What happens in baptism? (1)

1. You receive salvation when you are baptised.

When Jesus said that ‘he who believes and is baptised shall be saved’ he links receiving salvation and being baptised together (Mark 16:15). The apostles do the same in their preaching and teaching. When people were convicted of sin through Peter’s preaching and the work of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and asked what they had to do to be saved, the answer was simply that they had to repent and be baptised for the forgiveness of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Baptism was part of the “salvation-package”. It was one of the elements of receiving salvation.

The Apostle Paul uses Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and journey to the Promised Land as a picture of our salvation. The blood of the lamb caused the Angel of Death to pass by them and not harm them. The blood freed them from slavery and the curse in Egypt in the same way that Jesus’ blood sets us free from the power of sin. Paul continues by saying that all the people were baptised into Moses in the sea and in the cloud as we are baptised into Christ in water and the Spirit. Baptism into Moses in the Red Sea saved them from the Egyptians who persecuted them and wanted to take them back to their former slavery (see 1 Cor.10:1-11). When we are immersed in water in the name of the Lord, we receive salvation from the world and the old life by “burning our bridges”, “shutting the door behind us” and “burying the old life/man” and we come up out of the water to a new life in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Peter uses another event in the Bible to illustrate what happens in baptism. He says that what happened when the old world was destroyed in the flood and only the eight people who were in the ark were saved is a picture of baptism. The people in the ark were saved by the waters of judgement in which everyone else drowned. In baptism, we who receive Jesus Christ are dipped down into the water that saves us from the judgement resting upon our old life.

In it (the ark) only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolises baptism that now saves you also. (1 Pet. 3:20-21)

2. You get cleansed when you call upon the name of the Lord in baptism.

The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses you from all sin by faith. When you are baptised straightaway and call on the name of the Lord you make this spiritual cleansing visible and real. Before we came to believe in Jesus we lived a life in sin and shame. Baptism shows how the inner impurity is washed away. (see 1 Cor. 6.11; Heb. 10.22; Eph. 5,25)

“And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptised and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” (Acts 22.16)

3. You put your old life behind you in baptism and start a new life.

Baptism is portrayed as a burial where you identify yourself with Jesus’ death and resurrection. You show, in baptism, that Jesus’ death is your death and that you are now finished with the world and the old life. As you are raised up out of the water you demonstrate how you are raised with Christ to live a new life. Sin and the devil no longer have any right over you. You are dead and buried - the old is gone, everything has become new! (see Gal. 6:14; 2 Cor.5:17; Rom. 6:1-11)

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Rom. 6:3-4)

Exercise:

In what way does Christian baptism bring salvation?

Mention some of the things that you put behind you or buried when you were baptised. If you are not baptised yet you may mention some things you need to get rid of/lay aside when you are being baptised.

Continue to memorise the Great Commission:

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matt. 28.18-20)