Water plays with our emotions. The garden hose brings relief after we've been laboring outside on a sizzling hot summer day. The shower rejuvenates us when we're feeling lazy and lethargic. Nothing excites the surfer more than formidable ocean waves. The suburban family paddling its way down a still river in the middle of nowhere is possessed by a sense of tranquillity.

Water puts smiles on faces every day around the world. And yet, this very same ele­ment, one of the world's four most basic, also kills. Water has claimed the lives of little children who were innocently playing in shallow rivers with strong undercurrents. Violent tidal waves have ripped apart entire coastline communities. Floods have swept over cities and villages, sparing nothing and no one. Even the seem­ingly invincible Titanic was no match for its power.

God knows that. He under­stands how water both titil­lates and terrifies us. And He has ordained this element for the administration of baptism precisely because of its two­fold nature. Water, to human­ity, is both friend and foe. Consequently, we can speak about the waters of baptism in pleasant terms, as the Heidelberg Catechism does (Lord's Days 26 and 27), in terms of purification and the washing away of sins. That's undoubtedly what baptism promises (see Acts 22:16 and Titus 3:5). We can also speak about the waters of baptism, however, in unpleasant terms, as the Belgic Confession does (Article 34), in terms of judg­ment and "escaping tyranny."

These, then, are the two sides of the baptismal coin: on one side the waters are invit­ing and on the other they are threatening. The former depicts the covenant promise of forgiveness; the latter demonstrates the covenant threat of judgment. In what follows, we will peer down the corridors of redemptive history to examine the Flood and the Red Sea — two Old Testament events which New Testament apostles use to present the waters of Christian baptism in the threatening sense.¹

Baptism and the Flood⤒🔗

When it comes to the image of threatening waters in the Scriptures, we almost instinc­tively think of the time of Noah. Sin had peaked in those days and the Lord's patience had been exhausted. God had therefore purposed to judge the ungodly world by means of a colossal flood. In the midst of judgment, how­ever, there is always grace. While His anger raged against the world, God confirmed His covenant with Noah and his family, thereby enabling them to escape judgment through an ark of their own construc­tion (Gen. 6:14ff.). Because of this covenant provision, Noah was able to live in spite of the waters of God's judgment.

What does this have to do with baptism? The apostle Peter answers that question in 1 Peter 3. Just as Noah was "saved through water" (v.20), so we are saved through the waters of baptism. But our salvation comes through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is pre­viewed and foreshadowed by the ark of Noah. When we are baptized into the name of Christ, we can be certain that our union with Him enables us to pass through the waters of God's judgment safely (Rom. 6:3-6). The very water that kills others saves us!

This reality of baptism, as deliverance from threatening waters, has been immortal­ized in the prayer of the Reformed baptismal form which gives us a variation of Martin Luther's famous Sundtflutgebet (great flood prayer): "O almighty, eternal God, Thou who hast accord­ing to Thy severe judgment punished the unbelieving and unrepentant world with the flood and hast according to Thy great mercy saved and protected believing Noah and His family."²

The covenant promise of escape from the threatening waters of God's judgment, however, is not automatically or inherently effective. It must be embraced with faith and obedience as soon as a baptized child is able. Trust and obey — the hymn gives sound advice — for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. Noah's presence in the ark did not guarantee his deliverance from the threat­ening waters. He had to remain in the ark. If he jumped ship, the elevated waters would swallow him alive. So we are summoned by Christ Himself to remain in Him. "Abide in me," Jesus says (John 15:4), "I am your ark." And in return, we sing to Jesus about the one who belongs to him: "Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; you shall preserve me from trouble" (Ps. 32).

Given the tremendous oblig­ations of the covenant, there is a sense in which parents should tremble at the bap­tismal font.³  To whom much is given, much is required. Baptism assures covenant children throughout their lives that they have the promise of salvation. And yet the very same baptism reminds them that the threat of judgment still looms. Baptized children who reject Christ have literally  missed the boat!

Baptism and the Red Sea←⤒🔗

The other Old Testament event which involves threat­ening waters is, of course, the deliverance at the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his hosts were pursuing Moses and the chil­dren of Israel when God miraculously divided the Red Sea and enabled His people to pass through on dry ground (Ex. 14). When the Egyptians tried to do the same, they per­ished, being engulfed by the walls of water on either side. For the Israelites, the apostle Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Cor. 10:1- 5), this was a baptism. The Corinthians, in other words, in hearing of this event, were to think of their own baptisms.

There are many ways in which this baptism in the Red Sea corresponds to New Testament baptism. Just as some of those Israelites who had been baptized into Moses later manifested themselves as hypocrites (1 Cor. 10:2, 5), so some who have been bap­tized into Christ show them­selves to be unbelievers (Heb. 10:29). Just as children were included in the Red Sea baptism (see Ex. 10:9-11, 24), so children are baptized today.

What is especially interest­ing for us to note is that both the Red Sea and flood accounts bring to our atten­tion that aspect of baptism which has often been ignored. Water symbolizes not only the washing away of our sins; it also symbolizes the impend­ing judgment of God. In both Old Testament events, how­ever, God's covenant-keeping people are saved through the very water which meant judg­ment and destruction for oth­ers.

The key to salvation (from the flood) for Noah and his family was remaining in the ark. The key to salvation (from the Red Sea) for the Israelites was sticking to Moses. The key to salvation for us is remaining in and sticking to Christ.

Conclusion←⤒🔗

What makes remaining in Christ the key to salvation? You recall that incident recorded in the Gospels where the sons of Zebedee ask Jesus for positions of honor in the kingdom of heaven (Mark 10:35ff). Jesus' reply, at first glance, is some­what puzzling: "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am bap­tized with?"

In speaking of his 'baptism' Jesus was referring to his own suffering and death (cf. Luke 12:50)! His baptism gave rise to His agonizing fear in Gethsemane, where He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from Me." The cup of terror was removed, so that Christ could indeed undergo His baptism of judgment for our sins. At the cross of Calvary, our Lord was fully immersed. There was no ark. There was no passageway on dry ground. Like a drowning man, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you for­saken Me?" He then uttered a loud cry and breathed His last. Christ had been baptized in the waters of judgment.⁴

God neither overlooks our sins nor turns a blind eye. He punishes every single one of them. But if you remain unit­ed to Christ by faith and obe­dience, you can be assured that His baptism is your bap­tism, his cross, your cross.

God's judgment upon your sins has been satisfied on that cross and you have been rec­onciled, as Paul says, "If you continue in the faith, ground­ed and steadfast..." (Col. 1 :23).

The waters of baptism are inviting. Just as water washes away the filth of our bodies, so our sins are washed away by Christ's blood. These same waters, by God's design, are also threatening. Thousands have perished in these waters, in the flood and at the Red Sea. Baptism brings both assurance and warning. As Paul says, in the context of dealing with the baptism in the Red Sea, "Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12). There we see the two-fold message of baptism: You, as the redeemed of the Lord, are standing! Now take heed, lest you fall!