“Baptism now saves you”
Traditional interpretations of Genesis 1 connect the waters of the Deep to Primordial Chaos. They are untamed until the Spirit of God speaks. He hovers over this watery chasm – denoting that God has power over, and authority to bring into subjection, all that lies beneath.
Baptism is a reminder of how God subdued Chaos in the formation of the world. The opening chapter of the Bible connects the voice of God to the entrance of order into creation. As light shines, He reveals Himself, causing His plan to unfold. The earth is pulled up from the chasm known as the Deep, and God gets to work, fashioning it according to His desires.
In the promise of New Creation, we have this same guarantee – that God will once again, and for all, subdue Chaos. Over the course of history, God gives His people the assurance of this through various signs. One of these is found in Genesis 6, where God instructs a man named Noah to build a vessel.
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark – you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
Noah must of necessity pass through the waters, as the fountains of the Deep are opened up once again. This is an allusion to our salvation at the hands of God, whose work in Christ allows us to traverse worlds; from death to life.
Years later, the descendants of Abraham are taken out of the chaos of Egypt. As with Noah, they are made to pass through waters. Again, God is at the centre of affairs. The Israelites are baptised “into Moses,” as a prefigurement of our baptism into Christ. Those that partook of this journey are reminded through the imagery of the sea, of God’s mighty hand. Their deliverance from Egypt marks an entry into new life.
They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Later developments in Israel’s theology would see a new conception of the Deep. A figure known as Leviathan is introduced, a twin symbol of Chaos. This creature, which takes the form of a watery serpent or dragon, resides in the Deep! It is constantly stirring trouble in Creation.
In Isaiah 27, we are told that God intends to deal a decisive blow to this terrible monster.
On that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
with His fierce and great and mighty sword,
even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.“
This is a great feat, which the Lord accomplishes on the cross. By the death and resurrection of Jesus, a fatal blow is struck to the head of the dragon, rendering the forces of Chaos inoperative! In His Second Coming, Christ will put an end, once and for all, to every form of entropy in the world, and in our lives. However, in the meantime, He has left us with a sign: baptism.
Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you – not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
When we are born again, God accomplishes a new act of creation in us. Baptism symbolises this great work of salvation. By God’s hand, we are pulled out of all forms of confusion around us. As we rise from the waters, we leave behind all that has held us under. Chaos is beneath us, as the waters are beneath the earth.
