Things that make you go “huh?”: One time I was driving down the road and saw a man on a Harley motorcycle… holding his little chihuahua. Huh? One time after church a newcomer came up to me and said she didn’t like her previous church because the pastor preached messages that didn’t make her happy. Huh? (By the way, she didn’t stay long at Island Pond either). One time when I was looking at houses I came across one that had a working toilet in a storage closet and a working shower in the next door storage closet. Huh?
Let me give you one more: A person who has put their faith in Jesus Christ but has never gotten baptized. Huh?
If that is you, I am not trying to pick on you. But I do want you to see that the New Testament makes it very clear: baptism always follows conversion. If you have been saved, then you should get baptized!
Let me give you a few passages from Scripture to back this up.
In Matthew 28, Jesus tells his followers to go and make disciples. How are they to do that? He says, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (vv. 19-20).
It’s not that baptism saves a person. But it does SHOW a person is saved. It is a public proclamation that, “Jesus Christ has saved me!” So for a person to not get baptized means that person is not proclaiming he/she is saved.
In Acts there are multiple times when baptism immediately proceeds conversion. For example, in Acts 2, Peter preaches a powerful gospel-centered sermon and the people are convicted, so they ask what they should do. Peter responds by saying, “Repent and be baptized every one of you…” (2:38). When Philip tells the Ethiopian about Jesus and he believes, they immediately stop and get baptized (8:36-38). In Acts 16, after the jailer puts his faith in Jesus, we see that he immediately went and got baptized (16:33).
I could go on and on, but the point is clear: In the New Testament, the pattern is always conversion and then baptism.
You may be asking, “What is the big deal with baptism?” Let me explain…
Baptism is important because there is amazing symbolism in it. The word for baptize literally means, “to submerge in water.” For example, when Jesus was baptized (for slightly different reasons than why we get baptized), Matthew says, “when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water…” (Matthew 3:16). He went IN the water (immersion) and then UP from the water.
When a person gets baptized after putting their faith in Jesus Christ, they are proclaiming an important message. “In the water”… means you have been buried and died to your sins. “Out of the water”… means you have risen again in new life through Jesus Christ. It is the gospel message acted out!
And when you get baptized, you do it in front of people, telling others that this is what has been done to you! This is the “coming out of the closet” moment in spiritual terms. It is the announcement to the world, “I have been saved by Jesus!”
With this in mind, I want to quickly give you two thoughts:
1) Knowing the symbolism of baptism, infants and non-Christians should not do it.
Baptism is saying, “This is what Christ has done to me!” So if you are not a Christian (adult or infant), then you should not get baptized!
Going along with that thought, if you later become a Christian, and were baptized before that time, then that prior baptism is not a valid baptism. Therefore, it would be best to get baptized in a valid manner once you are a Christian.
2) If you are a Christian who has not been baptized, you need to get it done.
While it does not save you, it is a command in Scripture. So to not get baptized, particularly when you know you should, is willful disobedience against God.
Thankfully, the solution is very simple: get baptized! At Island Pond, we are offering it just about every month. So contact the office and let us know you want to be part of the next baptism!