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What
is it?
When the New Testament
was translated from the Greek into English,
“baptism” was one of the words that remained in
Greek! Why?
I don’t know. The word in Greek means to immerse. If the Greeks dunked their donuts in coffee, they would
baptize them. It
was not a religious word.
Here are three Bible verses that verify that
fact.
Acts
8:26-39 “…went down into the water” and
“they came up out of the water.”
Matt.3:13-17 “When He
had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately
from the water …”
John 3:23
“Now John was also baptizing
… because there was much water there.”
How
important is it?
Mark 16:15-16,
“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved,
but he who does not believe will be damned.’”
Matt.28:19
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
To save space here, only
the references will be given for many other accounts
of conversions. If
you want to read
them all, you will discover that they were each
baptized immediately after believing the gospel.
That is the Biblical pattern.
Acts 2:37-41, 8:34-39, 9:10-19,
10:44-48, 16:13-15, 16:25-34, 18:8, and 19:1-7.
This also tells us that a candidate for baptism
must be old enough to understand the gospel and then
choose to believe it.
Infant baptism is a church tradition and is not
in the Bible. This
tradition began because of believing that babies are
born sinners and thus are damned.
Please re-read an earlier verse, Mark
16:15-16. Only
if a person chooses to not believe is he damned.
What
does it mean?
Rom.6:3-4
“Or do you not know that as many of us as
were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
His death? Therefore
we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
newness of life.”
(As you read on, this will connect with other
truths and make more sense.)
Col.2:11-12
“In Him you were also circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, by putting off the
body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of
Christ; buried with Him in baptism, in which you also
were raised with Him through faith in the working of
God who raised Him from the dead.”
From these two verses, we
see that baptism
pictures the
death and resurrection of Jesus, and also
circumcision. These next verses speak of circumcision
of the heart:
Rom.2:29 “…and
circumcision is that of the heart.”
Also, Deut.30:6, Lev.26:31, Eze.44:7, and
Jer.9:25-26. Clearly, God wants a heart change.
What
heart change?
If you will re-read Col.2:11-12, you will see
that circumcision of the heart has something to do
with “the flesh.”
Circumcision removes some flesh. The older
versions of the Bible use this term referring to the
desires of the body and mind, or feelings.
It’s what the self thinks, desires or
feels. That
is the soul of a person.
Many Christians think soul and spirit are the
same, but they are not.
I Thess.5:23 and Heb.4:12 prove this.
The Greek words are psuche
(mind/soul) and
pneuma (spirit.)
The soul part
of us is
what has
to die. You
will learn that this is a process.
Gal. 5:24
“Those who are Christ’s have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires.”
Gal.2:20 “I
have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ
lives in me.
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I
live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself for me.” I have a brochure given
entirely to this subject called, What is My Cross?
Those who are serious about their spiritual
growth will want to get it.
Does
it Wash away Sins?
Acts 2:38
“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and be
baptized in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission (forgiveness) of sins;
and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” Acts
22:16, “And why are you waiting?
Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins,
calling on the name of the Lord.” The majority of verses on baptism point to it as
being a new beginning, so it must wash away the past.
Here are three others that speak of
cleansing from sin that might be for
afterwards: Acts
3:19, “Repent
therefore and be converted (changed) that your
sins may be blotted out …”
Acts 10:43,
“… whoever believes in Him will
receive remission of sins.”
And I
John 1:9 “If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”
I Pet. 3:20-21 says, “… in the days of
Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a
few, that is, eight souls were saved through water.
There is also an antitype which now saves us --
baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but
the answer of a good conscience toward God) …”
So it’s an act of obedience.
God said do it; so we do it.
But this verse begs another question:
Is
it necessary For Salvation?
The
preceding verse seems to say it does.
Are there others? Well, if you consider it as an act of obedience, there are
many verses that say “If you love me, keep my
commandments,”
John 14:15 is one. I have another brochure called, If we’re not saved by works; why obey? The issue of faith versus works is covered in that
one.
Titus 3:4-7 is a scripture that makes some
Christians uncomfortable because they don’t
understand it.
Verse 5 says, “Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us, through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Spirit.”
The phrase in bold type is the problem.
But if you re-read the Rom.6 verses, you will
see that they perfectly agree. Regeneration means to begin again or have a fresh start.
Rom.6:4 said, “… newness of life.” And verse 6,
“… our old man (the sinful human nature) was
crucified with Him…”
Gal.3:27 “For
as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put
on Christ.”
John 3:3-7
Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born
again. When he asked, Jesus said, “…unless one is born of water and
the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that which is born of the spirit is spirit.”
The people who say baptism isn’t what Jesus
is referring to here point out that Jesus was
comparing physical birth with spiritual birth.
However, would
Jesus say you must be born physically or you
cannot go to heaven?
This study is enough to show you that baptism
is important; and probably it is more important than
most want to believe.
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