FORGIVENESS: 9 What is God’s First Commandment for a Christian?

Chapter 1.9

What is God’s First Commandment

for the Christian?

Acts 2:38

Week 4

► After reading this chapter, answer the following questions:

1. What is God’s first commandment for the Christian?
2. What are the biblical purposes of baptism?
3. Who should be baptized?
4. What is the biblical method of baptism? Why is this?
5. What was most meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?

As a young man Arun met a group of Christians. He was amazed by their love and character and soon became a Christian himself. At the time, Arun was living with his Hindu family. They were very disappointed in his conversion but accepted his desire to attend church services. However, one day Arun confessed to his family that he had been baptized. The next day he found his possessions on the front porch of his family’s house and he was permanently shunned. There is something spiritual, and even supernatural about Christian baptism that even spiritual forces of evil recognize and may violently react to. Still, God commands all Christians to be baptized. The Bible says:

Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God,

and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ

for the forgiveness of your sins. (Acts 2:38)

God wants you to be baptized.

A) Why should you be baptized?

Baptism is the God-ordained practice of being immersed in water to demonstrate a person’s trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior. This is why the Apostle Peter instructed the early Christians: “Be baptized.” And what he commanded these early Christians to do, God expects all Christians to do. This is why Jesus also commanded all Christians to be baptizing other Christians when He said:

I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:18-19)

This is why many NT texts assume all Christians are baptized (cf. Rom 6:2-4; Gal 3:26-27; Col 2:12; 1 Pet 3:21).

Finally, Jesus Himself was baptized in water as an example for all Christians to follow. The Bible says, “Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John . . . Jesus said, ‘It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires’” (Matt 3:13, 15). Water baptism is something “God requires” of all followers of Jesus Christ.

Which is why the Apostle Peter commanded new Christians: “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). Therefore, in some ways, baptism is God’s first commandment for a new Christian to obey. God wants you to be baptized.

God has several purposes for water baptism. First, it is a biblical means through which a person publicly professes their saving faith in Christ. Baptism is the outward expression of your inward commitment to Jesus as your Lord. The Bible says, “baptism” is “a response to God from a clean conscience” (1 Pet 3:21). It is a physical version of a “sinner’s prayer.”

It is common today for such a prayer to be the means through which someone professes their saving faith in Christ. But doing this through the act of water baptism has the advantage of better demonstrating the sincerity of someone’s faith. There are many people who pray a “sinner’s prayer” but do not become Christians. There are far fewer who sincerely submit to water baptism and then demonstrate later they were never a Christian. Water baptism is a more certain means than a “sinner’s prayer” for someone to become a Christian.

This is why water baptism and becoming a Christian are often mentioned together in the NT. For example, when the Apostle Peter is asked by a crowd what they should do to be forgiven forever he replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38; cf. Mark 16:16; Acts 22:16; 1 Pet 3:21).

Of course, the act of baptism does not earn the forgiveness of your sins. As discussed throughout this study, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:8-9 NIV).

This is why the Apostle Paul wrote: “Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News” (1 Cor 1:17). You can be certain that Christ sent the Apostle to do everything necessary for the salvation of people. But Christ did not send the Apostle Paul to baptize people, because this is not required to have complete forgiveness forever through faith in Christ.

Accordingly, the Apostle wrote elsewhere: “If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:9). There is no mention here of baptism being required to be forgiven forever by God.

However, most NT scholars believe that such confessions as described in Romans 10:9 were made at the time of baptism in the early Church. This is because God’s purpose for water baptism is to be an outward expression of your inward commitment to Jesus as your Savior and Lord. Water baptism is a biblical means through which one receives forever forgiveness.

Secondly, water baptism, like all of God’s commands, are an opportunity to demonstrate our love and obedience to Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments” (John 14:15). As a professing Christian you have claimed that Christ is your Lord. But if you refuse to be baptized, you have refused to do the first thing your Lord has commanded you to do. And your refusal to be baptized will diminish the value of whatever else you do for God.

Wouldn’t this be true of a child with their parent? Imagine the child refuses to obey the first thing their parent tells them to do, but is willing to do other things. The parent would still rightly feel disrespected. And so does God with any Christian who refuses water baptism.

Accordingly, water baptism is also intended by God to prove you are a real Christian. You learned in the previous chapters of this study that loving and obeying God is essential to having any confidence your sins have been forgiven forever. The Bible says:

We can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments. If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. (1 John 2:3-5)

If you refuse to be baptized, you cannot claim to love God or to be a real Christian. This is why throughout the history of the Christian Church, a person was not considered a member of a local church, or eligible for the Lord’s Supper, unless they had been baptized. Again, baptism does not save you. But baptism is among the first things God commands you to do in order prove to yourself and others that you are a real Christian.

Of course there may be many obstacles to baptism. Sometimes there is a spiritual battle in a new Christian’s life that makes obeying this command a great struggle. In cultures that are hostile to Christianity, there may be fears about the consequences of being baptized. For example, some Christians have been rejected from their families for obeying God’s command in this matter. In some countries, Christian water baptism is strongly opposed by the government. This makes it especially tragic when a Christian neglects baptism even though they live where there is no opposition to doing so. They should remember that there are Christians all over the world obeying God in baptism, but at great personal cost.

Regardless of the situation, God wants anyone claiming to be a Christian, to trust Him and be baptized to prove their love for Him. As the early Christians said: “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (Acts 5:29). From God’s perspective, there is no excuse to disobey His command to be baptized.

Baptism does not earn you forever forgiveness from God. But it is a necessary proof that you have trusted Christ as your Savior and King and possess forever forgiveness. This is why the Apostle Peter commanded the early Christians: “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). God wants you to be baptized.

B) Who should be baptized?

See France, Matthew, p. 1116 for how Great commission included baptism. It was not something to happen after discipleship- but immediately.

See MacArthur Matt Comm. At 28:19.

The Bible makes it clear that water baptism is a voluntary act to express real saving faith in Christ. Therefore, it requires someone old enough to have such faith and make such a commitment. This is why there are no examples of babies being baptized in the Bible. Some good Christians baptize infants, but all baptisms described in Scripture involved people who were old enough to sincerely believe in Jesus. For example, we read: “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized” (Acts 2:41). Likewise, “everyone in” the “household” of the jailer in Philippi “were immediately baptized . . . because they all believed in God” (Acts 16:33-34).

God only wants real Christians to be baptized. Unfortunately, many Christians have gone through church programs such as “confirmation” and assumed they were Christians at that time and were baptized. However, later they realized their trust in Christ was not real, and they became a real Christian later in life. Those who were baptized before they became a Christian should be baptized again to express their true trust in Christ now.

The Bible says: “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). God wants you to be baptized.

C) How should you be baptized?

Christian baptism is immersing a believer in water. The word “baptism” comes from a Greek word (baptō) which means to dip, plunge, or immerse something in a liquid. ^[1] Therefore, biblical descriptions of baptisms imply immersion. Jesus was “baptized in the Jordan River” and afterwards “Jesus came up out of the water” (Matt 3:6, 16). Likewise, when Phillip helped a man become a Christian, the Bible says, “they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him” (Acts 8:38). Christian baptism is described in the Bible as immersion in water.

Why does God want Christian baptism to be immersion in water? Because it symbolizes several important things about becoming a Christian. First, being under the water reflects how you were under the wrath of God before your trust in Christ. This is just like the people before the flood in Noah’s day (cf. Gen 6:17 with Rom 5:9). Water is a symbol of God’s wrath.

Secondly, immersion is a reminder that you were spiritually dead because of your unforgiven sins (cf. Eph 2:1). In fact, if you were left under the water you would die.

Thirdly, being immersed in the water symbolizes our being “buried with Christ in baptism” (Rom 6:4; Col 2:12) and dying to our old life and being completely identified and united with Him.

Fourth, being raised out of the water symbolizes your new life in Christ (cf. Rom 6:2-4; Col 2:12). Fifth, coming up out of the water also reflects your sins being washed away (cf. Acts 22:16; Tit 3:5). And finally, immersion in water also symbolizes being born again by the Spirit, just as you were physically immersed in your mother’s water sack in her womb (cf. John 3:3-8).

What are other biblical attributes of Christian baptism? First, many baptisms in the Bible were rather private affairs with only a few Christians witnessing it (cf. Acts 8:34-38; 9:17-18; 10:24-48; 16:13-15; 16:29-34). Accordingly, the Bible describes water baptism “as a response to God from a clean conscience” (1 Pet 3:21). It would seem the primary purpose of baptism is for God to see your act of love and obedience to Him, not necessarily other people. What is important is that God sees you baptized.

Therefore, a rather private baptism is biblical. This might make baptism easier for those living where the practice is opposed. However, if you are willing and able, your baptism can certainly be a great encouragement and witness to others and can be performed more publicly.

Also, any Christian friend can baptize you. The command of Jesus for all Christians is: “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). If all Christians have the authority to evangelize and disciple, then they certainly have the authority to baptize. It does not need to be a Pastor or church leader who baptizes you. However, we have no biblical examples of someone baptizing themselves.

Thirdly, baptisms in the Bible occurred soon after the person trusted Christ. Again: “Those who believed what Peter said were baptized” (Acts 2:41). If you have trusted Christ to be your Savior and King, seek to be baptized as soon as possible. ^[2]

The Bible says, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38). God wants you to be baptized.

► Return to the beginning of this chapter and answer the questions there.

► If you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord, then trust Him with getting baptized! Also, you may be able to help another Christian be baptized. In either case see Project 1.D on the following page.

1. The Greek root word from which the NT derives the word “baptism” is baptō. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (NIDNTT) says that:

   In secular Greek baptō means (a) dip, (b) dip into a dye, and (c) draw water . . . In the LXX [Greek OT] baptō translates the OT Heb. tabal, “dip” . . . [In the NT] baptō only [has] the meaning “dip.” (1:144-5).

   Accordingly, the authoritative Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Early Christian Literature (BDAG) only gives one meaning for baptō: “to dip something in a liquid.”

   For example, baptō is used twice in John 13:26 (NIV):

   Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped [baptō] it in the dish.’ Then, dipping [baptas] the piece of bread, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.

   Webster’s defines “dip” as: “to plunge or immerse momentarily under the surface (as of a liquid).” It becomes obvious then that the root Greek word for baptism means to completely immerse or submerge something. ↑

2. For a more detailed discussion of water baptism and biblical support for the contents of this chapter, see Kurt Jurgensmeier, “Water Baptism” chapter 18.1 in Theological Papers; online at: https://trainingtimothys.org/books/book-18-theological-papers/ ↑