Someone brought up a question this week. Should you get baptized again? That leads to a bigger question, what is baptism? What is baptism for?
There are two main kinds of teaching about baptism. There are more than that, but many churches teach one of these two ways. The first teaching about baptism is that baptism is my promise to God. I get baptized to show that I will follow Him.
Some churches teach this. These churches don’t baptize babies. They only baptize adults. Why? They say babies can’t promise to follow God. Only older children and adults can say they believe in Jesus and promise they will follow Him. That is their teaching.
If you believe that, then you are saying “Baptism is my work.” Yes, God sent Jesus to die and forgive my sins. But I have to understand, I have to decide to believe, I have to accept His forgiveness. I get baptized, and that shows God I’m seriously committed to following Him.
But there are two problems with that teaching. First, the Bible doesn’t teach that. We will only follow teachings that are from the Bible. If it’s not in the Bible, then people made it up and we shouldn’t follow that. This teaching that baptism is my promise to God, that isn’t in the Bible.
Second, if baptism is your commitment, do you actually do what you promise? Or do you fail, and then you need to promise again? If you sin, if you stray from God, then you fail and your baptism is no good. If baptism is my promise to God, then baptism depends on me. But I am a sinner, I can’t perfectly do what I promise, and my promise will fall apart, the same as a house built on sand.
I’ve seen some people do that. They get baptized, they commit their life to God. But then they mess up. They get lazy, they stop going to church, so they have to commit their life to God again.
Then they really mess up. They get stuck in some serious sins, some really bad stuff. Now they want to get baptized again. They want to show God they’re serious now. They want His forgiveness and want Him to clean them up so they can make their promise new and try again.
Do you keep all your promises? I don’t. I try. But I fail. I keep some, I fail some. I don’t, I can’t keep all my promises perfectly.
I’m going to be very blunt here. If salvation depends on you keeping your promises, you will go to hell.
I’ll say it again. You think you can promise God you will follow Him, you will get baptized, you will try hard to do everything right and follow Him, and then you can go to heaven? No, you are depending on your promises to follow God. You will fail your promises and you will go to hell.
I know, you are thinking, maybe you want to yell at me, Pastor, that is too strong to say! But it is the truth. God doesn’t want us depending on ourselves and our promises. God wants us trust HIS promises.
That leads to the second way of teaching about baptism. This isn’t about my promise to God. The second way of teaching is that baptism is God’s promise to us. This is what the Bible actually teaches.
Will God fail to do His promises? Never. He keeps all His promises. Baptism is His promise to save you. Let’s see what the Bible says about baptism.
John 3:5. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
Jesus says you must be born of water and the Holy Spirit to enter His kingdom (heaven). That is baptism! Baptism is where God gives that gift of eternal life.
Romans 6:3-4. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
These are wonderful verses. We know that Jesus died on the cross and rose alive from the dead for us. Baptism connects you with Jesus’ death and resurrection. Baptism gives that to you. When you get baptized, that means you died with Jesus to take away your sins, and you rose alive with Jesus so now you have new life. That is not your promise to God. That is God’s promise and gift to you.
1 Peter 3:21. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Before this verse, Peter was talking about Noah and his family and the flood. The flood destroyed sin and sinners on earth, but in the flood and the boat, God saved Noah from the sinful world. Peter said baptism is the same as that flood. Baptism saves you from sin. Baptism asks God to give you a clean conscience, a clean heart, and He does that because Jesus rose alive for you. That is His gift!
Galatians 3:26-27. For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Galatians 3 tells us more about God’s work in baptism. In baptism, God gave you Jesus the same as clothes. Jesus’ holy life and forgiveness covers your sin. Now you are clean and holy because of Jesus. Now God says you are His children. And He gave you all of that in baptism.
Acts 2:38-39. And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
Finally, these verses in Acts 2 are part of Peter’s sermon at Pentecost. He told the crowd of people to repent and get baptized. Why? What will baptism do? In baptism, God will forgive their sins and give them the Holy Spirit. This is God’s promise and gift! But who is it for? Adults only? No. Peter said God’s promise was for the adults and also their children and every person God will call.
You can see how many promises and gifts God gives you! If the promise depends on me, then we can never get baptized enough because we continue to break our promises. But baptism depends on God’s promises. He keeps all His promises. It doesn’t matter if you were baptized as a baby or an adult. God’s promises are true. You only need baptism one time. Trust God and His promises!
These are just the basics. We could go much deeper. If you have questions, you agree or disagree, or you want to go deeper, please leave a comment! Thank you for watching and reading!
