An Overview of Christian Baptism (Part One)

An Overview of Christian Baptism (Part One).  Water baptism is an ancient ceremony in the church, the first of two ordinances instituted by Christ. The second ordinance is the Lord’s Supper, or Communion. Water baptism beautifully re-enacts the gospel and serves both as an introduction—the individual’s public profession of personal faith in Jesus—and an induction of the baptized person into Christ’s local church. “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” (Rom. 6:4). Baptism is all about belonging! You belong to Jesus, and you belong to everyone else who also belongs to Jesus.

The word baptism itself means to dip, immerse, wash. But as a concept, baptism entails much more than a water ritual. Rich in symbolism and diverse in tradition, while water baptism is not salvation, as the thief on the cross could not get baptized before Jesus promised, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), water baptism is usually the first act of obedience that a believer in Jesus takes after his or her conversion. This is sometimes called “believer’s baptism” (i.e., credo baptism), because it happens after a profession of belief in Jesus for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Many born-again, Bible-believing Christians practice “infant baptism” (i.e., paedo baptism) in the Reformed tradition of inducting a child into the covenant community, much like circumcision did for the Jews. Quite distinct from that, though, the Bible gives no endorsement of “baptismal regeneration,” which is the false belief that the ritual of baptism imparts salvation, or any part of salvation.

Water baptism is the distinctly Christian rite that Jesus modeled and mandated as the new, normalized method of publicly identifying with Jesus and his church. In this sense, Peter spoke into one verse two distinct aspects of salvation, without confusing or confounding them, internal belief and external baptism. “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Act 2:38). The internal part, repent/believe, is primary. The external part, be baptized, is secondary since it bears testimony to belief. This is the normal beginning of the Christian journey, belief then baptism.

Like the Old Testament references to passing through the waters of the Red Sea (Psa. 78:13; Isa. 43:2), going under the water of baptism symbolizes descending into the grave. The sinner willingly joins Jesus’ death, sinking under the water, because he or she believes that Jesus willingly died as the perfect and only substitute for sin. “We have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died” (2 Cor. 5:14). Furthermore, just as Jesus did not remain dead, even so the believer does not stay under the water at baptism. By faith, he or she spiritually rises with Jesus in his resurrection. “And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:15).

Water baptism, therefore, declares publicly to the world what the Apostle Paul explained carefully to the church: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Water baptism depicts the believer’s unity with Jesus by faith through all the aspects of redemption—death, burial, and resurrection.