All churches teach something about baptism – they just teach different things. Some sprinkle or pour water over the person and call it baptism while others immerse. There are churches that baptize innocent babies and others only baptize those who confess they are sinners who need their sins washed away. Then there are those who believe it’s not water baptism that is significant but rather baptism of the Holy Spirit. Conversely, there are those who teach people receive the Holy Spirit when they are baptized in water. The list goes on and on – what’s a mother to do?
Here’s the simple answer: read the bible IN CONTEXT. Look in scripture to see what people did in the early years of Christ’s church and seek to imitate what people did at the apostles’ bidding. Luke gives the purpose for baptism in Acts 2:36-41. When people put their faith in the grace of God in Jesus as Messiah they expressed that faith by being immersed in water FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS. In Romans 6 the apostle Paul connects baptism to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus when he writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
There are many significant teachings concerning baptism; however, two that really stand out are baptism for the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus resulting in the receiving of the Holy Spirit AND baptism moving us to be born again to a new life as we emulate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the Holy Spirit works in our lives.
Read Romans 6:1-23 and then listen to Randy Travis sing Baptism. If you have questions concerning, baptism please contact me @ 214-533-4266. No pressure, no obligation, no charge 🙂.
Romans 6
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 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, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for the one who has died is freed from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your body’s parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in relation to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.