[The text below represents an edited version of this Tomorrow’s World whiteboard video.]

How the Bible Explains the Meaning of Baptism

In this video we’re answering five big questions people ask about baptism.

1. Is it a requirement for salvation?
2. Why is it important?
3. How should baptism be performed?
4. Who can be baptized?
5. And am I ready to be baptized?

We’ll show you exactly what Scripture says.

1. Is baptism a requirement for salvation?

The answer is yes.

Jesus commissioned His Church to:

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).

And in the very next verse, He said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16).

In other words, Jesus said those who hear the true Gospel and believe in it need to be baptized to be saved.

The apostles followed Jesus’ instruction to baptize

On the day of Pentecost, when the New Testament Church received the Holy Spirit, Peter stood up and preached a powerful message to those in Jerusalem. Many who heard him were cut to the heart, and they asked, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).

Notice Peter’s response.

Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Jesus Christ Himself was baptized

It is also important to remember that Jesus set the example for all Christians to follow. We must walk in His steps and do as He did (1 John 2:6). And Jesus set the example when He was baptized by John the Baptist.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness“ (Matthew 3:13-15).

Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), set the precedent for all Christians by being baptized Himself.

So, yes, baptism is a requirement for anyone who wants to be saved from eternal death.

2. What is the significance of baptism?

Besides the fact that you need to be baptized to be saved, it is also important because it is a declaration of faith and shows your commitment to follow Jesus Christ.

The book of Acts gives several examples of individuals who heard the Gospel and then came to have faith in the gospel and Jesus as their Savior. When this happened, they were baptized.

Baptism is a commitment

One example is when Philip was sent to the Ethiopian eunuch. Philip ran to this man as he was reading from the prophet Isaiah, and the eunuch asked Philip to explain the messianic prophecy.

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him (Acts 8:35).

The eunuch believed what he heard. He said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him (Acts 8:37-39).

Another example involves Cornelius and his household in Acts chapter 10. God was using Cornelius in a very special way to show that He was now opening the door for Gentiles to come into the faith (Acts 11:18).

Cornelius had sent for Peter. When Peter arrived, he preached to them, and “while [he] was still speaking... the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word” (Acts 10:44). Then Peter answered:

“Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord… (Acts 10:47-48).

And when Paul came to Ephesus, he found that some disciples had only been baptized into John’s baptism (Acts 19:1-3). This wasn’t enough.

Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:4-5).

So we see here that the disciples needed to be baptized in Christ’s name, declaring their faith and commitment to Him as His disciples.

Baptism symbolizes death

Another reason baptism is important is because it symbolizes a personal death, burial, and resurrection.

When a person is laid under water, it pictures that same person being laid in a grave as if he or she were dead. This is because when someone is baptized, that person is committing to laying their old life to rest and starting a new life as a new creation in Christ.

Paul explains this in Romans 6, saying:

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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 (Romans 6:3-4).

Baptism is symbolic of a death, burial, and resurrection. After the person is laid under water, he or she is then brought up out of the water, which pictures their resurrection, as if they are being raised from the dead just as Christ was.

This is a depiction of the Christian experience—a person must put to death and bury their old, selfish, carnal, and sinful ways. They then come up, as if coming back to life, to start living a new, obedient way of life before God.

When we arise out of the watery grave of baptism, it pictures our faith and hope in the resurrection, which is our ultimate hope to become a new creation in Christ.

Paul explains in his letter to the Colossians:

…by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 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 2:11-12).

Baptism symbolizes sins being washed away

Another very important reason for baptism is that it signifies the remission or washing away of sins.

Going into the water, and then coming up out of the water, pictures the person’s past sins being washed away—like a cleansing.

On Pentecost when Peter responded to the crowd, he told them to “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38).

At baptism, a person’s past sins are forgiven and removed from the record. The slate has been wiped clean, so to speak.

Paul calls baptism a washing in his letter to Titus, saying, “But according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5).

And when Paul recounted his own conversion, he mentions that he was told to “be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16)

The act of baptism is the time when God wipes away our past sins. It marks the beginning of the conversion process.

So to recap, why is it important?

Well, when people are baptized, they are declaring their faith in Christ, committing their life to be His disciple. They are putting their old sinful way of life to death. Their sins are then washed away, and they begin a new life as a new creation in Christ.

This is really the most important decision and the biggest step a person can take in life.

In this decision, we are making a solemn covenant with our Creator.

So baptism is profoundly important.

3. How should baptism be performed?

There are two important details that we’ve already touched on when it comes to a proper baptism.

First, we’ve seen how baptism pictures a burial.

Water baptism by immersion—not sprinkling

So, for the baptism to be a complete representation of a person’s death, the person must be fully submerged under water. The total covering of the person with water represents the burial of the entire body and the burying of the entire old way of life apart from God. No part of the body can remain above water.

Therefore, sprinkling with water is not the way God instructs us to perform baptisms, because it fails to properly represent what is intended.

And the Greek word for baptism used in the New Testament is “baptizo,” which literally means “to immerse, or to submerge.”

So a person must be completely submerged, which requires enough water to do so. And this is why we read that John “was baptizing [where] there was much water” (John 3:23).

In order to perform proper baptisms, John needed to be in a place with enough water.

True Christian baptism happens under Jesus Christ’s authority

The second detail that is important for a proper baptism is the name in whom the person is baptized—in other words, under whose authority he or she is baptized.

We’ve already seen several examples where believers were baptized in the name of the Lord (Acts 2:38,  Acts 10:46-48, Acts 19:4-5, Acts 22:16).

True Christian baptism must happen by the authority of Jesus Christ. This requires an ordained minister of Jesus Christ, who is part of the body of Christ, the Church of God.

Jesus gave His ministers authority to baptize in His name after His resurrection.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).

(We’ve covered the receiving of the Holy Spirit after baptism in a video explaining the laying on of hands.)

In short, one can only receive the Holy Spirit after proper biblical baptism, and through the laying on of the hands of an ordained minister of Jesus Christ.

We see references to this is in 2 Timothy 1:6 and in Acts 8:16-18.

So proper baptism and receiving of the Holy Spirit can only happen when performed by ordained ministers of Jesus Christ, having been given His authority to do so.

Now let’s answer numbers four and five together.

4 & 5. Who can be baptized? And how do we know if we’re ready for baptism?

There are a few prerequisites for anyone considering baptism.

First, a person must believe in the true Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus told His Church to preach the gospel to the world, and “he who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:15-16).

A person must believe in the Gospel, but not every Gospel being preached in the world today is the true Gospel. In fact, most have not been hearing the same gospel that Jesus preached (2 Corinthians 11:14; Galatians 1:8-9).

To learn more about the true Gospel, watch our whiteboard covering this topic.

Another prerequisite, a person must come to repentance—they must acknowledge their sins, admit they are a sinner and that they need Jesus as their Savior, and they must be wanting and trying to live an obedient life to God by keeping His commandments.

True repentance is part of baptism

Remember what Peter said to the crowd on Pentecost when they asked him what they should do. He said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized” (Acts 2:38).

To repent is to turn away from sin and to turn to God in obedience to His laws and His way of life.

After healing the lame man, Peter powerfully preached to the crowd, saying, “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).

And Paul, preaching to the men in Athens, said, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

Only those who have come to real repentance are ready for baptism.

Infant baptism is not true baptism

This means that they must be of a mature age, able to recognize what sin is, that they have sinned, and they can make the decision to go a different way.

This excludes infants and young children. In many cases, even teenagers lack the maturity to fully understand their guilt and be able to choose a different way of life.

Repentance is also personal. A person can come to repentance and be baptized for his or her own sins, but they cannot repent and be baptized for someone else’s benefit or salvation.

Therefore, to answer our final two questions:

• If you have heard the true Gospel and believe it…
• If you have recognized your own sinful behavior, your need for a Savior, and want to commit your life to Jesus Christ by surrendering it to Him…
• And you want live obediently and faithfully to God forever…

Then you should seek a true minister of Jesus Christ to counsel for baptism, the biggest decision you’ll ever make.

The Living Church of God, the sponsor of Tomorrow’s World, has representatives around the world that you can counsel with. If you’re interested, just go to lcg.org for more information.

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