Should a new believer be baptized immediately?

Baptism follows the hearing of faith. And thus, when they come upon a certain water, the stranger asks what hinders his being baptized, and has the privilege conferred on the spot. So Peter asked, in Cornelius' house, if any one could forbid it, when the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit, even as the believing Jews before them. For the outer mark, worse than worthless without the heart's subjection to the Lord and His grace, has its importance in ways neither few nor small; as the loss of the truth represented is as manifest in those that despise, as in those that idolize it. They fail to see that life is never attributed to baptism, but salvation is set forth in it, the washing away of sins, and death to sin, the blessed portion to which the gospel bears witness in Christ dead and risen for the believer.

Then it says that they were baptised. I remember that when I professed to love the Lord and accepted Him as my Saviour, it was more than a year before I was baptised. Maybe some delays are longer, maybe some are a lot shorter, but here we find that those people seemed to understand instantly what was required of them, that, having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, they immediately got baptised. They immediately cut themselves off from all that they were formerly connected with and said virtually 'We are going to live for Christ'. This is an amazing thing. We believe it is a further evidence of the power of the Spirit indicating to those people who had trusted the Lord that this was the right thing for them to do. They believed, they were baptised and then they continued to walk in a way that was very powerful indeed, they continued to walk in the teaching, and fellowship of the apostles, and in the breaking of bread and in prayers.

Does any one now ask, What have I to do to be saved? Romans 10 furnishes a very simple answer: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes to righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made to salvation" (vers. 9, 10). Are you going to believe God's Word tonight, and confess His Son? Will you yield your heart now to this precious loving Saviour? You could not do better than imitate this jailer. The jailer heard the gospel, "Believe … and be saved." He believed, and he was saved. Manifestly he believed with his heart, and confessed with his mouth, for we read: "He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." He did not wait till the morning.

The jailer took them 'that hour' of the night, however unseasonable it might seem; for such is the force, rather than 'the same' which is not said, though of course the latter also was true. But we must correctly reproduce what was originally written and meant. After washing their stripes he and all his were baptized without delay, it would seem in the precincts of the prison proper. Then he brought them 'up' into his house, apparently over the prisoners' quarters, attended to their bodily refreshment, and rejoiced with all his house, having believed in God.

But man's unbelief cannot make the faithfulness of God without effect. The kingdom of heaven, with its message of peace and reconciliation, remains the testimony of a love which goes out to all, and would gather in to God wherever the will of man is not hardening itself in opposition. We do not, in fact, in Scripture meet with that long delay of baptism, and that preparation of catechumens, which came in as baptism itself came to be looked upon as reception into the Church, and the symbol of the full Christian state. In the New Testament the catechumens were inside, not outside, the sphere of discipleship. Instead of being kept waiting at the thresh old, the applicants were met with a generous and unsuspecting welcome. Three thousand were baptized on the day of Pentecost: how much preliminary instruction had they? And if, as at Samaria, a Simon Magus were received, with his heart not right in the sight of God, his reception had not defiled those tender arms of mercy which had been flung around him, and from which he had, as it were, to burst, to pursue the headlong path to everlasting ruin. I say, it is evident upon the face of Scripture, that baptism was not then fenced round, as many now would fence it round. It was a door, not carelessly, but readily and with a full heart, opened to the applicant for it. No question of Christ's heart, no "if thou wilt" was to be permitted.

p343 [C Crain] DEAR BROTHER, - I thought probably baptism was on the mind of -; with him it would be taking on the responsibility of a Christian, and till he fully knows grace this would be a difficulty when a man is conscientious, so one would wait, only putting the grace clearly before him. But in his case it should surely come first: it is the just order, and for the above reason not without its moral bearing. But at any rate it would be the just order. We must come into the house, naturally, before we sit down to the table in the house, though the Lord's supper is the expression of the unity of the body, and by one Spirit we are baptised into one body, and with that baptism has nothing directly to do. Only as I said, it is the natural order, and his own soul's state has to be considered in connection with it, not to slip in easy, though I do not think he is inclined to that.

2nd: As the assembly is, in the very nature of its constitution, a gathering of believers, by profession at least (Acts 2:44, 47; 1 Cor. 1:2, etc.), and as all believers are to be baptized (Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:41, etc.), so the assembly is under obligation to receive into its communion only believers who have been baptized. Since, however, baptism is nowhere in the Word made a thing to be done in or by the assembly, or of its authority, but is always a matter between the evangelist and his converts (Matt. 28:19; Acts 8:27-39; 9:10-18; 10:34-48, etc.), and since no divine precept marks out the mode or time for baptism, so the when, the where, and the how, belong not to the assembly's responsibilities, but to those of the individuals before God. Rom. 14:5 comes in in such cases.

It is therefore by the authority of the Lord, and according to the example of His Apostles, that believers are now to be baptised in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Pious persons sometimes baptise unconscious infants, and unbelieving households; but there is no word in the New Testament to warrant such practices, believers alone being the proper subjects of Christian Baptism. This to an unprejudiced reader is demonstrated by the fact that in every New Testament instance, baptism follows upon the hearing of faith. "He that believes and is baptised" — note the order. Baptism is in contrast with circumcision generally and not a complementary rite carried over into Christianity from Judaism; although by way of likeness, this may be noted, that as every circumcised Jew of necessity had natural life before circumcision, so in every case now real spiritual life precedes true Christian Baptism. But in the consideration of Christian Baptism it is absolutely essential that we keep the Lord Jesus Christ Himself clearly before us, so that the ordinance does not hide the Saviour, Whose death and burial, alone give point and meaning to it.

It was a real work of God in the conscience. They were not persuaded only, but pricked in heart. There was submission to His person Whom they had just crucified, and this through faith in God's word. It was not mere remorse, still less a change of mind only, but real judgment of self before God (Whose part they now took against themselves and their unbelieving evil in the past), and a distinct casting themselves on Him Whom they had so bitterly despised to their own ruin. Now they repented, and were baptized each of them in the name of Jesus for remission of sins. Through His name the believer receives remission of sins; in none other is there salvation. He is exalted to give repentance and remission of sins. As they repented, so also were they baptized in His name, according to the charge laid on His servants. They took the place of death with Him: I say not that they then understood its meaning, as they doubtless entered into it more or less afterwards. The Lord directed His servants to baptize; and the new converts simply and without question submitted. It was His way, nor is any other so good, though many a servant of His diverged from His orders, and many a convert seems in effect to think himself, in this as in other things, wiser than his Master. It was a clean final break with sins and sin, with man and religious man, with Judaism. Little or nothing could any one of these confessors be supposed at this solemn epoch of new birth to apprehend with intelligence; but they did feel before God their own nothingness, and the all-sufficiency of His name Who had died on the cross. And they were welcome to the precious privilege conferred on them, as they could in no way have been recognized as disciples of His had they refused baptism in His name. It was the mark of His confession, the sign of salvation; and woe to him that spurns the authority and grace of Him Who instituted it!

Receiving Peter's word, three thousand were baptized that day. How this was accomplished by the disciples we are not told. There is no hint of people being questioned as to the reality of their faith, and no time for proving its reality. Actually, they acknowledged the counsel of God against themselves by thus being buried (figuratively speaking). In order to be buried, it is only necessary that one should be dead: he is not buried because he has life, nor in order to receive life. However, being "unto Christ," who is raised, baptism points to life beyond death.