Project: Revise and Update John Murray's Christian Baptism for a Contemporary Audience

I've decided to undertake an interesting project.  I'd like your feedback and assistance.  In my journey from a Baptist understanding of baptism to a Reformed, Covenantal Presbyterian understanding of baptism, the book that sealed the change for me was Christian Baptism by John Murray.  However, I hesitate to recommend Murray's book to too many people because John Murray was a brilliant thinker and keen Biblical scholar whose writing is very dense and stuffy for most contemporary people.  John Murray was born in 1898 and educated in Scotland in the early 1900's.  He was brilliant, but Christian Baptism, published in 1980, reads like it was written in the 1920's or 30's.

I do not claim to be a brilliant writer.  However, I love this book so much and so desire to see more people read it and benefit from it that I have decided to attempt a revision and update of the book for a contemporary audience.  As I work on this, I will publish excerpts on this blog and ask for feedback on my draft.  Here's the beginning:

First, John Murray's original -

Chapter 1: The Import of Baptism

The ordinance of baptism with which we are concerned is the ordinance which was instituted by our Lord himself on the eve of his ascension when he gave his disciples the commission, “Go ye therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, 20).  Other baptismal rites had preceded this commission.  There was the baptism of John the Baptist.  But John’s baptism is not to be identified with the ordinance instituted by Christ on the even of his ascension.  The character of John’s baptism was analogous to the character of his ministry.  John prepared the way of the Lord and his ministry was preparatory, transitional, and introductive.  So was his baptism.  We may no more identify the baptism of John with the ordinance instituted by Christ than we may identify the ministry and mission of John with the ministry and mission of Christ.  Hence we cannot derive from the nature of John’s baptism the precise import of the ordinance of Christian baptism.

There was also the baptism that accompanied the ministry of Jesus prior to his death and resurrection (John 3:22, 26; 4:1, 2).  These are the only references to this baptismal rite, which was actually performed not by Jesus himself but by his disciples (John 4:2).  What its significance was it is difficult to say.  We should be justified in inferring that it stood in a closer relationship to the ordinance instituted just before the ascension than did the baptism of John.  It apparently indicated rather markedly the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah and, in that sense, the discipleship of Jesus rather than that of John, a discipleship which John himself recognized as the only proper result of his own ministry and a discipleship urgently enjoined by John when he said, “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled.  He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:29, 30).  Yet we do not have warrant by which to identify this baptism during Jesus’ earthly ministry with the ordinance of Matthew 28:19, 20.  The latter is baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  We have no warrant to suppose that the earlier rite took this form.  It is quite reasonable to believe that there was a close relationship between these two rites both in the mind of Jesus himself and in the recognition of the disciples.  Indeed, so close may have been the relation that baptism in the name of the triune God was the necessary development of the earlier rite.  But we are compelled to recognize the distinctiveness of the rite enunciated and embodied in the great commission.  It is from the terms of this institution and from subsequent references in the New Testament that we are to derive the precise import of this ordinance.

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Now, my revision -  

Chapter 1: The Meaning of Baptism

Before we can explore the meaning of baptism, we must first know which baptism we mean.  Christian baptism, practiced by the church today, was commanded by Christ himself just before his ascension.  He gave his disciples the Great Commission, saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:19-20, ESV).” 

Other baptisms came before the Great Commission.  The most famous of these was the baptism of John the Baptist.  Jesus himself received John’s baptism, but John’s baptism is not the same baptism as the one Jesus commanded in the Great Commission.   John’s baptism was in keeping with his ministry.  John’s ministry was to prepare the way of the Lord.  John was called to prepare for the transition to Jesus, to introduce the ministry of Jesus.  His baptism was like his ministry, a preparation and an introduction.  We cannot identify the baptism of John with the baptism Jesus commanded any more than we could identify the ministry of John with the ministry of Jesus.  So we cannot look to John’s baptism to give us the insight we need into the meaning of Christian baptism. 

Besides the baptism of John the Baptist, the Gospel of John also tells us of a baptism that accompanied the ministry of Jesus.  John’s Gospel alone records this baptism, which was done by Jesus’ disciples and not by Jesus himself (see John 3:22, 26; 4:1-2).  It is hard to say exactly what the meaning of this baptism was.  The Bible doesn’t really tell us.  We could probably guess rightly that this baptism had a meaning that was much closer to the baptism Jesus commanded in the Great Commission.  It must have meant that the person being baptized accepted Jesus as Messiah and was now following him instead of John. 

John recognized that making disciples of Jesus was the proper goal of his ministry.  In fact, John urged people to go from following him to following Christ when he said, “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.'  The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:28-30).”

Yet we cannot fully identify this baptism during the earthly ministry of Jesus with the baptism he gave his disciples in the Great Commission.  In Matthew 28:19, Jesus told the disciples to baptize “in [or “into”] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  We have no evidence that the baptisms in John 3-4 were in the name of the Trinity.  Still, the relationship between these two baptisms must have been quite close, both in the mind of Jesus and in the mind of his disciples.  The relationship may have been so close that baptizing in the triune Name of God would have been the necessary next step in the development of the baptism.  We cannot know for sure. 

The evidence is that the baptism Jesus gave in Matthew 28 was distinct.  This was a new baptism, given to the church just before Jesus left them and returned to heaven.  Our understanding of its meaning must start here with its initial institution.  From that starting point, we can go on to explore the other New Testament passages that refer to Christian baptism as we unpack its meaning.