Baptism – The Process of Salvation 5

The final step before God’s gift of salvation is accepted is baptism. Everywhere you read the word “baptism” in the bible, it would be more properly translated as “immersed”. But people translating the Bible into English at this time were already completing sprinkling or pouring baptisms. So instead of adjusting what they were doing to the commands of God, they blurred the lines of God’s commands. Just like the Devil did in the garden in Genesis 1. Imagine that, people twisting the reality of the scriptures to suit their personal opinion. 

Nonetheless, sprinkling and pouring are ideas from the minds of men. They are things that God never commanded. Nor do we have any kind of example of these things occurring in scripture.

The principle rule of following the word of God is to do only that which you find in scripture.

Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent. Any more is an addition to the world and is a sin. It accuses the bible of being incomplete and needing more information. To take away from the scripture is sin, and suggests that not all of the commands of God are to be taken seriously and obeyed.

As you can see, it is infinitely better to simply follow the bible commands without adding or taking away from them. Not only that, but it is infinitely safer to do so. Who will be considered innocent who tampers with and manipulates the words from the very mind of God?

Aside from that, what we read about in scripture is full-body water immersion performed on rational-minded adults, called baptism. Not sprinkling, not pouring, not infant baptism. 

This immersion reenacts the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is what provides the remission of sins. When we are above the water and confess, this represents death, specifically death to our old lives and sins. Under the water we are buried with Christ, reenacting Him being in the tomb for those three days. Then we are raised out of the water, representing the resurrection from the dead. These three elements are a reenactment of the event that bought our salvation. Once raised from the water, our sins are washed away. And for the first time in our lives since we were children, we are pure and sinless again. 

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

⁵ For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶ knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. ⁷ For he who has died has been freed from sin”

Romans 6:3-7

“Buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” 

Colossians 2:12

And we certainly will continue to wage war against sin and we will fail.

But the Bible teaches that as long as we continue to confess and repent of those sins and get back up to keep fighting them, we will have the continual cleansing from those sins. The blood of Christ acts as a constant fountain of forgiveness. All we have to do is keep fighting and obeying. 

“But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

1 John 1:7

Many today will deny the importance of this step in the salvation process.

Perhaps at a later date, we will examine all the various objections that people bring against the idea of water immersion. But for now what you need to know is that in the Bible, no one was saved on this side of the cross (after Christ’s death) without being immersed in water.

No one was saved by the sinner’s prayer. No one was ever saved by accepting Christ as their personal savior. And no one was saved by having some emotional, religious experience where they were convicted in their hearts by God. These are all ideas that man has invented for whatever reason, but they have no scriptural backing. Let me say that again – people are gambling their lives on ideas about salvation that have no scriptural backing whatsoever.

Is it not important to you to know exactly what God Himself has said regarding salvation?

If you think this is important, do not fall into the all too common trap of accepting the words of men over the words of God. The sinner’s prayer, accepting Christ as a personal savior, or religious experience is all the words of men. The words of the Bible are the words of God, and those are the only things you should be basing your decisions on. 

Now, what are you waiting for? You know the steps to accept salvation. It does not have anything to do with prayer, accepting Christ, or anything besides water immersion. I would encourage you to study with your local church of Christ, finish your knowledge of the truth and become a member today.