WATER BAPTISM

WATER BAPTISM

WATER BAPTISM

We believe that Water Baptism is a commandment of the Lord Jesus to every born again believer as an outward sign of their identification with the Death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ. It constitutes a single total immersion in water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:38     Mark 16:16

Water Baptism is a commandment given by the Lord Jesus to His disciples, which is to follow salvation, and the born again experience. It is an outward demonstration of an inward change that has taken place in a person’s life.  It is acknowledging that you have been baptized into His death, and buried with Him by baptism into His death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead, you also are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead, so that you also may walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12).

This act of faith involves a full immersion into water and is based upon the confession of the candidate. When Philip had preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch, he made this statement, “What doth hinder me to be baptized?” Philips reply was, “if you believe with all your heart, you may”.  The eunuch replied by saying, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God”.  There is thus, a willingness and gladness on the part of the believer to obey the commandment of the Lord (Acts 2:41).  Philip then commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

When the Lord Jesus was baptized of John the Baptist in the Jordan River, He said to him that he must baptize Him, because it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness (Matthew 3:13-17).  It is therefore a seal of the righteousness which a believer already has having confessed and believed in the heart that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead (Romans 10:9-10).

Furthermore, as stated by the apostle Peter, who made reference to Noah and the ark, when he wrote that only those in the ark were saved by water.  Not that the water saved them, but because they were in the ark they were saved.  It is Jesus Christ who saves us.  The water had the power to destroy or save.  The only reason why Noah and his family were saved, and the people destroyed was because they were not in the “boat” (Body of Christ).  Water baptism is the answer of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God: angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.

God the Father had this to say about Jesus when He came up out of the water, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).  Water baptism pleases the heart of God because He loves obedient children.

ELEMENT CANDIDATE BAPTISER RESULT
Water

Acts 8:36, 38-39

Willing – Acts 8:36

Glad – Acts 2:41

Obedient – Acts 10:47-48

Loving Son – John 14:15

Fellow believer

Matthew 28:19

Mark 16:15-16

Righteous son

Romans 10:10

Matthew 3:15

(This is a seal of the righteousness which you already have by faith)