I was a super selfish little kid BUT when I went home I let my brothers and sisters see my comic books and before nobody touched my comic books, they were mine, ALL mine. NOW that does NOT sound like a big deal BUT it was huge to me. He was changing me as I looked to him. We moved a lot and I got away from church services and got away from the Lord for a while BUT he brought me back to himself through a man who was a deacon in a Baptist Church out in Memphis Tennessee where I lived. That was all it took. I needed someone to share, talk to me about Jesus once again and get me back on the right path. God/Jesus has been incredible to me over the years and I have been walking with him over 30 years.
Since I do not believe in chance, luck or things in that category I know when God is speaking to me or leading me in a certain direction SO now I want to talk about water baptism. I never focused on it since I was pretty young when I was baptized in the Southern Baptist Church and the formula used as far as I know was, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." Not until recently that was coming back to me over and over SO I decided to study that baptismal formula. I knew the verse since I memorized it a few years ago. It says, "19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
"20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." (Matt.28)
Now I want to break it down and talk about it. I was meditating on it for a while, a lot of times during the day and the night and then the Lord started showing me something I NEVER focused on in these two verses. It kept popping out to me as I was going over and over it. First I see that water is not mentioned in these verses and when water baptism is usually talked about in the word of God water is in the very verse or very close since water is the subject matter. Water is NOT being discussed in this whole chapter which I thought was very strange since it is used by many "churches" to baptize new converts into the faith, so to speak. Since I could not find water in context with these two verses, I then SAW something that stuck out like a sore thumb. Verse 19 basically starts off with, "…teach all nations, baptizing them in the name…" and then as I kept going through the two verses I saw it again in the next verse. Verse 20 starts off, "Teaching them…" So now in context I want to share a new thought with you.
Most Christians that I know of KNOW that God is a three in one God as I John 5 says, "7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." So here is see that the triune God is made up of the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost which IS what Matt. 28:19,20 is seeking to show us how the three in one God came to set us free from sin. God will NOT give his glory to another so this one God shows us his triune nature ALL through the word.
I want to go all the way back to Genesis, the very first chapter to show this truth in regards to some of God's first acts in creation.
" 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
"27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1)
Here we see that verse 26 God is talking and he says, "Let us make man in our image after our likeness..:" THEN verse 27, the very next verse, shows that God created man in HIS own image. Did you notice it went from plural to singular showing God as a plural being and a singular being at the same time.
God shows he is singular and plural in many ways all through the word of God by his creative activities such as making man a triune being which is a reflection of him in a different way. Using one example such as in I Thess 5: 23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
God is showing us we are a spirit, soul and body. We are also a composite being in a different way than God is but still the plurality and singleness shows forth. It takes all three to make the one man we were created to be. Space is comprised of height, depth and width. Time is past, present, and future.
I think John 14 is worth sharing now. It is an incredible chapter showing the oneness of God and him being plural too. All through this chapter, Jesus is saying the Father is in him and he is in the Father and then a short time later he brings the Holy Ghost into the picture showing saying he will come in Jesus' name and he will teach them all things.
We can see this plural YET singular God is working together in complete unity. There are many ways to show the God of the bible is unique in many ways.
So in closing, let's go back to the subject at hand. God is triune and one sticks out more in the bible than the other two. The Father sticks out more in the Old Covenant, the Son sticks out more in the Gospels and the Holy Ghost more in the Epistles where he is teaching the members of the body of Christ. We see in the book of Acts that ALL new believers were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. NO WHERE in the bible were believers water baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, they were ALL baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. So check out the book of Acts when the church got started to see this truth. At the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established.
We are to be baptized, immersed into the teachings of the one true triune God. The context of Matt 28:19,20 is God seeking to show more of his nature that we not clearly seeing in the Old Covenant. As we go deeper into the word of God we see and understand more of this awesome God that is beyond our understanding until he reveals more to us as we seek his face.