©2002 Pastor Thomas Miles

Water baptism is a figurative burial, by which the new believer publicly proclaims they are dead to the old life, and alive to a new life, in Christ Jesus. Baptize is the English form of a Greek word, baptizo {bap-tid'-zo) which means to immerse: to place something into something else. Water baptism is putting the believer completely under water, and then raising him immediately out of the water.  It is the believer's statement of faith that the old life is gone and they are a new person repentant of their sins and the old person is buried.

Water baptism does not guarantee you a ticket to heaven.  It is your testimony to what has happened to you inwardly and a clear and conscientious commitment to turn from your old way of living. It is for your benefit outwardly demonstrating to you the Spiritual realism that the old YOU has died and the new YOU is alive in Christ Jesus!  Praise God!

Water baptism is about your death.  As we all know -- death is the end of something. Water baptism is your public declaration of your death to the old life you once lived. It is a public confession of faith: I have died to my old life and my old ways. I have died to sin and the world's ways.  The old me has been buried and the new me come alive in Christ Jesus.  I am a new creation born again to win! I am no longer bound to the chains of the devil.  Satan is no longer my master! I've been freed from the bonds of depression, anxiety, oppression, possession, temptation, accusation, because I have the authority of the name of Jesus and can say to anything that comes against me:  “Get thee behind me for the old person is dead and buried.  I am a new creation alive in Christ Jesus!  You have no authority in my life Satan!"

Jesus gave up His old life and took on a new life when John baptized Him.  Jesus was our example and declared publicly that He was here to do only the will His Father God!  And for all that chose to follow Him would be baptized also in His name!

According to Acts 2:38 reading from Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible, “38 And Peter said unto them—Repent ye, and let each one of you be immersed, in the name of Jesus Christ, into the remission of your sins, —and ye shall receive the free-gift of the Holy Spirit;”

And Matthew 28:18-20, “38 And Jesus, coming near, spake unto them, saying—All authority, in heaven and on earth, hath been given unto me; 19 Go ye, therefore, and disciple all the nations, Immersing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, —20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I myself have commanded you, And lo! I, am, with you, all the days, until the conclusion of the age.” And in Luke 23:42-43 “42 and he went on to say—Jesus! Remember me, whensoever thou shalt come into thy kingdom. 43 And he said unto him—Verily, I say unto thee this day: With me, shalt thou be in Paradise.”

And lastly Romans 10: 8-13 “8 But what said it? The word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9 That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. 10 For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. 11 For the scripture said, whoever believes on him shall not be ashamed. 12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich to all that call on him. 13 For whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Baptism is important but not a necessity for salvation.  We see that from the passage of scripture in Luke where Jesus tells the un-baptized criminal that he will be with Him in Paradise.  Jesus says this because the man believes in Him!  The confession of the man on the cross was his immersion of the old life and beginning with the new life.  Baptism is important and you might even say crucial for a believer to truly throw away the old life but not a necessity for salvation as we read in Romans 10 and also in the following verses:

Mark 13:13 “13 and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.”

John 10:9 “9 I, am the door: through me, if anyone enter, he shall be saved, and shall come in and go out, and, pasture, shall find.”

John 3: 15-17 “15 that, whosoever believeth in him, may have life age-abiding. 16 For God, so loved, the world, that, his Only Begotten Son, he gave, —that, whosoever believeth on him, might not perish, but have life age-abiding. 17 For God, sent not, his Son into the world, that he might judge the world, but, that the world might be saved through him.”

First and most important is that one believes in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God and confesses it with their mouth.  Secondly, a testimony and public witness or declaration that the old person is gone, dead, buried, and the new person, the new creation is alive in Christ Jesus!  Without the first you cannot have the second.  With only the second you have nothing.  Neither one though guarantees heaven unless you “endure to the end.”

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