Why Believer’s Baptism is So Important

I saw the following story engraved on a plaque on a wall at a Christian University I toured last week. It reminded me that treating believer’s baptism as an optional step for a new Christian is a grave mistake. This is the summary of the story.

Visitors have come to the Arizona desert in the wintertime for decades seeking relief from the freezing temperatures of the Northeast and Midwest. Throughout the years, Cave Creek Arizona has been one of the destinations of the rich and famous. First Baptist Church of Cave Creek (no longer meeting as a congregation) had a unique opportunity to minister to some of these people. It was a small congregation with baptist convictions and conservative values.

One Sunday a media personality along with his bride made his way up the dusty road to worship services at this little church. He was a big deal in those days–known nationwide and at the height of his career. On this occasion, he was on vacation, he was tired, and feeling quite empty inside. Success in his chosen profession had proven ineffective in satisfying the drought in his soul.

According to his later testimony, there were only a dozen or so worshipers in attendance that day. For the Sunday sermon, the country preacher chose to expound on the importance of believer’s baptism. Many years before the man trusted Christ as Savior while alone in his bedroom. But now, the conviction mounted that he had never obediently followed the Lord in baptism. He walked the aisle that day, surrendering to this important step of obedience for a believer.

This was his testimony after coming up out of the waters of baptism.

“I cried like a baby, a kind of a release I suppose. I looked at [my wife] and her eyes were shining. She knew well what this meant to me, for she had been blessed with the same experience as a girl.”

To him, it was a life changing event even though he had already trusted Christ years earlier.

Why is baptism such a big deal?

After all, we are not born again by water baptism. Baptists do not teach that baptism saves the soul because the Bible does not teach it. Faith in Christ—being born again—is the only antecedent to baptism and the riches of the new birth are the possession of believers whether or not they follow any religious ritual. Many verses teach faith alone as the only necessary qualification for salvation (John 3:16, Romans 3:28, Romans 4:5, Acts 13:38-39).

Water baptism conveys no spiritual grace.

There is no magic in the waters of baptism. Baptism is a rite, a symbol, an ordinance of the church. Its power is not in the physical act but in the truth it conveys. True baptism is the immersion of a confessing believer in water as a public symbolic gesture, signifying to all that this person has believed in Jesus Christ and has become a follower of Jesus Christ.

For this reason, there is only one legitimate mode of baptism—immersion in water. The word baptizo means dip or submerge and the imagery of baptism—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ along with the death of a believer to the old way of life and being raised to a new life in Christ—that imagery is lost during sprinkling or pouring (Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12).

Baptism is only for believers. It is a symbol of what has already happened, not of what might yet happen (Acts 8:36-38). It is not for infants. It is for those who have volitionally place their dependence for forgiveness of sins on the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

Baptism tells the world of new faith in Christ.

For a believer, it is going public with their new identity. It is declaring Christ as Lord to all who will see. Sports fans publicly declare their allegiances to hometown teams on hats and jerseys. Why would believers saved by grace for all eternity want to keep their newfound faith secret? A secret believer is a disobedient believer (Matthew 13:33). It is not just a nice thing to declare our faith through baptism—it is the command of Christ for us to do so, and it is an essential part of the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20).

Baptism burns the right bridges.

There is often great personal consequence for being baptized. For your religious family, they do not really mind that you “find religion” but getting baptized to them is turning your back on your previous religious affiliation.

“You were baptized as a baby. Why do you need to be baptized again?”

Today, like in the early church, being baptized as a Christian burns the bridge that runs back to previous religion. Peter described it as a pledge of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21). It provides a clean, public breaking point with the old life and the clear public declaration of a new life in Christ. It sets fire to the bridge that would return us back to the old way of living.

Why is it such an emotional experience?

That is why this man burst into tears as he rose from the waters of baptism. He was emerging from the realm of secret Christianity to fully, publicly embrace His Lord as Savior. For the same reason, young people weep at their weddings. Such public statements are deeply meaningful.

Believers who balk at following the Lord in baptism are not only disobedient, but they are also refusing to own as theirs the One who suffered and died on a cross for them. Baptism is the most critical first step any believer can take.

I can still hear his voice.

I was captivated by the story of this man who tearfully embraced Christ in baptism because I grew up hearing his voice every morning. I heard him AFTER he had publicly declared his faith. The radio alarm would blare, and as I groggily rose from slumber, I would listen to our local news station.  He was the first voice I heard most days and he did as much in his era to impact our culture for Christian values as any other person I can imagine.

His name was Paul Harvey.

And now you know . . .

 

the rest of the story.

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Details of this story are written on a plaque in the library of Arizona Christian University.  A more detailed account of the story can be found here.

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Audio version of this post here: Why Believer’s Baptism is So Important