This article first appeared on Theopolis. Read it on Theopolis HERE.

I was reading James Jordan’s Creation in Six Days while also preparing for Trinity Sunday in which the gospel reading is John 3:1-15. As providence would have it Jordan dropped an easter egg for me along the lines of baptism. In chapter 5 he points out, “On the second day God took some of the earthly waters up above the firmament, and this can only mean they were taken into the angelic heavens. Since the stars were placed in the firmament, the waters must be beyond the stars.” I went back to Genesis one to make sure Jordan was right, and he was.

“And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day…And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:6-7, 14)

The creation account has already provided us with a relationship between the Holy Spirit and the waters over the earth. The Spirit hovers over the waters, and from this breath and water emerge the life of the world. The first birth is brought about in the same manner as the second birth; water and the Spirit. What I had always missed, until recently, was how some of these waters from earth were brought into the heavenlies, no doubt by the Spirit. Thus prior to the fall the Spirit distinguishes a heavenly sea for which the earthly waters will be the analogy. The heavenly rulers will be fixed in the heavenly waters (the sun moon and stars), just as the earthly rulers (Israel) shine amidst the earthly waters (the nations).

The new creation of Israel demonstrates this pattern. We tend to look at the Red Sea crossing as a lateral motion. However, the Bible itself views movements from Egypt towards Israel as ascensions, or resurrections. Instead of seeing Israel as walking side to side through the Sea, instead picture them walking from below to above, being led by the glory cloud. What is a cloud if not water vapor, water in its “Spirit” form? Israel’s new birth is a movement through the earthly waters below into the heavenly waters that the Spirit carries from the firmament of heaven.

These waters are further testified to in Ezekiel and Revelation as these authors are peering into heaven they see a crystal sea.

Ezekiel 1:22 “And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.”

Revelation 4:6 “and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.”

When the Spirit proceeds from heaven in baptismal events, we can safely infer he is bringing the waters of heaven with Him. This becomes clearer in the baptism of Jesus, since the heavens part allowing the waters to flow by the Spirit on it’s dove wings that hovered over Noah’s floodwaters.

“ When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

When Jesus is baptized the Spirit descends from the parted heavens. This provides a foretaste of the coming consummation of the heavens and earth. One day there will be no barrier between us and the crystal sea. One day heaven and earth will be one flesh. This is the eschatological nature of baptism. The Spirit communicates to us the heavenly waters that were separated from the earthly waters in Genesis 1. Just as Eve was taken from Adam’s side to later be rejoined in a greater face to face sexual glory, the waters above and below were separated to later be joined together through the union of humanity and divinity. Life comes from this communication of life from God to His creation. The heavenly waters anointing, “Christening”, the saints as heavenly lights on earth. The glorification of Christ is imparted to us by the giving of the Spirit in baptism. The Spirit that proceeds from the crystal sea.

This unfolds with richer weight with John’s gospel about baptism. In John 3:5-6 we read:

“Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Whatever is born of flesh is of flesh whatever is born of Spirit is spirit.”

I cannot have my father’s nose if I am not “of” my father. To partake of the kingdom, we must be generated by the King. This is “regeneration” to be reinserted into a new generation, a new genealogy, a new family name, a new history. Thus, the waters with which we are reborn are not just the earthly waters, but the Spirit communicates the heavenly waters to us as well. By being baptized in these heavenly waters we are now of the heavenly generation. Heaven comes to earth in our person. The Spirit’s dwelling with us unites the waters above and the waters below. We survive this flood because we are hidden in the ark of Christ (1 Peter 3:21). We are in the communion of the saints, even the departed ones, because we all partake of the same sea (Rev 4:6).  We are all governed by the same Spirit, the same current of the same waters.

The sending down of heavenly waters by the Spirit in baptism is what turns us into temples. The temple is overshadowed by the cloud of the Spirit after its construction (as is the tabernacle). This descension makes ascension possible. Jesus alludes to this in the same chapter of John, that the heavenly things can only be delivered from the one who ascends, and the one who ascends first descended. First the Spirit comes down, so we may enter communion and then ascend by the transitive property of the waters below and above being of the same generation. This ascension into the heavenly sea by baptism is why it is possible for living water to flow from us (John 7:38). It is not solely from the ascended Christ that the rivers flow, rather all that are baptized into his body and partake of Him by faith are mouths of these rivers.

It is no coincidence that being born from above and the flowing of living water are so closely tied in the same gospel account. John is deeply interested in tying Genesis to the incarnation and mission of Jesus. He is demonstrating that the new generation, the new Genesis, the new creation, come by the incarnate Son. The better Adam does not merely grant us adoption papers, he invites us to bath in His heavenly waters, to swim in his eternal pool, to be refreshed by his saving laver. Your citizenship is from heaven, because the new waters you were washed in were the waters of heaven.