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Genesis 1:1-2 – In the Beginning…Baptism?
There’s an old story of a preacher who, frustratingly for the congregation, somehow managed to turn every text and sermon into one on baptism. So they hatched a plan.
Playing to his vanity they challenged him saying, he was so smart he could preach on any topic or scripture without preparation. He accepted. So the next week, moments before time to preach, they gleefully gave him a text that had no connection whatsoever with baptism: Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters” (CSB’17).
The preacher read it out aloud; and read it a second time. Stumbling over his thoughts, he read again as he repeated, “over the surface of the waters, waters, waters.” Then confidentially he declared, “Waters, which brings me to my sermon topic today of BAPTISM.”
That old preacher might not have been that far off, if at all: “Tertullian argues that the Holy Spirit’s moving over the face of the waters in the creation account (Gen. 1: 2) shows that water was created to be a resting place for the Spirit and thereby derives its sanctity. Since matter is qualitatively transformed by a substance set over it, he says, the hovering Spirit makes the water into a sacred thing (sanctum). This original act, according to Tertullian, grants water the unique ability to convey the Spirit; individuals washed in consecrated baptismal water (of any kind) will find that their spirits are “corporally washed” and their bodies are “spiritually cleansed.”” (Robin M Jensen, Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianty).
Is it really a stretch to conclude that God planned in beginning that old creation would foretell new creation?
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