Water Baptisms

Water baptism is a public expression of your personal decision to follow Jesus.

After Jesus grew up and before He began to reveal who He actually was to the world, he gets baptized in water. John the Baptist, a prophet, had been baptizing others as a way of preparing them for the coming Messiah (read Matthew 3:1-12 for more of John’s story). Participation in water baptism was the way that people acknowledged their repentance; it was how they were cleansed of their sins and made right with God.

So, why would Jesus, a man who lived a sinless life, ask to be baptized? He has nothing to repent of. He’s the one who is saving those who have sinned. Even John is confused by Jesus’s request. Jesus doesn’t just avoid sin, He lived out the perfect life that we cannot. His walk is our example. He is showing us what it looks like to live out a life surrendered to God completely, and baptism is part of that walk.

Why should I get baptized?

We see what repentance from sin looks like through baptism. We were dead in our sin, but because Jesus’s sacrifice paid the penalty of our sin, we are resurrected through Him. In being baptized we identify ourselves with Jesus’s death and resurrection (being “buried” underwater and rising again). When we get baptized, we are demonstrating externally what has happened in us internally when we accepted Jesus. It’s important to note that baptism is not what saves us from sin; Jesus did that on the cross. We are proclaiming Jesus’s saving work in our lives.

Baptisms are often public because it’s something worth celebrating, but it is just as powerful and meaningful in smaller settings. When you understand that Jesus is calling you to follow him, it is important that you listen and act.

Later in the book of Matthew, Jesus tells His disciples to baptize others so that they may also walk out their repentance and their commitment to Jesus. It’s something Jesus did first and then tells us to do for the purpose of living out our commitment to Him.