Baptism

An act of obedience

As followers of Jesus, we seek to imitate what He did and follow His teachings. Not only did Jesus model baptism by being baptized himself (Matthew 13:13-17), he also commanded his followers to make disciples and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19-20). Therefore, baptism is an act of obedience to Jesus, following His example and His teaching.

A symbol

Baptism is also a symbol of what Jesus has done in a believer’s life. When a person is baptized and goes into the water, it is symbolic of the old self being buried in death. When the person is raised out of the water, it is symbolic of the believer being raised in new life through the work of Jesus. In this way, the act of baptism serves as a testimony to the work of Jesus.

A public declaration

Finally, baptism is a public declaration of faith in Jesus Christ for salvation. When a person is baptized, they are declaring to people that they believe in Jesus and they are going to follow Him in all that they do. In this way, a person being baptized is publicly identifying themselves to be with Jesus and part of His people and there is accountability and commitment connected to the public declaration of baptism. This also means we do not believe baptism saves you, rather it publicly demonstrates the salvation of Jesus in a person’s life.

Since we believe baptism is an act of obedience, a symbol of what Christ has done, and a public declaration of faith in Jesus, then we believe baptism is reserved for believers in Jesus.

We also believe baptism is a one time act. Sometimes there are people who have been baptized previously but they have fallen away for a while and they feel like they need to get baptized again in order to get things right. We applaud the desire these people have to align their lives with God, however they do not need to be baptized again because that is not the purpose of baptism. Instead, we encourage them to simply repent and submit to God.

There are exceptions to this rule, like when a person was baptized at a young age and didn’t understand it, but on the whole, baptism is a one-time act for believers in Jesus Christ.

We believe the Bible teaches that baptism should be by immersion, or submerging a person under water for two reasons.

First, that is how they did it in the Bible. The Greek word for “baptism” literally means to plunge, soak, or dip. Therefore every time the Bible talks about baptism, it is describing the act of submerging a person under the water. This is what Jesus experienced from John the Baptist, and what the disciples carried on in Acts as the gospel spread.

Secondly, we baptize by immersion because of what it symbolizes. Romans 6:4 tells us, “...we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” This is the picture of baptism by immersion: going under the water as a symbol of being buried, and coming up out of the water as a symbol of being raised to new life.