KEY SCRIPTURE: Matthew 28:19 KJV “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”

In the old covenant there was various forms of washing or purging that made people fitting to either come before God or made them fitting to stand before God.  Every visitation of God demanded that the people kept themselves clean by washing. Exodus 19:10 KJV “And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes,” The baptism of John was a way of preparing the people to meet God. It was a baptism of repentance (Acts 19:4). It was an acknowledgement of a changed attitude towards God, then they were baptised. This word baptize is transliterated from the Greek word ‘baptizo’, which means to immerse or dip into or bury. The Lord Jesus would not start His ministry until He had passed through the process of being washed by dipping in water. Matt 3:15. The Lord said it fulfills all righteousness.

When one was born again the, Lord instructs or demanded that they be dipped into water. This is not just a washing of the sin away but an identification with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. Rom 6:3 KJV “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”. Please note that the scripture did not say, so many of us who were baptised into ‘water’. He said so many of us who were baptised into Christ. The day and moment you believed in Jesus, the Holy Spirit dips you, immerses or baptises you into Christ, praise the Lord! This is a supernatural work that hides us in Jesus and makes us put on Jesus Gal 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ”. To put on Jesus is a mysterious identification with Jesus that would make every devil recognise us like Jesus if we would recognise, we are really one with Jesus.

Now the water baptism is a natural demonstration of what has taken place in the Spirit. 1Pe 3:21 KJV “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” Baptism saves, not because you were dipped into water, but a repented heart, that makes the dipping into water effectual. Everyone who believes in Jesus must be baptised in water (Mark 16:16). This kind of baptism is by immersion that depicts the work of salvation by our Lord Jesus. Sprinkling of water is not baptism, it may be a form of washing but it is not baptism.

THOUGHT: BAPTISM PHYSICALLY IDENTIFIES YOU WITH THE BODY OF CHRIST

FURTHER STUDIES

Matthew 3:15 ,16KJV And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:

Mark 16:16 KJV “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”.