“Salvation belongs to the LORD!” In recent weeks we have looked at the Flood and Israel’s crossing of the Red Sea – both of which are used in the NT as pictures of baptism.
Jonah provides us with another picture of baptism. Jesus says that the “sign of Jonah” would be given to his generation – that the Son of Man would spend three days and three nights in the grave – and that the men of Nineveh would rise up at the judgment and condemn his generation. (Luke 11:29-32)
Jonah passed through the waters of judgment and God saved him, in order that he might proclaim fire from heaven against the Assyrians.
Jesus speaks of his death as a sort of baptism – just one chapter after talking about Jonah: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished.” (Luke 12:49-50)
Jesus came to bring the final judgment upon the earth – but first he had to be baptized in that judgment! The waters of judgment – the fires of God’s wrath – first had to be poured out on Jesus.
This is what baptism is all about! In baptism you hear the thunder of cascading waters. In baptism you pass through the waves and breakers of God’s judgment.
And the only way that you can survive baptism is through the Voice of Jesus!
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