Peter said to a multitude gathered in Jerusalem: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). Clearly, baptism is an important issue for people who wish to come to Christ.

Baptism is not a "religious work" - something a person does which must be tacked-on to the work of Jesus to remove human sin. There is nothing magical nor mystical about baptismal waters. Salvation was secured by the death and resurrection of Jesus - nothing more. Actually, baptism, removed from genuine biblical faith, is just a ritual - a rather strange one at that.

What does the Bible actually say about baptism?

After Jesus died on a cross for our sins and was raised to life, the reality of His resurrection was driven home. He remained with His disciples for about fifty days. Immediately before ascending into heaven to be with His Father, Jesus instructed His disciples to go into the world and to make more disciples:

For a man to be a disciple on Jesus' own terms:

1) He must be baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and ...

2) He must be taught to live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

If for no other reason, baptism is important in coming to Jesus, because baptism and teaching was how He taught His disciples to make disciples of others. They obeyed. Throughout the book of Acts, when people made the choice to come to Jesus, baptism is constantly featured:

--Three thousand were baptized on the day of Pentecost in response to the instruction of Peter (2:38-41).

--When the gospel was taken into Samaria by Philip, the response of the believers in that region was to be baptized (8:12).

--When an Ethiopian came to understand the work of Jesus to remove sin, he was baptized (8:36-38).

--Saul (later Paul) was baptized when he trusted Christ (9:17,18) as was Cornelius and those of his household (10:48). These are only a few examples.

We know that the Apostles were "immersing" these believers for that is the meaning of Greek word, baptizo, which we render "baptize." There were other Greek words available if a writer wished to communicate "pour" or "sprinkle", but baptizo meant "immerse".

Jesus secured forgiveness for sins by dying in the place of sinners. This "grace" is God's free gift. God's grace is infinitely mightier than mankind's most despicable sin. In the church at Rome, a group of "thinkers" were distorting the meaning of God's grace. They taught that if grace was so much more powerful than a man's sin, then sin could not be a very serious issue. They concluded that it no longer mattered how much a man sinned, because God's grace would prevail anyway.

These people missed the point of why Jesus died and rose to life. Christ's mission was to free them from the shackles of their sinful natures, not simply to "gloss over" their sins. To make his point, Paul directed their minds back to their baptisms and one of the meanings behind it:

When a believer is baptized into Christ, he identifies himself with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. A believer must understand that his baptism marks the death of his sinful nature. As sinners, sinful behavior is normal behavior. When Christ gives us new life, a new attitude about sin must be embraced. We are dead to sin, so we must flee it. As we will inevitably continue to struggle with sin, we must confess sin (call it as God sees it - as sin) and we must repent (turn away) from sin.

Baptism symbolizes Christ's work and identifies the believer with that work. To continue to love sin is to miss the point of the cross. Baptism marks our death to sin.

The world of the first century was far more torn by racial, sexual and class distinction than is this modern world. The Gospel was preached first to Jews, but some Jewish believers could not envision God embracing gentiles as He found them. They taught that a gentile must become a Jew first in order to become a Christian.

The Jewish Law did not make a man righteous before God, because one breach of the Law rendered a man a "lawbreaker". Alongside a perfect God, one sinner is as hopeless as the next. Religious status cannot alter our fallen character - neither can nationality, skin color, gender, nor social status. Nothing that sets one man apart from another is adequate to set him in God's presence at all.

We are clothed in the garments of Jesus when we receive Him as Savior. When God looks at us, He does not choose to view us as sinners. Instead, He sees us clothed in the righteousness of the One who took our sins, Jesus Himself. Paul directed the minds of the Galatian Christians back to their respective baptisms to make this point:

The chief issue of those who taught that a Gentile must become a Jew before he could become a Christian was circumcision. This was the rite of entry into Judaism. Under God's old covenant with the Jews, circumcision was a mark in the flesh that set members of God's holy nation apart from the other peoples of the world.

God does not require circumcision of non-Jews, because when a person comes to Christ, a "setting apart" is performed by Jesus Himself. The mark of God is now on the believer's heart, not on his body. As Paul addressed the Colossians on this issue, he also instructed them to recall the meaning behind their baptisms.

God offers us forgiveness of sin and eternal life. He is entitled to also give us a means of communicating a resounding "Yes!" to Him, to His people and to the world. According to the Bible, this means of saying "Yes" is not a simple prayer, but the humbling act of baptism.

The Greek word for "pledge" in this passage represented a two-part pledge. In business contracts, a definite offer and a definite response made a contract binding. God has clearly made a definite offer to a sinner through the sacrifice of His Son. He has also given us the means of communicating, "Yes. Offer accepted, Lord."

Jesus is asking would-be disciples, "Do you accept the terms of the grace I give? Do you accept its promises? Will you undertake its responsibilities?" Through immersion into the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the believer declares, "Yes!"

Do Christian Churches believe that there is anything mystical in baptismal water that give life? Of course not! If baptism is not accompanied by faith on the participant's part nor by the presence of the Holy Spirit to do what only God can do, then a baptized sinner is a wet sinner - nothing more.

The only power or significance attached to Christian baptism is that which the Word of God attaches to it. A man cannot respond to God as the Scripture teaches him to respond without yielding to baptism.