Water Baptism

    When we get born again, the word tells us that we are a new creation! We have accepted Jesus and His new covenant. He died as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. In taking this step into new life, we leave behind the guilt of our past and step into His marvelous plans for us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (ESV)

    After we have made the bold decision to commit our lives to Christ, we also commit to following His word. In the Bible, it tells us that we are to be baptized in spirit and in water as an act of obedience to our Lord. Jesus commanded that His disciples be baptized and even He Himself was baptized! If the pure and perfect Son of God Himself was baptized "to fulfill all righteousness," why do we think it is not important for us? We do not get to pick and choose parts of the Bible to follow, and baptism is not an option according to Jesus. It is a mandatory part of our walk of Christian faith.


Mark 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved (NIV)

John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." (NIV)

Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (NIV)

Matthew 3:13-17 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (NIV)

   So what does baptism mean? It is symbolic of our old selves being crucified and buried with Christ and then our resurrection into new life in Him. We are proclaiming to the world our decision to follow Jesus Christ! We are made new in Him!

Romans 6:3-11 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (NIV)

    Lastly, I will set the record straight on some confusions about baptism. Firstly, baptism is a proclamation of our faith in Jesus and only has value after we have made that decision. If you were baptized before you knew Him, it had no value. Likewise, infant baptisms are not anywhere in the Bible. An infant cannot make the conscious decision to follow Christ. There is no age mentioned in the Bible of when a baptism is appropriate, but we do have to understand what following Jesus is and what baptism means in that process. Personally, I made the decision to be baptized when I was about 12 years old. Lastly, "sprinkling" baptisms are nowhere in the Bible; it only speaks of full submersion so that is the model we follow. 

   If you have not been baptized in water and you are a born-again Christian, I strongly encourage you to pray about this and see if the Lord is not asking you to fulfill His commandment. I think you might find that He is. It is an amazing experience that only draws us nearer to our Father in Heaven!