The Importance of Baptism
Introduction
We live in an age of convenience and sophistication:
- Pay-at-the-pump gasoline; ATMs; time management; online shopping.
- Sophistication breeds contempt for time-honored traditions and values.
- Convenience and sophistication now rules some churches.
- Baptism is looked upon as an option and a bother. Baptism in the New Testament was one’s public profession of faith; today, modern and liberal churches have substituted baptism with “walking-the-aisle” for one’s public profession of faith. Many churches teach that baptism is an outmoded option to Christianity.
Thesis: Baptism publicly professes one’s salvation by Christ.
- Baptism does not save. We do not believe in baptismal regeneration.
- Baptism does profess one’s faith.
- The dying thief on the cross was saved by faith. He did not have the opportunity to be baptized. Death-bed repentance is the only exception to baptism in the Bible.
- For everyone else, baptism is a command to be obeyed, not debated.
The Motive for Baptism
A. Baptism is the first step of obedience for the new Christian.
- Acts 2:38 says, “Repent, and be baptized, everyone of you for the remission of sins.”
- Matthew 10:24-25 says, “The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord.”
- Jesus went from Nazareth to Jordan to be baptized, Matthew 3:23 to 4:13.
- A. T. Robertson said: “If Jesus was immersed, you wish to be immersed also. You ought not to be willing to do something else. If He went all the way from Nazareth to the Jordan to be immersed by John, we ought not to say anything about convenience now. It is not a question of what we would rather do. Jesus was immersed. Will you be content with doing something else for your own convenience, and offer that to Him for obedience? It is not a question of salvation, for we are not saved by baptism. But why do anything if you are not willing to do what Jesus did, and what He commands?”
- Matthew 10:32-33 says: “Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father in heaven.”
- Romans 10:9-10 says: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
B. The second motive for baptism is love for Jesus. Love is a verb that must be put into action, John 14:15.
C. The third motive for baptism is joy, Acts 8:35-39. When we are obedient in baptism, it brings joy to Jesus and to us. To disobey the command to be baptized robs us of the joy of the Lord.
The Method of Baptism
A. Only Believers can be baptized, not infants.
B. The word baptize means “to immerse,” Matthew 3:16-17.
C. Illustration
Dr. Richard Cutter taught Greek at Baylor University in the early 1960s. A discussion of the Greek word baptizo occurred in the class, and Dr. Cutter insisted that the word meant “to immerse, to put under.”
A Methodist student raised his hand and said, “Dr. Cutter, it would seem that it would be convenient for you to interpret baptizo as immersion since you are a Baptist.”
Dr. Cutter responded, “You have a very valid point–except that I, too, am a Methodist!”
The Meaning of Baptism, Romans 6:3-5
A. Death of the old man before salvation.
B. Burial of the old life.
C. Resurrection of new life to be lived for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
Do you love Jesus? Then obey His example and command: Be baptized.
Do you know Jesus as your Lord? If not, “Repent and be baptized, everyone one of you for the remission of sins.”
Were you baptized as an infant or by sprinkling? If so, it’s time to follow the biblical teaching of immersion.
Baptism by immersion is required for membership in the Baptist church and for participation in the Lord’s Supper.