"Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken; The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"
When Jesus used the terms "baptism" and "baptized" in this passage, He was clearly referring to His upcoming death, burial, and resurrection. This is evidenced by the knowledge that He had already subjected Himself to the water immersion (baptism) administered by John the Baptist.
Therefore, the "baptism" Jesus refers to herein, is the very "baptism" (sacrifice) that remitted all sin and saved the eternal souls of all those who would put their faith in Him.
Jesus, during His entire ministry, used a form of the term baptize a total of *seven times, not once did He use the term in reference to water as being the medium into which a believer is to be immersed. A candidate for eternal salvation is to be "baptized" (immersed), through faith, into the soul saving "baptism" (sacrifice) of Jesus Himself. There is no scriptural foundation for the belief that one is to be "baptized" into water, in order to be "baptized" into Christ. One is "baptized" into Christ through their belief in Him and His soul saving sacrifice.
Somehow, since the gospels were recorded, probably because of the massive influence Roman Catholicism forced upon early Christians, the term "baptism" has been wrongfully associated with water as the medium into which one is to be immersed "for the remittance of sins". Nothing, however, could be further form the truth as we can clearly see demonstrated in the above quote. We have already learned that the Greek term BaptizO, in that language, was used to imply ones involvement or immersion, in almost anything, it's usage was most certainly NOT restricted to water. ~
*(This figure does not include all the different accounts of the same message.)
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