W. B. Godbey - Enter His Rest

might as well say He was crucified to give us an example. He alone had to be crucified to redeem the world. We
are not high priests, but He was, and He had to be anointed before He could enter upon His office. Besides, our
baptism is unto the remission of sins, I. e., it symbolizes the remission of sins. That was not so in His case, for
He had no sins to be remitted. He received the Holy Ghost immediately after John baptized Him, because His
humanity, like yours and mine, needed the Holy Ghost to qualify Him to preach the Gospel and perform His
mighty works. But He was not baptized with the Holy Ghost in order to purify Him from sin. He never had any
sin, and baptism means a purification, which He did not need. With us the baptism of water symbolizes that of
the Holy Ghost, without which we cannot be saved. You must remember that we are all sinners by nature, “but
He knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” Therefore it is utterly confusing to draw the parallel
between us and Him. His life is our example, but this baptism is His induction into the Messiahship, in which
He stands alone in the universe. While there is no doubt but that John took Him alone and baptized Him, when
he baptized those multitudes there is no doubt but that he took them in groups, as they manifested the fruits of
repentance. Like Moses baptizing all Israel at the tabernacle door, on the ratification of the Sinaic covenant, I
trow he dipped the hyssop in the water, and swept it over the people as they stood before him. Doubtless John
pursued a course of that kind, as we must remember that preaching was his great work; therefore, in his
symbolic consecration to a life of repentance and obedience, doubtless, he was very expeditious.
“Brother Godbey, give us the definition of baptism.” The Bible is God's dictionary and our only lexical
authority. In John 3:25 you see baptism clearly defined to be a purification, the Greek word being catherismos,
the noun from catherizo, to purify – it simply means a purification. If you will read the context, you will find it
is given in connection with the controversy in reference to the relative importance of the baptism administered
by John and that administered by our Lord's disciples.
You will find another clear and unequivocal definition in Luke 11:37-39. When Jesus, having responded to the
invitation of a Pharisee to dine with him, coming in sat down at the table without washing His hands, the
Pharisee, who was so stickleristical about outward purity that he always washed his hands before eating, lest he
had come in contact with something unclean, e. g., an animal, camel, donkey, dog, or a Gentile, found fault.
Then Jesus responded, “You Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and plate, but within it is full of
iniquity and defilement.” Here He uses the prominent word, catharizo, whose constant meaning is to purify, and
it is here used synonymously with baptizo, as applied to the washing of hands. But, you say, in washing the
hands we are apt to immerse them. That is so, but not necessarily. This was not a question of washing the
Savior's hands, but says He was baptized, I. e., when He just washed His hands, the whole man was baptized.
This is precisely parallel with the ordinary practice of baptism – we put a little water on the head and the whole
person is baptized. Why, the sticklerism of some immersionists would actually bring back on us the old yoke of
legalism, which the I Hebrew fathers were unable to bear. N. B. Jesus has broken every yoke that men and
devils ever put on us, then why shall we not be free? Were not the Pentecostians immersed? I am perfectly
assured that they were not. Jerusalem is a mountainous city, above the water line, too high to dig wells. If they
were to dig they would not find water. I have been there at the very time of the year when the Pentecostal
revival took place, and water was so scarce that if I took a drink I had to buy it. Lemonade was so cheap and
delicious that I drank it altogether as a substitute for water. Some will tell you that there was plenty of water at
the temple where they had a brazen sea. If they did, no one was allowed to get in it; they drew it out when they
wanted to use it. Besides, you must remember that the Christians were discarded by the rulers of the Church and
state as wild fanatics and outlaws. The priests who had so recently killed their Leader had charge of the temple
and it would have been impossible to get any favors from them. They were all arrayed against the Nazarenes,
persecuting the apostles unto stripes and imprisonment, and would have killed them had not the Sanhedrin's
great leader, Gamaliel, interposed in their behalf.
I am better acquainted with Jerusalem than with any other city in the world, because it is God's holy city, where
the patriarchs and prophets, and Jesus and His apostles, have hallowed the very earth with their tread. I have
been there three times and have spent thirty-two days within its bounds.
In Bible times the city was supplied with water from the pools of Solomon, twelve miles distant in the
mountains, and conveyed the water by an aqueduct. There was no immersion water higher than the Jordan, forty
miles away, and it is certain that they did not go there, and equally certain that they did not go to the pools of