Here are two things to be considered:—(1) The phrase, “into the name;” (2) “The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
1. “Into the name.” The phrase, “in the name,” as found in the common English version, represents three distinct forms of expression, in the original, which are essentially different in their meaning, and should, therefore, be carefully discriminated. They are “(en) in the name;” “(epi) for the name,” and “(eis) into the name.” The essential idea expressed by the first of these is, representative union, as a person who speaks or acts “in the name” of another, identifies himself with that other. Thus,—“Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name.”—John xiv, 13, 14, 26; xv, 16, etc. “Ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus.”—1 Cor. vi, 11. “Giving thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus.”—Eph. v, 20. “Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.”—Col. iii, 17. Hence the use of the expression, as signifying, “by the authority of.” Thus, “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.”—John v, 43. “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”—Acts iii, 6. “I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, come out of her.”—Ib. xvi, 18. There is but one passage in which this form of expression is used in connection with baptizo. Acts x, 48,—“He commanded them to be baptized, in the name of the Lord.” The analogy of the phrase elsewhere, would require us to understand it here as meaning, “by the authority of the Lord.” The codex Sinaiticus reads,—“He commanded them (en to ‘onomati Ju Xu baptisthēnai), in the name of Jesus Christ to be baptized.” Cyril of Jerusalem quotes the passage in the same order.[[121]] Not only does the form of the phrase in itself call for this rendering, but the connection is equally clear, in the same direction. The case was the baptism of the house of Cornelius. Peter demands,—“Can any man forbid the water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost, as well as we?” The point at issue was the admission of the Gentile world to a part in the salvation of Christ. Peter had on the day of Pentecost testified that it was the Lord Jesus by whom the Holy Ghost had been poured out. He had been admonished by Jesus in a vision that the Gentiles were not to be excluded from the blessings of the gospel. He now calls the attention of his six Jewish companions (Acts xi, 12), to the fact that the house of Cornelius was baptized by the Lord Jesus himself, with the same Spirit which had been poured upon the Jews on Pentecost; and with an emphatic pause, challenges objection. There being none, the apostle, then, in the name and by the authority of Christ, proclaims the doors of salvation thrown open to the world. He “in the name of the Lord Jesus, commanded them to be baptized;” and afterward vindicated the action by the demand, “What was I, that I should withstand God.”—Acts xi, 17.
Epi, in this connection, has the general meaning of, because of,—on account of,—with reference to,—for; and the phrase as thus constructed means, “for the sake of.” Thus, “Whoso shall receive one such little child (epi ‘onomati mou), for my name’s sake.”—Matt. xviii, 5; Mark ix, 37. “They called him Zacharias (epi), for the sake of his father’s name.”—Luke i, 59. “That repentance and remission of sins should be preached (epi) for his name’s sake.”—Luke xxiv, 47. “That they speak henceforth to no man (epi) for the sake of the name.”—Acts iv, 17. From these illustrations, it will be seen that in connection with baptism, the rendering, of epi,—“in the name,”—altogether misses the idea of the sacred writer. It occurs but once. On the day of Pentecost, Peter, in reply to the cry,—“What shall we do?” answered,—“Repent and be baptized every one of you (epi), for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ (eis), unto the remission of sins.”—Acts ii, 38. Jesus had said, “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved.” Peter, therefore, tells the multitude, “Repent and be baptized. Do this, in honor of the Lord Jesus; and unto the remission of sins; since repentance, and obedience shown by receiving baptism, are pledges of remission.”
In the text of Matthew, which stands at the head of this section, the word is, eis,—“Baptizing them (eis), into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” This is the preposition ordinarily used with relation to baptism, both real and ritual. In connection with the baptism of the Spirit, its signification is so fully explained and illustrated as to admit of no doubt or question. They that are “baptized (eis) into Christ” (Gal. iii, 27; Rom. vi, 3), are united to him,—“by one Spirit baptized (eis) into one body,” “the body of Christ.”—1 Cor. xii, 13, 27. Those who are “baptized (eis) into his death,” are thereby “dead with him.”—Rom. vi, 3, 8. So, it is said of the children of Israel that they were “baptized (eis) into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea,” as the passage of the Red Sea, the destruction of the Egyptians and the deliverance of Israel by the hand of Moses released them finally and forever from the Egyptian yoke, and united them to Moses in subordination to his mediatorial authority. “They believed the Lord and his servant Moses.”—Ex. xiv, 31. This is viewed by the apostle as a figure of the work of grace by which the people of Christ are released from Satan’s bondage and brought under his saving scepter; and he, therefore, uses the same form of expression, “Baptized into Christ,” “Baptized into Moses.”
The style in which the real baptism is thus spoken of is a key to the meaning of the Lord Jesus, in his language concerning the ritual ordinance. The visible church is the representative and type of that invisible body of Christ, the members of which are incorporated therein by the baptism of the Spirit. Baptism with water is a symbol, merely, of that spiritual grace. The recipient may be truly united to the Lord Jesus. But such union is not produced by the ritual ordinance. The effect can ascend no higher than the cause. A symbolic baptism can accomplish no more than a symbolic union, a union in outward semblance and name. Its ground is profession of the name of Christ, and the characteristic designation of those who have received it is,—that they “have named the name of Christ”—(2 Tim. ii, 19), that is, they have professed to take hold of his covenant, and have thereupon had his name named upon them. They are Christ’s. If, therefore, baptism “into Christ,” by the Spirit, means spiritual union with Christ, and with his invisible body, then, manifestly, baptism with water “into the name of Christ,” can mean nothing else but ritual identification with his name, and with that visible body which is known by his name, and embraced by profession in the bonds of his covenant. To effect such union is all that Christ’s ministers can do. It is what they are commissioned to do. The rest remains with the Great Baptizer himself. Intimately related to this subject is that remarkable word of God which instructed Aaron and his sons to bless Israel with that threefold benediction which is believed to refer to the doctrine of the glorious Trinity. “The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace,”—and then adds,—“And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”—Num. vi, 23-27.
The form of expression used by the Lord Jesus,—“baptizing them into the name,” is a perpetual rebuke of every doctrine or pretense which would attribute to the rite, in itself, any higher or other efficacy than that of changing the outward and professed relation of the baptized to Christ and the Godhead. The view here presented is further involved in the relation between baptism and discipleship, intimated in the words of Jesus,—“Disciple all nations, baptizing them into the name.” Christ came as the revealer of the Godhead, the Prophet of Israel, as well as her royal Priest. The preaching of the gospel is the fulfillment of his prophetic function, and those whether Jews or Gentiles, who accept it are to be enrolled as disciples of Christ, by being baptized into the name or profession of the faith of the triune Godhead, as revealed by him, in the gospel. It will thus be seen that the translation invariably given to the phrase in question, in our common English version, entirely fails of exhibiting a true idea of the meaning of the original. See Matt, xxviii, 19; Acts viii, 16; xix, 5; 1 Cor. i, 13, 15. Baptizing “in the name,” can only mean, dispensing the rite by the authority of the Persons named. The command is, to “baptize into the name.”
2. “The name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” In other places, baptism is said to be “into the name of the Lord Jesus.”—Acts ii, 38; viii, 16; xix, 5. Nor are the other Persons of the Godhead ever mentioned in such connection with the real baptism. That is always described as being into Jesus Christ. Rom. vi, 3; 1 Cor. xii, 13, 27; Gal. iii, 27. How is this diversity of expression to be explained? It is abundantly plain, as respects the real baptism. In it, each Person is signally present, in appropriate relation. In it, Christ, the Royal Administrator, by whom the Spirit is poured out, is also the Head into which by that one Spirit all are baptized as members. The Spirit appears as the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, the Renewer and Sanctifier. And as to the Father, “Ye are all the children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus; for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”—Gal. iii, 26, 27. “As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name.”—Joh.[Joh.] i, 12. In a word, thus is fulfilled the petition of Jesus. “As thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.... I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.”—John xvii, 21, 23. By the real baptism, therefore, the believer is united to each Person of the Godhead,—a fact, nevertheless, expressed by baptism into one, Jesus Christ.
The same principle governs the forms of expression used with reference to ritual baptism. Jesus Christ is the Word of God, and can not be truly apprehended except in that relation. “No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him.”—John i, 18. He came to make known the Father. He returned to impart the Spirit. And, as he was thus apprehended by the apostles, a baptism into his name was a baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Spirit. It only ceases to be so, when Jesus ceases to be appreciated as him in whom “dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”—Col. ii, 9.
It is an illustration of the essential deficiency of the theory of immersion that it has no explanation for the diversity of expression here considered.