Baptism. Necessary?

There are some who hold that baptism isn’t a must when becoming a Christian, and that as long as you ‘believe in your heart’, you will automatically become a part of the kingdom of God. However, Jesus made clear that belief is the first step in a process –for if you believe Him, you’ll then faithfully do all the things he instructs. He gave the clear instruction of believing (and also ‘repenting’, i.e turning one’s back on life without Him), and then being baptised. In Mark 16:16, Jesus says “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”

Jesus Himself was baptized (although He had no sin to remit) to set the example to us. He impressed the importance of it upon His apostles, (‘apostles’ = followers of Jesus, handpicked by Him to spread the message of Christ) saying in Matthew 28:19 “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

The apostles continued teaching the importance of baptism and carrying it out as Jesus instructed. Baptism is a divine process where one is ‘reborn’ into a new life (Colossians 2:12) where sin no longer dominates. When explaining to a very large, multicultural (- n.b. would spread to ‘all nations’) crowd of people about the power of Christ’s Church, Peter, a most notable disciple of Jesus says “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2:28).Fleeing sin is the principal theme of Christianity. Thus the inward repentance which allows the sin to be remitted and the outward baptism in response to this, must be essential.

In the New Testament recorded early Church, those who Jesus had personally taught and directly sent to carry his message were successful in relating how essential the ‘repentance plus baptism’ process is; to the effect that those who were touched by the message of Jesus, and desired to become Christian were baptized straight away. The account is told of an Ethiopian intellectual who once having the account of Jesus’ life explained to him, insisted on being baptized as soon as he and the apostle teaching him came upon some water; saying “See here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:36). Similarly, it is told of a jailor of a prison wherein two apostles had been held. He asked them what to do to be saved; he was told to believe in Jesus “and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.”(Acts 16:33)

Many nominal churches sweep aside the importance of baptism, stating that becoming a Christian is solely from an internal moving of faith. However, love is a verb, an active process. The Bible says “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (James 2:17), showing that inward belief must go hand in hand with external action.

Some say baptism isn’t necessary as it is merely symbolic. It is indeed symbolic –of being ‘born again’ and being ‘buried’ and ‘rising’ with Jesus, who set the example for us. However it is not ‘merely’ a symbol, as the Bible shows it is the critical point of the new beginning of the converted person taking effect. If baptism were not essential, the forefathers of the early Church, who had been taught directly by Jesus would not have gone out of their way to carry it out with everyone who wished to be saved; and they wouldn’t have taken the time to record it all.

Some ask, “well what if a person decided they want to become a Christian but they are hit by a bus before they get a chance to ‘seal the deal’ with baptism?”. This question is dubious because God is “a just God and a saviour” (Isaiah 45:21) and if he ever did allow such a bizarre thing to happen, He knows why. Our job is not to question who will be saved (that’s between God and every individual), but to do all he instructs to ensure we, and those around us are