Is Baptism Foolishness?

In Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth he spoke of the "foolishness of God" (1 Cor. 1:25). Now I don't understand the apostle to be suggesting that God has foolish thoughts. Paul is engaging in irony here--a form of speech that is to be interpreted in the opposite manner to what it actually says. The meaning of Paul’s words is that to people of the world, using their wisdom, the ways of God appear to be foolish.

Paul had in mind such wisdom of men when he wrote, "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'why have you made me like this?’” (Rom. 9:20). Then he gave the illustration in the form of a question: "Hath not the potter power over the clay...?" Also in this same letter Paul said, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His Judgments and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?"

The lesson we can learn from Paul's reasoning above is that when God says to do something as a condition to receive a certain blessing or reward, who are we to reason that it is foolishness--that it will not work? No one believes there is power in water to forgive sins. Our sins are forgiven by the blood of Jesus because of the grace of God, and those who have faith are in a position to receive such blessings (Rom. 6:3, 4, 17, 18).

The necessity of doing what God says to do to be saved, without question, is well illustrated in 2 Kings 5. Here we find a story about a leper named Naaman. To be cleansed of his leprosy he was told to dip in the river Jordan seven times. But Naaman thought this was foolish and became angry with what God's prophet told him to do it. He thought God would heal him differently. He was about to forget the whole thing when his servants said, "...If the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." The text states that he then WENT and WASHED and was clean. In other words, he obeyed the command and received the blessing.

Examples like the story of Naaman "were given for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4). When God offers a blessing and tells man what he must do to receive it, who is man to object even if it appears to be a foolish action? We must do as Naaman did: swallow our pride and simply meet the conditions God has given. If God says be baptized "for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38) and that we then “rise to walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4), "being then made free from sin" (Acts 6:17, 18) who are we to question God? After all, He is the potter and we are the clay.

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