Water Baptism

After accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, should we follow the example of Jesus and be baptized in water?  What does it mean?  Is it important?

In John 3:3, Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews and says to him ... "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Jesus does not reply directly to the question of Nicodemus, but proceeds to give a more explicit statement concerning the new birth.

John 3:5 ... "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

John the Baptist, baptized both Jews and Gentiles as a sign of repentance and purification from past sins.  The Jews, long before John the Baptist, baptized Gentiles who converted over to Judaism.  Nicodemus would have certainly understood the expression, "born of water," as a reference to this rite of baptism.

When a non Jew was admitted to Judaism, through this baptism, he promised to renounce idolatry, to take the God of Israel for his God, and to have his life conformed to the precepts of the Law.  But the water of Jewish baptism was only an emblem of the Holy Spirit that Jesus was speaking about with Nicodemus.

Baptism in water only washed, cleansed, and refreshed the body.  The soul was still in a state of sin.  The soul to be purified from it's sin, needed to be born of the Spirit as Jesus said, meaning ... born again.

When John came baptizing with water, he told the Jews that water only would not suffice; they needed more, they needed the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, which they must all receive from Jesus Christ.

Later on the day of  Pentecost, the Apostle Peter declares in Acts 2:38 ...

"Repent, and be baptized, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Peter is saying that "each one of you" ... everyone who repents of sin and is baptized, is showing through baptism in His name that you are making an open, public profession of Christ, and acknowledging yourself to be one of His followers.

Peter is saying exactly what Jesus said when He told Nicodemus ... you must be born of water and of the Spirit.  Repentance and remission of sins are the two main principles of our salvation; we repent and Jesus remits our sin.  Salvation is obtained by faith, and is confirmed or endorsed by us through water baptism.

We get baptized in water ... not for salvation ... but because of salvation.

Baptism is normally by immersion, which represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ; which means others will see the commitment of faith you have taken.  Do you know what accepting Jesus as the Son of God and being baptized in public would mean to a Jew?  His whole world would be changed.  He would be considered a traitor and treated as a heathen.

Peter later called this public baptism ... demonstrating your faith in Jesus ... to the world.

1st Peter 3:20-21 ... "[The souls of those] who long before in the days of Noah had been disobedient, when God's patience waited during the building of the ark in which a few [people], actually eight in number, were saved through water.  And baptism, which is a figure [of their deliverance], does now also save you [from inward questionings and fears], not by the removing of outward body filth [bathing], but by [providing you with] the answer of a good and clear conscience (inward cleanness and peace) before God [because you are demonstrating what you believe to be yours] through the resurrection of Jesus Christ."  (Amplified Bible)

The ark, when Noah and his family were shut up in it by God, represented a type of baptism. The waters came up from the deep under them, the heavens opened and poured water upon them, and they were it seemed, immersed, covered with water ... as a figure of baptism.

Just as only those that were in the ark were saved from the flood; only those that are in Christ are saved from sin.  Not everyone that is baptized shall be saved, unless he also believes and is born again.  Mark 16:16 ... "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."  The blood of Jesus (like the ark) saves, not the water (the flood) you are dipped in. 

Some people just get wet.

Could the reason Jesus wanted the Jews to be born of water (baptized?) as well as of the Spirit have anything to do with a public confession of faith?  He was speaking to Jews, was He not?

Matthew 10:32-33 ... "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."

Look again at what Jesus said to Nicodemus ... "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

If this is true, and it must be because Jesus said it; then this raises a question ... what about the thief on the cross ... he wasn't baptized in water.

This statement is troubling to me and has always raised a question in my mind when I consider the fact that Jesus paid the full price for salvation.  Nothing more can be added.  Nothing more needs to be done.  So why did Jesus say this?

The Apostle Paul expresses water baptism as if it were a real death for us in ...

Romans 6:3-4 ... "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

John Gill (1697-1771) the old English Baptist biblical scholar and theologian comments on this ...

"The nature and end of baptism are here expressed; the nature of it is a burial and when the apostle so calls it, he refers to the only way of administering this ordinance, by immersion; when a person is covered, and as it were buried in water, (as a corpse is when laid in the earth, and covered with it) ... and it is a burial with Christ; it is a representation of the burial of Christ, and of our burial with him."

As baptism is designed to represent the resurrection of Christ ... so likewise baptism is designed to represent our new birth and our resurrection as a new creature in Christ.

1st John 5:6-8 ... "This is He that came by water and blood, Jesus the Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood.  And it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is the truth.  For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.  And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

Many students of the Word say that the water and the blood refer primarily to the water baptism at the beginning of His earthly ministry and to the blood which He shed at its close.  Okay ... I can be in agreement with this being "primarily" what they refer to.  But I think there might be more ...

Could not this water also be the same as the "living water" Jesus spoke about to the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10-14?

What about Ephesians 5:26, where Paul says that Christ cleanses the Church with ... "the washing of water by the Word."  Jesus has the living water, and He is the Word of God made flesh.

And let me add that both "water and blood" came gushing forth from His side when the Roman spear was plunged into Jesus on the cross.  Water and blood both flowed from His side.  Two rites, both monumental institutions ... both of them witnesses ... testify of Him.

So ... what is my conclusion?

Honestly, I have none.  But I will say this ...

Water baptism, in and of itself ... does not save anyone, has no influence on, nor is it essential to salvation.  Christ only is the cause and author of salvation.

But, unlike the repentant thief on the cross ... if we have the time and opportunity to be baptized in water, as Jesus commanded, we should do so ... as a testimony of our faith in Him.





Comments welcome.