Water Baptism
Why Should I Be Baptized In Water?
By Dr. John Wagner
After you invite Jesus Christ into your heart and life you need to be baptized in water; in this lesson I discuss why it is so essential to be baptized in water.
- What is water baptism?
- When should water baptism be done?
- Biblical examples of baptized converts
What Is Water Baptism?
Water baptism is the outward act of publicly identifying with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is the outward testimony of the change that has taken place inside a person's heart as a result of believing in Jesus.
Luke 3:2
John the Baptist baptized Jesus:
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.
Even though Jesus had never sinned, He allowed Himself to be baptized in water to openly and publicly identify with fallen humanity who He came to save. In the same way, we must publicly identify with Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
How Do We Identify With Jesus Christ In Baptism?
1. We are crucified with Christ
When a person is sorry for their past sins, repents (turns away from them), believes in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and invites Him into their life, a person is symbolically crucified with Jesus Christ.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Romans 6:6-7
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
2. We are buried with Christ
When a person dies in life, a funeral service is usually conducted for them and they are buried. This is also true spiritually. After receiving Jesus Christ as our Saviour and dying to our old way of life, we are buried with Him in the act of water baptism.
Romans 6:4
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
3. We are raised with Christ
Just as Jesus was raised form the dead, we identify with His resurrection when we come up out of the waters of baptism. Symbolically, when we come up out of the water after being baptized, we are being raised from death to live a whole new life free from the power of sin!
Romans 6:5, 8
If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection...Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Romans 6:11-13
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Our daily lives should reflect the changes that baptism symbolizes. This is why baptism is so important! It is an outward picture to a lost world of what has happened to us when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior.
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