What is Baptism?

What is Baptism?

If you didn’t grow up in church, it can be awkward when you first observe baptism. What are they doing? Why are they dunking people in water? Will they let them up? Is this a cult? Why am I here? Those are just a few questions I imagine running through someone’s mind. So, in anticipation of our summer baptisms at the lake, I would like to talk about what baptism is and why we do it. 

First, there is nothing magical about it, but there is a lot that is spiritual about it. But it is all about spiritual representation. And so, while we are always careful to say that baptism is not a requirement for salvation and the act of baptism is not what saves us, it is very important in our Christian walk because of what it represents. It is a picture of the gospel. Jesus died on the cross for our sins, taking them with Him. And through His resurrection, He conquered sin and death so that we might have new life in Him and through Him.

So, here is how baptism represents that: when someone goes down under the water, that represents being dead in our sins. But then, your sins are washed away because of Jesus’ death and resurrection. So as you come up out of the water, it represents the washing away of your sins, the death of your old self, and that you now have new life in Jesus. You are a different person because of the presence of Holy Spirit in your life. You receive Holy Spirit the moment you decide to follow Jesus. 

Why do we do this? Baptism has this glorious spiritual representation (I often like to say it is a physical representation of a spiritual reality), so we do this because 1 – Jesus commands it (Matthew 28:19); 2 – Jesus modeled it (Matthew 3:13-17), and 3 – to be united as one with the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12, Ephesians 4:3); and then finally, 4 - we do this, to publicly demonstrate for others that we are followers of Jesus (Romans 6:1-4).

My hope for our church is that anyone who proclaims the name of Jesus and has not yet been baptized would no longer put it off and decide to follow Jesus in this way. My other hope for our church would be that ALL of us would prioritize being at these baptisms to celebrate with our brothers and sisters in Christ who have made this phenomenal decision to take this step of obedience.

Mark your calendars now for our next baptisms at Lake Lansing Park South on August 27th at 5 pm!