Baptism: Where Our Hope Begins (Part 7)
Posted on October 1, 2024 by Patrick Shabi with an estimated reading time of 10 minutes
Last updated on October 1, 2024
The Conclusion – The Hope we have in what was promised to us
What began from the simple question and observation of why the term baptism isn’t defined at the beginning of the Gospels led us to the significance of the word mikveh. Through this word, we have seen how mikveh, and ultimately baptism, was actually a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, revealing the hope we have in Him and the hope He freely offered to others during His ministry. As we continue to discover new things through archaeology, our understanding of the Bible and the time it was written continues to expand. However, it’s important to remember that although God inspired the New Testament for us to learn from and apply to our lives today, the authors of the New Testament wrote directly to the people and culture of their time. The things we are now discovering that may have been “lost” to us previously were not to the people of the time of the New Testament. These people were familiar with all of the aspects of hope and mikveh that we are only beginning to uncover today.
We can see all these aspects of mikveh and how they relate to Jesus Christ throughout the New Testament. Paul, when writing to the early church in Rome, says such in Romans 15:13,
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing...” In this verse, Paul refers back to Jeremiah 14:8, which declares the hope and mikveh that is Jesus Christ. Later in Romans, Paul also writes,
“…and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.” (Romans 5:5)
Paul tells us in the preceding verses that character actually produces hope, and it’s this hope that we should have no shame in.
Why should we have no shame in this hope? Because it’s Jesus Christ.
“For the Scripture says [referring to Isaiah 28:16], ‘Everyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame.’ (Romans 10:11)
New Testament authors understood not only how Jesus Christ was our hope (or Mikveh) but, more importantly, what that hope “foreordained before the foundation of the world” truly meant for them and, thus, humanity. As mentioned earlier, Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine showed the whole purpose and plan of God. There is one other detail in this account that wasn’t elaborated on but is an important note for this point. John 2:6 records that “six waterpots of stone” were present at that wedding, representing the ritual purification required by the Old Testament. The number six is prominent throughout the Bible. According to online sources including Steppes of Faith, the number six is used primarily to describe imperfection or incompleteness. When addressing the multitudes that came to see Him, Jesus Christ says about the law,
“Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17)
Those six waterpots representing the purification of the Old Testament were incomplete and imperfect because they were missing something essential.
What was needed for these waterpots to be filled up? Paul tells us in 2 Timothy,
“…Who [speaking of Jesus Christ] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel…” (2 Timothy 1:9-10)
Jesus Christ’s manifestation and sacrifice filled up and gave the true meaning of the law, making those waterpots containing only water complete. Only because of Jesus Christ were the things foreshadowing Him from the Old Testament completed and made perfect, finally bringing forth the hope of healing that God promised us from the beginning.
When looking at the life of Jesus Christ and the example that He set for us, there is one last aspect of hope that is revealed to us, and perhaps the most important. Paul first alludes to this aspect of hope in his epistle to Titus:
… in the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in His word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior…” (Titus 1:2)
From the very beginning in the Garden of Eden, God had a purpose and promise for humanity, which was the promise of eternal life if we follow His way. The promise of eternal life is a prominent theme in the New Testament, as it is referred to 41 times by name. Peter recognizes the importance of eternal life and how Jesus Christ played a crucial role in this fundamental promise from God to humanity. Notice what Peter says in 1 Peter:
“Blessed be the God and Father of Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading…” (1 Peter 1:3-6)
Peter sees Jesus Christ as not only the hope or mikveh from the Old Testament but now in a new light as our living hope. We are not only saved by Jesus Christ’s willful laying down of His life for us, but we are also assured of God’s promise that He will do the same for us through the example we see through Jesus as our living hope. Later in the same chapter, Peter talks about this new hope that we see through Jesus Christ when he says,
“He [Jesus Christ] indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.”
(1 Peter 1:20-21)
From the very beginning, it was God’s plan for Jesus Christ to come and die for our sins, allowing humanity a pathway to eternal life. Likewise, from the beginning, it was planned that Jesus Christ would have to be raised from the dead, so our faith would become a living hope from the example we see of Jesus Christ. Peter and other New Testament authors understood and showed us they saw all these aspects of Jesus Christ and how He was truly our hope in everything throughout their writing. Only through the hope of Jesus Christ coming and dying for our sins can we have the hope of eternal life that was promised to us. Baptism, and all it represents through Jesus Christ, is the only means of gaining that promise, entering the Kingdom of God, and hearing the words from Jesus on that day, as he says in Matthew 25:34,
“Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world…”