Baptized in Water

Today, we are answering another one of your questions. The question was: Why do Baptists Immerse and why don’t they baptize babies?

What is being asked is a question about the proper mode and form of baptism. Baptists were early in their history called the slur Re-baptizers by members of denominations that practiced paedobaptism such as Catholics, the Anglicans, Presbyterians because of their belief in baptizing believers after their profession of faith.

paedobaptist

Paedobaptism (from the Greek root paedo for “child”) is the practice of baptizing the children of believers in infancy. This is done in anticipation of their profession of faith in Christ.

credobaptist

Baptist practice what is known as credobaptism, or baptizing after someone professes faith, from the latin credo for “faith” and baptizo for immersion. Unlike credobaptists, who see baptism as a sign of his fellowship with him, paedobaptists regard baptism as the New Testament counterpart to Old Testament circumcision. Therefore, they administer the visible, public sign of the covenant to the children of Christians. Thus in paedobaptist churches you have what’s known as the visible church, all those who have been baptized into the body and the church includes both saved and unsaved men, women, and children.

But Baptists believe baptism something different than the New Testament equivalent to circumcision and thus is something particular to the New Testament era.

So what do we believe about Baptism and why do we believe it?

Well, I consider myself a confessional baptist, one who hold to the creeds of the church to which I commit myself to, and so a great place to start is with the two major creeds that apply to the Baptist faith, particularly the Southern Baptist faith: The Baptist Faith and Message and the 1689 London Confession of faith.

So first, what do we believe as Baptist about Baptism, and second why do we believe it when so many other believers teach differently?

Why Be Baptized?

The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message states on baptism:

“Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord’s Supper.”

Further, the oldest Baptist Confession that we hold to, the 1689 London Baptist Confession of faith states concerning baptism:

Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him;1 of remission of sins;2 and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.3

In these two creeds or confessions we find some specific truths about what we believe about Baptism.

Put simply baptism is

Baptism is a church’s act (ordinance) of affirming and displaying a believer’s union with Christ by immersing him in water, and it is the believer’s act of publically committing himself to Christ and his people thereby uniting themselves to that local church and marking him off from the world.

So let’s break that down.

An Act of the Church

First, baptism is an act of the church. The word we give for prescribed acts of the church, commands given to the church is the term ordinance. Many see baptism as a symbol that is between a person and God alone.

But in the New Testament, we find Baptism is something more. It’s an act of the church. In Matthew 18, Jesus is giving direction to His church about how they handle disagreements in the body. In that passage, Jesus gives instruction on how the local church should handle sinful and rebellious disagreement and sin in the body.

In that context, Jesus then makes this statement in vv. 18-20:

Matthew 18:18–20 ESV

Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

If you see the force of this passage, you see clearly that Jesus has imbued in the local body, the local church, his authority to gathered churches.

Then in Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus calls upon the church to go and make disciples

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, 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. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

As you can see, Jesus has given to the local body the awesome privilege and authority to act as his representatives authorizing those who profess faith in Christ through the ordinance of Baptism.

Baptism is more than just a believer saying “I got saved”, it’s also the local body affirming that they see the evidence of salvation and sanctification in the life of the believer. It’s an affirmation of faith.

An Act of the Believer

Baptism is also an act of the believer. It’s an act of both obedience and of testimony. When a believer is baptized they are proclaiming union with Christ.

The 1689 proclaims that Baptism was “ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him;1 of remission of sins;2 and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life.”

Baptism is ordained by Jesus. Acts 22:16

Acts 22:16 ESV

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

And is a display of our union with Christ.

Galatians 3:27 ESV

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Notice that our baptism is an outer display of an inner reality. God in his grace saves us and makes us one with Christ.

Our passage stated that we are

Romans 6:5 ESV

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

In Christ we are united at our salvation to receive a resurrection like his. Baptism is a public display of this inner reality, that the old man is dead and a new man has risen.

But it’s also an act of obedient proclamation to the world of our faith in Christ, a proclamation that around the world costs people their wealth, their family, and in some countries their lives.

In Dec. 2020, Pastor Salim Surin was a part-time evangelist in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum. He was preaching the gospel and leading hindi and muslims to Christ in India. He went to a village because local muslims expressed a desired to be baptized. After visiting the Christians in Putikda, Pastor Surin and his wife traveled home on the couple’s motorbike. Along the way, the couple was stopped by three unidentified individuals who shot and killed Pastor Surin.

For Pastor Surin, the cost of baptism was indeed high.

But for those Muslims, their baptism was a way of proclaiming their trust in Christ. It’s an act of obedience in proclaiming the truth of our salvation to a lost world.

Baptism is simply the demonstrator of real faith and real transformation which issues in obedience and the first act of obedience was baptism.

Baptism does not make you holy.  Baptism does not save you.  Baptism does not secure you.  All baptism does is demonstrate your obedience and give you the joy of obedience and the blessing of obedience.

When we come to the baptismal waters we are saying, “I hereby confess in my willing submission to this divinely appointed ordinance my glad obedience to the command of my Lord and Savior.  In this symbolic way, I show my identification with the one who bore my sins, took my place, died in my stead, was buried and rose again for my justification.  As Christ went through the reality of suffering in death to secure my salvation, so by my immersion in water and coming out, I thus publicly declare my identification with my Lord in His death, burial, and resurrection on my behalf with the intention to walk with Him in newness of life.”

So Why by Immersion?

The Explanation of the Word:

The word Baptize comes from two Greek verbs which affirm this simple definition of baptism, Baptō, which was only used four times.  It always means to dip, to dip into, to dip into to dye, D-Y-E, and so in all those cases, it means to submerged or immerse – to dip into.  A stronger word than baptō, an intensive form of baptō is baptizō, from which we get baptize. Every time in scripture the word baptizo means to immerse completely in water. The word means to drown, totally submerging, immersing, dunking into water.

The transliteration, meaning to transliterate the letters from one language to similar letters in another thereby creating a new word, (rather than translation) of the Koine Greek word can be attributed to the Roman Catholic Church in the fourth century, and particularly St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate translation of the scriptures in 405 A.D.

In fact the great reformer Martin Luther admits in The Babylonian Captivity of the Church that, “It is therefore indeed correct to say that baptism is a washing away of sins, but the expression is too mild and weak to bring out the full significance of baptism, which is rather a symbol of death and resurrection. For this reason, I would have those who are to be baptized completely immersed in the water, as the word says and as the mystery indicates.”

Why Believers and Not Babies?

The Evidence of Scripture:

We Baptize Believers Because That’s What Happened in Scripture. No where do we find infants being baptized in Scripture. The Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8, the Jews saved at the day of Pentecost, and Crispus the chief of the synagogue were all baptized after they expressed faith in Christ.

Here’s just a few verses:

Acts 2:41 ESV

So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Acts 8:12 ESV

But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

Now some will point to the Roman Jailer and Crispus and note:

Acts 18:8 ESV

Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord, together with his entire household. And many of the Corinthians hearing Paul believed and were baptized.

Their argument is that “his entire household” was baptized. But the assumption is that they were baptized because they were in his household, and not because of faith in Christ. But the scripture does not state this and in fact several assumptions are made. Namely that Crispus’ children didn’t express faith in Christ or that there were infants in his home. It is just as likely that they were all baptized because Crispus and Paul shared the gospel and they responded in faith.

So what do we believe?

Baptism is a church’s act (ordinance) of affirming and displaying a believer’s union with Christ by immersing him in water, and it is the believer’s act of publically committing himself to Christ and his people thereby uniting themselves to that local church and marking him off from the world.

So here’s the key today:

If you’re a believer and you have never experienced believers baptism as prescribed in scripture, would you in obedience submit yourself to God and follow him in believer’s baptism. Is infant baptism invalid, no, but it is not the biblically prescribed method by which a believer proclaims the gospel of Christ in the world.

If you’re a believer and you’ve never been obedient in baptism, what are you waiting for? Come and make public your profession of Christ as Lord to the world!

If you are not a believer....