Baptism is a symbolic action of confession and identification. It has no power in itself to take away our sins or make us right with God. Just as a wedding ring is an identifying symbol of our marriage commitment, so baptism is an identifying symbol of our Christian commitment. What does baptism symbolize? It symbolizes the death, burial, and the resurrection of Christ (Rom. 6:3,4). The water represents a grave. Lowering a person into the water symbolizes burial. Raising that person from the water symbolizes resurrection. When a person is baptized, he is saying “I believe in Christ who died, was buried, and rose again.” At the same time, it symbolizes the believer’s death to sin, burial of the old life, and the resurrection to a new life in Christ. When a person has come to faith in Christ, he/she should then be baptized (Acts 2:41, 42; 8:35-39)
Baptism is reserved for those who have first trusted Christ as their Savior. There is no record in the Bible of anyone except a believer being baptized. Of the scores of times the Bible tells us about people being baptized, it always emphasizes that they first believed in Christ. For this reason, we do not baptize babies. Babies do not believe, nor do they need to. They have no awareness of God and no guilt of sin. They inherit a nature and environment inclined towards rebellion and disobedience against God, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become sinners by choice and are under condemnation. When that time comes, the child needs to trust Christ personally for salvation and then be baptized in the profession of that faith.
The word immerse means to put under water. The word baptize used in the New Testament meant “immerse” in Jesus’ day. This was the only form of baptism used in the early New Testament church. Since Jesus meant immersion when He taught us to go and baptize, we follow His teaching and example through baptism by immersion. Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and make disciples, immersing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. (Matt. 28:19,20). We stand on that!
If you would like to get baptized, please fill out the form below so we can celebrate this joyous occasion with you.
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