Theopolis publishes many polemics, especially on the Sacraments. This piece does not necessarily reflect the views of Theopolis, her board, or her editors. -JW
Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days.He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.
This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.For the unclean they shall take some ashes of the burnt sin offering, and fresh water shall be added in a vessel. Then a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on whoever touched the bone, or the slain or the dead or the grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle it on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day. Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean.
If the man who is unclean does not cleanse himself, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly, since he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Because the water for impurity has not been thrown on him, he is unclean.
Death entered the earthly realm when Satan and our first parents sinned. Adam’s sin was federal; Eve’s was not. Thanks be to God, Satan is now chained in hell. However, mankind will continue to suffer the consequences of Adam’s sin until the second coming. Adam’s sin nature is passed to all of his children; that is, every man and woman is a sinner from conception. Therefore, all of mankind is born spiritually dead and unclean and in need of saving grace as manifested in the waters of baptism to properly approach God and be in right standing with Him. To put a fine point on it, infants are born in sin and so born unclean and need to be made clean.
The Old Testament cleanliness laws were to teach man that he was the visible source of death and the spreader of death in this world and that he could only obtain life if he put his trust in God and obeyed Him. The reason someone had to be made clean was so they could be restored to fellowship with God and worship God. An unclean person was not supposed to enter God’s house. An unclean person could not worship God in God’s house.
Jesus came down from heaven to definitely and progressively end the reign of death in this world and by doing so improve man’s relationship with God. After the coming of Jesus Christ, the curse of death was lifted, so that none of the cleansing rituals of the OT are required any longer as they are fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection. However, to roll back the curse and please God, Jesus’ command to be baptized must be followed.
To be delivered from the consequence of our sin nature, which is death, and be made clean, we must be baptized and adopted into God’s family. Adoption occurs at baptism.
Consider that the text above assumes that men and male children to include male infants are in God’s covenant by already having complied with the requirement to be circumcised. The penalty for failing to be circumcised or have one’s male children circumcised was equivalent to failing to properly cleanse oneself of death—both required the death penalty. You could not even enter God’s house unless you had by faith been circumcised. To be cleansed by the ritual described above, an Israelite had to already be in the covenant family of God. You couldn’t be made clean if you had never initially joined the covenant family of God by faith as signified by circumcision. Therefore, failing to be circumcised is a worse sin than failing to follow the cleanliness laws. Failing to be circumcised is the same thing as rejecting God. Today, it is the same thing as not being baptized and attending a worship service and thinking that you are properly worshipping God. No one should expect God to forgive their sins if they will not become a member of God’s family by being baptized. Habitually attending church each Sunday and asking God to forgive your sins is futile, for there is no forgiveness without baptism. The Apostle Peter makes this plain in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” Yes, the thief on the cross is an exception, but are you hanging on a cross beside Jesus and can’t be baptized? Don’t hang your life on an exception to the rule. Yes, God can save any way He wants but He has chosen baptism. What is the point of attending church unbaptized? Jesus said, “if you love me you will keep my commandments.” You can’t expect Jesus to love you if you pick and choose some of the commandments to keep. Jesus has commanded that all men, women and children are to be baptized for the remission of sins.
Allow me to pose a pertinent hypothetical question: Would the death angel have passed over an Israelite house in Egypt that had been properly marked with lamb’s blood on the doorpost if the head of that home had not been circumcised? I think not. The blood mark on doorposts reflected the inward circumcised heart of each Israelite and was a visible expansion of the rite of circumcision. We know based on Joshua 5:5 that every Israelite male had been circumcised before the death angel visited Egypt. While unstated, it seems likely that Moses told the leaders of Israel what had happened to him on his return to Egypt, how God was going to kill his son because his son had not been circumcised. Further, I suggest Moses ordered them to ensure every male was circumcised because the law required it and God was about to visit His people.
To help in our analysis of the above text and determine its applicable relevancy for our day, let us consider a few questions. From God’s word we learn that death spreads death, so the obvious question is what causes death? Sin. Could infants become unclean? Yes. Was it necessary to restore an infant’s cleanliness? Yes. How is the spread of death to be stopped? The spread of death was definitively stopped by the death and resurrection of Jesus and obedience to his command to be baptized. Death itself is being slowly pushed toward hell. Who did the Red Heifer symbolize? Jesus. Why was it necessary to restore someone’s lost cleanliness? So they could go to the Tabernacle or Temple and worship God. God does not allow the purposeful presentation of uncleanness (sin and death) in His presence. Today, how is someone made clean who has never been brought into God’s covenant? To be made clean is to be born again, to be forgiven of your sins and that requires a person to join the family of God by being baptized. Has God lowered His standard of required cleanliness for His children? No, in fact new covenant believers are more responsible for maintaining God’s standard of cleanliness. Does God still require everyone to include infants that enter into His presence to be clean? Yes. How are people made clean today? They are baptized once and this includes babies, as believers’ babies have and will always be required to become members of God’s family. How does a person who sins after being baptized become clean again? Each Sunday (during a worship service), God’s children are made clean again by asking God to forgive them of their sins—and God does.
It is very dangerous for a spiritually dead person (someone outside God’s family) to be in the presence of God during a worship service. In the Old Testament, if a person failed to follow the process to become clean that person was put to death because the house of the Lord had been defiled by death. Again, remember the assumption is this person if male would have been circumcised; the larger assumption is that everyone that went to God’s house was a member of His covenant family.
What is the application for people living today? First, don’t approach God during a worship service unless you are already a member of his covenant family or you are approaching Him because you desire to become a member of His family and be baptized. Moreover, the application of the text to present day demands infant baptism. The only way to be a member of God’s covenant family is through faith expressed in being baptized and that baptism cleanses from the filth of sin and makes one clean.
It is extremely important to understand that people living in the New Covenant era are more responsible for their actions because we have the benefit of the Old and New Testaments, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the works of the Holy Spirit in history.
Infant baptism is an acknowledgement by parents that God has dealt definitively with sin and death and is at present rolling back or removing the consequences of the first Adam’s sin. Infant baptism celebrates the defeat of sin, evil and death in recognizing the saving power of God and His gift of eternal life to the weakest among us. Infant baptism combats death. We are at war with sin, evil, and death, and infant baptism is a critical weapon in our war. God’s go-to weapon are His weakest people, and He particularly enjoys using baptized babies to confound the wicked. Central to our warfare is the death of Christ, whose death is destroying death. Infant baptism is a magnificent display of the saving power of King Jesus over sin and death by resurrecting, delivering, and creating a new son or daughter out of the sinful inheritance of the first Adam.
It is beyond dangerous to habitually bring unbaptized children of covenant homes to a worship service. To do so is to explicitly reject the earthly work of Jesus, specifically his death and resurrection. Jesus came to deliver all of His children, and importantly the weak from the bondage of sin and death. To fail to baptize infants is to believe in the triumph of sin instead of the triumph of Christ. It is a terrible sin. Failure to baptize infants is a failure to recognize King Jesus’ inevitable victory over sin.
God is love and God is life. Wherever God is there is life and love and the life and the love He gives overcomes death and hate. God’s love and life are indomitable because that is who God is. Heaven is full of love and life and King Jesus came to earth to make earth and us like Heaven, full of life and love.
All of mankind needs to undergo a baptism of the water, the new sign which fulfills the ashes of the red heifer before being permitted to join the saints in the full worship of God. Baptism is used by God to resurrect a person from death to life. This is the crux of Paul’s argument in Romans 6:3–9 and Colossians 2:12. That is, in baptism we are united with the death of Jesus Christ and so partake of the resurrection of our Lord. We move from death to life in baptism, just as the Hebrews portrayed the movement from death to life in the baptism of the sprinkled heifer ashes. The red heifer symbolized Jesus. In baptism we are sprinkled with Jesus, the personification of what the red heifer represented. Jesus’ blood as represented by the waters of baptism makes us clean.
Baptism is the normal and ordinary way God saves his people. Purposeful failure to be baptized or baptize infants of covenant families is to reject God’s plan of salvation. God says He is not willing that anyone should perish, so that means His desire is for all of mankind to be baptized, for nations to be baptized, for babies to be baptized, for everything to be made clean.
Tommy F. Thompson is a member and Sunday School teacher at Trinity Reformed Church in Chattanooga, TN. Happily married to Debbie for 45 years, father of seven and grandfather of nine and soon to be ten children. Retired from the Department of Defense and the Air National Guard. Former member, deacon, elder, school board member at Tri-City Covenant Church in NH. Enjoys scrabble, poker and fishing.