Mark 1:5 says, “And all the country of Judea went out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.” Judea was a region with the holy city, the holy temple, and high culture; hence, it was a region of honor. Nevertheless, verse 5 says that all the country of Judea and all the people of Jerusalem went out to John the Baptist. When they repented through John’s preaching, John immersed them into the death-water to bury them, to terminate them. In this way he prepared them to be raised up by the germinating of the Slave-Savior with the Holy Spirit, through the confession of their sins.
To baptize someone is to immerse him, to bury him in water. Thus, baptism signifies death. John the Baptist baptized the people in order to indicate that the repentant ones were good only for burial. This baptism also signifies the termination of the old person and signifies that a new beginning may be realized in resurrection through Christ as the Life-giver. Hence, following John’s ministry, Christ came. John’s baptism not only terminated those who repented, but also ushered them to Christ for life. Baptism in the Bible implies death and resurrection. To be baptized in water is to be put into death and buried, and to be raised up from the water means to be resurrected from death.
Mark 1:7 says of John the Baptist, “And he preached, saying, One stronger than I comes after me, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.” Although John preached a baptism of repentance, the goal of his ministry was a wonderful Person, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John did not make himself the center of his ministry; he did not try to attract others to himself as a magnet. He realized that he was only a messenger sent by Jehovah of hosts to bring people to His Son Jesus Christ and exalt Him as the goal of his ministry.
John the Baptist preached repentance, and he baptized all those who repented. Through baptism the old life of the repenting ones was terminated. This termination prepared the way and straightened the paths for the Slave-Savior to enter into the repenting people. In his ministry John ushered the people to the Slave-Savior. Therefore, he told them that his ministry was not for himself, but was for another One, a great One, who was coming. John even said that he was not worthy to stoop down and unloose the thong of the sandals of this One.
According to 1:8, John the Baptist said, “I baptized you in water, but He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.” Water signifies death and burial for the termination of the repenting people. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life and resurrection for the germination of the terminated people. The first was a sign of John’s ministry of repentance; the latter, a sign of the Slave-Savior’s ministry of life. John buried the repenting people into the death-water; the Slave-Savior raised them up for their regeneration in the Spirit of His resurrection life. The death-water, pointing to and signifying the all-inclusive death of Christ, into which His believers are baptized (Rom. 6:3), buried not only the baptized people but also their sins, the world, and their past life and history (just as the Red Sea buried Pharaoh and the Egyptian army for the children of Israel—Exo. 14:26-28; 1 Cor. 10:2), and separated them from the God-forsaking world and its corruption (just as the flood separated Noah and his family from the world and its corruption—1 Pet. 3:20-21). The Holy Spirit, into whom the Slave-Savior baptized those who believed in Him, is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God (Rom. 8:9). Hence, to be baptized in the Holy Spirit is to be baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3), into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19), and even into the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13), which is joined to Christ in the one Spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). It is through baptism in such a water and in such a Spirit that the believers in Christ are regenerated into the kingdom of God, into the realm of the divine life and the divine rule (John 3:3, 5), that they may live by the eternal life of God in His eternal kingdom.