WHEN SHOULD A PERSON BE BAPTIZED?

In the Bible, people are baptized at the first available opportunity after they have repented of their sin and placed their faith in Christ. Baptism which takes place before a person has placed their faith in Christ is not true baptism according to the Bible.

WHY SHOULD A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST BE BAPTIZED?

1. To follow the example set by Jesus. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” (Mark 1:9)
2. Because Jesus said that all of His disciples should be baptized. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20)
3. Baptism demonstrates that a person has truly believed the gospel. “…many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized.” (Acts 18:8)

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BAPTISM?

1. It pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4) “…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him.” (Colossians 2:12)
2. It pictures the washing away of my sin. “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (Acts 22:16)
3. It pictures the believer’s new life in Christ. “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3-4)
4. The act of baptism does not make a person a Christian. Salvation comes only by the grace of God through the faith of the believer! Baptism is a picture of what has already taken place in the life of the person being baptized.

WHY SHOULD A PERSON BE BAPTIZED BY IMMERSION?

1. Because Jesus was baptized that way. “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water…” (Matthew 3:16)
2. Because every baptism in the New Testament was by immersion. “…and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. When they came up out of the water…” (Acts 8:38-39)
3. Because the word baptize means “to go under water.” The Greek word baptizo means “to immerse or dip under water.”
4. Because immersion best symbolizes death, burial and resurrection.