Why should I be baptized?

Their reception of the gospel message was followed by baptism. It was only right that they should thus testify to a complete and definite change of position, involving their giving up Jewish privileges and boasts in order to own the lordship of the Messiah they had confessed. God had made Him “both Lord and Christ”, and they must needs confess it by being baptised unto His death.

Their reception of the gospel message was followed by baptism. It was only right that they should thus testify to a complete and definite change of position, involving their giving up Jewish privileges and boasts in order to own the lordship of the Messiah they had confessed. God had made Him "both Lord and Christ", and they must needs confess it by being baptised unto His death.

Being baptised dissociated them from the nation and associated them with the Christian company which had just been formed.

It may strike us as remarkable that Peter does not mention faith. But it is inferred, for no one would submit to baptism in the name of Jesus Christ except they believed in Him. Baptism signifies death, and consequently dissociation from the old life and connections. They would not be prepared to cut their links with the old life unless they really believed in Him who was Lord of the new life. With many words Peter testified, and exhorted them to cut their links, and thus save themselves from that "untoward generation."

It also became the starting-place from whence Joshua led the redeemed people from victory to victory against the entrenched foes in the Holy Land. To the Christian believer, baptism represents what Gilgal stood for in the history of the Israelites. In baptism, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ confesses deliverance from the tyranny of Satan and the thraldom of sin through the death and resurrection of his Lord and Saviour. For the true believer is, in Christ, delivered from all condemnation, freed from the law of sin and death, and perfected for ever by the one Offering — the body of Jesus Christ (Heb. 10).

Thus being baptised unto Christ's death, the believer owns that he has died with Christ out of the old life; that Christ died for him, and he died in Him to the world with its hostility to Jesus our Lord; to the flesh with its seductiveness; and to the devil with all the power he has usurped over man through sin. It is a present, personal and permanent deliverance, to the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus, in which that believer rejoices, who reads aright the meaning of Christian baptism. Buried with Christ in baptism unto death he thus confesses the real lordship of Jesus. Christ, who died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried, rose again on the third day as Victor over death and the grave, and we exultantly hail Him as Lord of our life and the God of our salvation. We rise again from the typical grave of our baptism to walk with Him in newness of life; for as surely as we died with Him we also live together with Him. This we confess, as we steadily set our minds on the things that are above, where Christ our Risen Lord now is.

There is a burial — a formal putting out of sight what is dead. Christ's death and burial did this for our sins. We now by this solemn, significant act of baptism by immersion in water, put off the old man [the activities of the old Adam nature] which is corrupt. Taking our place in the silence of the typical tomb, we confess our identification in death and burial with the One Who died for our sins according to the Scripture, and was buried. "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death hath no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in that He lives, He lives unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (verses 8-11). In baptism, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ confesses deliverance from the tyranny of Satan and the thraldom of sin through the death and resurrection of his Lord and Saviour. For the true believer is, in Christ, delivered from all condemnation, freed from the law of sin and death, and perfected for ever by the one Offering — the body of Jesus Christ (Heb. 10).

Thus being baptised unto Christ's death, the believer owns that he has died with Christ out of the old life; that Christ died for him, and he died in Him to the world with its hostility to Jesus our Lord; to the flesh with its seductiveness; and to the devil with all the power he has usurped over man through sin. It is a present, personal and permanent deliverance, to the praise and glory of the Lord Jesus, in which that believer rejoices, who reads aright the meaning of Christian baptism. Buried with Christ in baptism unto death he thus confesses the real lordship of Jesus. Christ, who died for our sins according to the scriptures and was buried, rose again on the third day as Victor over death and the grave, and we exultantly hail Him as Lord of our life and the God of our salvation. We rise again from the typical grave of our baptism to walk with Him in newness of life; for as surely as we died with Him we also live together with Him. This we confess, as we steadily set our minds on the things that are above, where Christ our Risen Lord now is.

Here is the open secret of Christian Baptism. (1) There has been a crucifixion and a death not only for our sins, but to sin. (2) There has been a burial and a resurrection, and we are risen with Him, Col. 2:12. (3) There has been by baptism an outward identification with all this on the part of "as many of us as were baptised unto Jesus Christ."

The Baptist view is that baptism is the sequel to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is maintained that (1) it is an act of obedience to a command of the Lord, proving to the public the honesty of our belief. (2) It is a figure of what has taken place in God's reckoning in relation to the Christian as soon as he believes. (3) It is the answer of a good conscience. (4) It is a public confession of faith, that in scriptural language the individual has put on Christ. He has adopted a new profession with the privileges and responsabilities thereof, i.e., henceforth he is on the Lord's side against the world. The illustration is sometimes given that just as immediately on the death of a king his successor becomes ruler although his coronation may be deferred for some time when he will be declared officially king before the world at large. The believer is baptised in the name of the Trinity and of the Lord Jesus.

Baptism is not only a figure of association in death but also of burial. We are buried with Him by baptism. A further thought is impressed in baptism being a figure of resurrection because Rom. 6:4, goes on to say, "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." Again "buried with Him in baptism wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised Him from the dead" (Col. 2:12). The alternative translation of "wherein" as "in whom" is rejected by this contention. So by coupling both ideas of death and resurrection in the thought of baptism it would be untenable to baptise infants since obviously they could not walk in newness of life. Christian baptism would thus be the door into the sphere of Christ's righteousness and life (Many baptists would probably demur to the last rendering of their view since they would admit that baptism has no subjective import).

This was a very distinct testimony. Jesus of Nazareth, rejected and crucified by man, had been raised from the dead, exalted by the right hand of God, and made both Lord and Christ. What a contrast between the mind of God and the mind of man! And what could more plainly demonstrate man's guilt and man's condition? Truly the cross of Christ brought everything to the test, and not only told out what was in the heart of God, but what was also in the heart of man. This testimony of Peter was carried home to the consciences of those who heard, and, pricked in their heart, they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (vv. 37-39.) Now it is this answer of Peter to these penitent Jews that requires our careful attention. Two things were then to be done, and consequent on this there were two blessings to be received. They were to repent, and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let us suppose for one minute that these Jews had truly repented, and yet refused to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Is it not plain on the very face of this scripture, that in such a case, whatever their state of heart before God, and notwithstanding that they might be truly born again, they could not have been received into the company of believers that stood before them — that, in other words, they could not be brought into the house of God on earth? For what was involved by their baptism in the name of Jesus Christ? "Know ye not," says the apostle Paul, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ (Christ Jesus, really) "were baptized into" (unto — eis) "His death?" (Rom. 6:3 )

This was a very distinct testimony. Jesus of Nazareth, rejected and crucified by man, had been raised from the dead, exalted by the right hand of God, and made both Lord and Christ. What a contrast between the mind of God and the mind of man! And what could more plainly demonstrate man's guilt and man's condition? Truly the cross of Christ brought everything to the test, and not only told out what was in the heart of God, but what was also in the heart of man. This testimony of Peter was carried home to the consciences of those who heard, and, pricked in their heart, they said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (vv. 37-39.) Now it is this answer of Peter to these penitent Jews that requires our careful attention. Two things were then to be done, and consequent on this there were two blessings to be received. They were to repent, and be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Let us suppose for one minute that these Jews had truly repented, and yet refused to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Is it not plain on the very face of this scripture, that in such a case, whatever their state of heart before God, and notwithstanding that they might be truly born again, they could not have been received into the company of believers that stood before them — that, in other words, they could not be brought into the house of God on earth? For what was involved by their baptism in the name of Jesus Christ? "Know ye not," says the apostle Paul, that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ (Christ Jesus, really) "were baptized into" (unto — eis) "His death?" (Rom. 6:3 )

Baptism, therefore, is the public testimony of reception by death and resurrection. That is, now Christ is rejected, we have the public witness that flesh has no place with God; that life is in the Son and given of God - that it is on the ground consequently of the revelation of God as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (the Father who has given this life in sending Jesus, in whom it is, and the Spirit's witness of it because He is truth) - all this is on earth, as the Apostle John's witness always is; and that, walking in this world, we own and are subject to Jesus as the Lord.