The water of baptism is rich in significance. First, this water signifies the Spirit as the realization of the Triune God. In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus charged the disciples to baptize believers into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when we baptize believers, we must baptize them not only into water, but also into the Triune God.
The water of baptism also signifies Christ. Actually, when we baptize people into the Triune God, we baptize them into Christ. Whereas Matthew 28:19 speaks of baptizing believers into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in Acts the believers were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ. The reason for this is that Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. Since water signifies the Triune God, it also signifies Christ.
Furthermore, the water of baptism signifies the death of Christ. Regarding this, Romans 6:3 and 4a say, “Are you ignorant that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into death.” Hence, to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized into His death.
We have seen that the water of baptism signifies the Triune God, Christ, and the death of Christ. The issue of such a baptism is the Body of Christ: “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor. 12:13). The Body is therefore the issue of our being baptized into the Triune God, into Christ, and into Christ’s death.
We need to lay aside the traditional concepts of baptism and come back to the pure word of the Bible to see that this one baptism has the aspects of the Spirit and the water. The Spirit is the reality, and the water is the outward affirmation.
We may use the signing of a contract as an illustration of these two aspects of baptism. A contract may first be made orally. This oral agreement is the reality of the contract. But in order for the contract to be secure, there is the need of outward affirmation in writing. A written, notarized contract is the outward affirmation of the inward reality of the contract. In a similar way, we may regard water baptism as the writing of the contract, and Spirit baptism as the reality of the contract. The signing of a contract is not vain, for it is the affirmation of a real contract. In like manner, water baptism is not a mere ritual, for it is the outward affirmation of the Spirit as the reality of baptism. Water baptism without the Spirit would be empty. But Spirit baptism without water baptism would be lacking the necessary outward affirmation. Therefore, according to God’s New Testament economy, baptism should be inwardly of the Spirit and outwardly of water.
Our practice of baptism should be according to the pure word in the Bible. When we baptize people into the water, this signifies that we are baptizing them into the Triune God, into Christ, and into the death of Christ with the issue that they are baptized into the Body of Christ. This is the unique baptism mentioned in Ephesians 4:5 and also the baptism spoken of in 1 Corinthians 12:13.
In typology, the children of Israel were baptized in the cloud and in the sea. They did not have two baptisms; they had one baptism with two elements—the cloud and the sea. The cloud signifies the Spirit from the heavens, and the sea signifies the water on the earth. This type is a picture of our baptism today. Whenever we baptize believers, we baptize them in water and in the Spirit at the same time. This means that whenever we baptize people in water, we simultaneously baptize them into the Triune God.