually lose the power of His word in their lives, no matter how devout they may appear.

 

MAR 7:14-23

And after He called the multitude to Him again, He began saying to them, "Listen to Me, all of you, and understand: 15 there is nothing outside the man which going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are what defile the man. 16 ["If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."] 17 And when leaving the multitude, He had entered the house, His disciples questioned Him about the parable. 18 And He said to them, "Are you so lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile him; 19 because it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and is eliminated?" (Thus He declared all foods clean.) 20 And He was saying, "That which proceeds out of the man, that is what defiles the man. 21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, 22 deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness. 23 "All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man."

 

The same theme is highlighted again when Jesus is invited to a Pharisee’s Sabbath dinner.

 

LUK 11:37-46

Now when He had spoken, a Pharisee asked Him to have lunch [Greek: dine] with him; and He went in, and reclined at the table. 38 And when the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that He had not first ceremonially washed [baptize] before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean [katharizo - purify] the outside of the cup and of the platter; but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. 40 "You foolish ones, did not He who made the outside make the inside also? 41 "But give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.

 

42 "But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 43 "Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the front seats in the synagogues, and the respectful greetings in the market places. 44 "Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it."

 

45 And one of the lawyers said to Him in reply, "Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too." 46 But He said, "Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.

 

Cleansing (vs. 41) in this case is giving that which is within you as mercy (Greek: eleemonsune - alms or charity as expression of mercy or pity).

 

You would think that they would not invite Jesus to one of these again, but they do except that at the dinner there is a man in need of healing and they were trying to condemn Him for working on the Sabbath by healing.

 

HEB 9:9-10

Accordingly both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, 10 since they relate only to food and drink and various washings (baptismos), regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation.