Words Matter: Were You Baptized? Or Did You Get Baptized? Why Scripture Uses the Passive Voice
The following excerpt is taken from my book, The Baptized Life, and is from Chapter 1, “Baptism and Grace.”
A text in the Letter to Titus that references both grace and baptism gives us some important insights into the relationship of the two:
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone. (Titus 3:3–8)
Man’s condition apart from Christ is clearly described: foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved. Into this dark picture breaks the kindness and love of God our Savior, who saves us, clearly not because of righteous things we had done. The saving work is all his, done through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. “The washing of rebirth” is reminiscent of John 3 and being born again of the water and the Spirit, of Acts 2 and being called to baptism for forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Spirit, of Acts 22 when Paul hears “get up, be baptized and wash away your sins,” and of Romans 6 where one is buried with Christ in baptism and rises to be a new person.
The word baptism does not occur in this passage from Titus, but because of these parallels, almost all exegetes who are not trying to defend some theological position are in agreement that Paul is making a reference to baptism. First century Christians not influenced by later theological controversies understood the passage this way.
But it is most important that all of this is summed up with the phrase “having been justified by grace.” Baptism is not in the category of “righteous things we had done” but is one of the elements through which God brings us his grace, which is the only thing that justifies us. As we look more closely in the rest of this chapter, we will see why baptism belongs in the “grace box” and not in the “righteous things box.”
Give All Credit to God
It seems to me that there are at least three takeaways from the Titus 3 passage. First, living the baptized life means we will want to leave no doubt in anyone’s mind as to the source of our salvation and justification. All the credit goes to God, his grace and his generosity. In baptism it is God doing the washing, the regenerating and the renewing. The construction of the Greek text in verse 5 is such that the Holy Spirit should be seen as both doing the washing of rebirth and the renewing. Since baptism may look more to others like something we are doing, it behooves us to take extra care to stress to those being baptized and those observing a baptism that this is all God’s work.
I must tell you that in the fellowship I am part of, I hear certain language that bothers me. I hear a good many people (maybe even, most) say things such as, “He is going to get baptized tonight” or “I got baptized last Saturday” or “I got baptized about a week before my wife was ready to.” You may see nothing wrong with such comments, but it is the words “get” and “got” that trouble me. Besides the fact that the Scriptures never use such language, there is the fact that these verbs leave more the impression that baptism is something we do.
When we say that friend James got rich investing in real estate, we usually are referring to his accomplishments. The same would be true of friend Sarah who went back to school to get her degree. After she acquired the sheepskin, we might say she got her degree in 2013. We even say that friend Logan and his fiancée Maria got married last June, referring to something they did.
On the negative side, we speak of a person who went out and got drunk, communicating that he made the decision to do so and is responsible for what happens. But you may wonder what the problem is. Isn’t baptism something we do?
In one very important sense, the answer is no. Baptism is much more what God does (as Father, Son and/or Spirit) than it is something we do. And some us need to have our thinking changed at this point. Baptism is a place of grace and not a place of our “doing.” Biblically this is seen in the fact that baptism is almost always spoken of in the passive voice—meaning baptism is something done to us. This is true on two levels. Physically we place ourselves in someone else’s hands, and they immerse us, but that is demonstrating or representing a deeper spiritual truth: We place ourselves in the hands of God who immerses us into Christ. Notice just some of the many examples we find in the New Testament, with emphasis added:
· Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized…. (passive voice) (Acts 2:38)
· …they were baptized, both men and women. (passive voice) Acts 8:12
· For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (passive voice with God’s Spirit doing the baptizing) (1 Corinthians 12:13)
· Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (passive voice) (Romans 6:3)
· We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (passive voice) (Romans 6:4)
We are not being picky here. We are just taking note that the writers are very particular about the verb voice they select and that it is the passive voice that indicates baptism is not something “we do” but something that is done to us. Of course, like the lepers who came to Jesus, we must recognize our need and come to him for help, but having done that, we must confess that we do not have the power to kill an old life, bury it and raise up a new life. Only God can do that.
There may not seem to be much difference in someone who “got baptized” and someone who “was baptized,” but the biblical writers consistently choose the passive voice, and I am convinced it is for a reason. We surrender ourselves to him, lay down all our claims, confess our need and allow him to do what only he can do. Because it is biblically correct and because there is so much misunderstanding in the religious world, we should continually emphasize this is something God has done.
In this regard, it would be much better and much more biblical, to not say things like “I got baptized twenty-seven years ago,” but rather “twenty-seven years ago I was baptized, or even “twenty-seven years ago I was united with Christ in baptism and was raised up by the power of God.” Using the passive voice and being more descriptive is spiritually correct and healthy. I understand our preference for verbal shorthand, but when it comes to something so important, wouldn’t it be good (for others, as well as for ourselves) to use a few more words to make it clear that the glory does not belong to us but to him. What happens in baptism is all God’s doing.
All the things we are going to see in the following chapters are “to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves” (Ephesians 1:6). The reason Paul could passionately write about being saved by grace in Romans 1–5 and then move seamlessly into an emphasis on what happens to us in baptism in Romans 6 is because he saw that what occurs in baptism is an expression of God’s grace. This is also the reason he could, in Galatians 1–3, challenge any theology that relied on human effort and not God’s Spirit, and then say at the end of all that: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized [passive voice] into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26–27). Had he seen baptism as some good work— some expression of human effort—that we might be tempted to rely on, this is the last place he would have wanted to bring it up.
But, for Paul, you never line up baptism against grace. What happens in baptism is all about grace.
[Let me add a footnote: I am not recommending that you go through the fellowship correcting folks who use the “get baptized” language. Let’s suppose some excited person says to you, “Marcos is going to get baptized tonight.” I would strongly suggest that you not say, “No, my brother, you should not say that. If there is to be a baptism tonight, he will be baptized—passive voice!” No, please we don’t need to be self-righteous judges that spoil joy and douse excitement, but we can still be careful readers of Scripture who, at the appropriate times, gently guide others to put the emphasis where Scripture puts it.]
