Introduction
For most of two thousand years, Church dogma has been governed by the erroneous thinking of Augustine of Hippo (d. 430AD). Below I try all too briefly to indicate the truth. Readers might well orient themselves by scanning the following articles:
Augustine: Asset or Liability?,
The Journey of Jesus, etc.)
According to the Bible, our Creator God is a God of love (John 3:16; 1 John 4:8,16), who before the foundation of the world planned to share his glory with creatures made in His image (e.g. Eph 1:3-10 etc.).
The Implementation of the Plan
First, the immanent Trinity of Creator, Word and Spirit took on the role of the economic Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Creation
Next after creating the physical world, God created mankind (Adam) from the dust of the earth as seed.
Conception
God then placed him in the Garden of Eden, the womb of the race (Gen. 2:8,15). This was recapitulated by man in procreation.
Gestation
There the seed grows to physical maturity. Only then does Adam develop adequate understanding to react to the commandment forbidding him to partake of the tree of good and evil (Gen. 2:17). He disobeys and since sin pays the wages of death, he dies spiritually. Thus his path to glory is blocked. Since his progeny all repeat the same pattern (pace Art IX of the Church of England), they are all paid its wages (cf. Rom. 6:23) and forfeit the glorification which depends on their keeping the law (Lev. 18:5, etc.). In order to solve the problem, God first calls Noah and his family and saves them from the flood.
Infancy
Since all the natural children of God sin by breaking the commandment (law), they and their immediate environment are destroyed by the flood. Only Noah finds favour with God as righteous in his generation, and survives in the ark.
First Baptism (Washing)
The implication of 1 Peter 3:20f. is that survival from the flood is recapitulated by weaning (“removal of dirt from the body”), which corresponds with baptism. In other words, Noah’s “infant baptism” signals the end of uncovenanted infancy and so initiates childhood, which is the beneficiary of the covenant with nature.
Noah is mankind’s first child who in contrast with “baby” Adam can understand the significance of the natural world, especially rainbows and animals. In other words, even children, who, on the assumption of recapitulation, can exercise faith and be saved like the heathen (cf Mt. 8:11; Luke 13:29). In this situation, God in His grace urges progress to the Promised Land by calling Abraham to move out of Chaldea to form the people of God, his elect nation, whose childhood is partly lived in Egypt (cf. Mt. 2:15).
Adolescence
Childhood among the Jews leads eventually to adolescence, and boys’ barmitzvah.
Second Baptism
According to Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:1ff., subjection to the law constitutes baptism into Moses. This time, baptism, the crossing of the Red Sea and subsequent provision in the wilderness, portrays the end of childhood and the beginning of adolescent life under the law (cf. Luke 2:40-52).
Maturity or Adulthood
Life under the law was long and arduous. While the law promised salvation if it was kept, it brought condemnation if it was not (cf. 1 Cor. 15:56; 2 Cor. 3). The Old Testament is notable for its description of the sins of the failed chosen race. Thus the need for a saviour became paramount, and in His mercy and grace, he sent his Son to serve as Redeemer. (See further: Heb. 9:15; 11:39f.).
Third Baptism
Thus believers in Him were baptised into Him, and were born again, no longer under the law (Gal. 5:18) but sealed by the Spirit for salvation (Eph. 1:13; 4:30).
Fourth Baptism
But new covenant baptism signifying new birth occurs on the earth and while we are still in the flesh. So according to Jesus a fourth baptism is necessary. Since flesh is perishable and naturally mortal we are all subject to physical death (Heb. 9:27). Though the spirit is saved we must all die before we take our place in heaven (Mk. 10:39) and are glorified with Christ.
So our upward call (Phil. 3:14) is completed when we have attained mature manhood (Eph. 4:13-16 ESV) and are glorified (Rom. 8:18ff.).
Conclusion
If the evidence presented above is correct, I conclude that baptisms (washings) occur as we undergo transition first from uncovenanted infancy to covenanted childhood; secondly, from childhood to adolescence under the law; third, from law to regeneration by the Spirit (cf. Tit. 3:5-7); and fourth, from earth to glorification in heaven.
Note 1: Jesus alone met the precondition of life in the flesh (Rom. 8:3) and gave that life in covenant for His people. Incarnation by birth of woman, infancy, childhood in Egypt (cf. Mt. 2:15), adolescence under the law (Luke 2:40-50), baptism by the Spirit, death, resurrection, ascension, transformation, glorification at the Father’s right hand. Return in glory of God to rescue His own (Heb. 9:28)
Note 2: Arguably, John the Baptist’s baptism of repentance was the third baptism. It needs to be observed however that it existed only as a sinner’s preparation for baptism by Jesus and regeneration. John was the human agent in his own baptism and also in that of Jesus (see Mt. 3:13-17). After Pentecost, conversion and regeneration merged, so with us today.