Water Baptism Scriptures:
Water baptism is a public declaration that you are a Christian - a child of God.
Jesus calls us to be baptized. Jesus said in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded of you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus’ last instructions to His disciples were that they go, teach and baptize, and if it was a command for them to baptize, then we understand it is also a command for us to be baptized.
Peter makes that very clear in Acts 2:38, “Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” “Repent and be baptized” is a command.
In Acts 10:48, Peter makes another statement concerning water baptism to the people of Cornelius’ house who were already saved, “He ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.”
Water baptism does not cleanse us of our sins. The Apostle Paul stated in Romans 10:9-8, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” It is not water baptism that cleanses us from sin. It is the repentance of our heart and subsequent confession of our mouth that brings cleansing salvation.
Peter, in 1 Peter 3:21, says that water baptism does not save us, but that it is the, “Pledge of a good conscience toward God.” So when you enter the waters of baptism, your sins are already forgiven. They have already Benn washed away, not by water, but by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ because of His death - His substitutionary death on the cross for you.
Water baptism is by immersion. The word “baptism” actually means immerse. In Matthew 3:16, we read that Jesus “Went up out of the water,” of the Jordan River.
In Acts 8:38, speaking of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, we read, “then both Philip and eunuch went down into the water.” It was obvious this was a large body of water that both of them could “go down into” it.
Water baptism follows repentance. In Acts 2:38, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized.” Any form of baptism prior to personal repentance is scripturally invalid.
Water baptism indicates several very important things. When you walk into the waters of baptism, you are publicly announcing, “I am a believer and follower of Jesus Christ.” In Acts 8:37, Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may be baptized.”
I have died to my old life. In Romans 6:6-10, we read, ‘For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also love with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.”
I have been raised with Christ to a new life. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”