Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Why Be Baptized?

Baptism · The two ordinances Jesus gave his church

Christians are baptized because Jesus commanded it and because it is the God-given way to confess him openly. Baptism is obedience to Christ, a public witness that a person now belongs to him, and the doorway into the fellowship of his church. On the day of Pentecost Peter joined it to repentance and the promise of the Holy Spirit. To be baptized is to answer the call of Jesus with your whole self and to be marked as one of his.

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.Acts 2:38 (KJV)

Because Jesus said so

The simplest and strongest reason to be baptized is that the Lord told his church to. When the crowd at Pentecost was cut to the heart and asked what they must do, Peter did not offer baptism as an option for the especially devout. He set it before everyone who repented.

Jesus himself, though he had no sin to repent of, went down to the Jordan to be baptized, to fulfil all righteousness. If the sinless Son of God received baptism, his followers have every reason to. Obedience is not a small motive. Jesus said that the one who loves him keeps his commandments, and baptism is among the first and clearest of them.

A public confession of Christ

Faith is born in the heart, but it is not meant to stay hidden there. Baptism is the appointed way to say out loud, before God and the church and the watching world, that Jesus is Lord. Paul writes that salvation comes to the one who confesses with the mouth the Lord Jesus and believes in the heart that God raised him from the dead. Baptism is that confession made visible, a person stepping into the water in the name of the One they now own as Savior.

In the book of Acts baptism is never a secret. When the Ethiopian official heard the good news on the desert road, his first response was to point to a pool of water and ask what hindered him from being baptized. The jailer at Philippi was baptized the same hour of the night that he believed, he and all his house. Faith that has found Christ longs to say so, and baptism gives it the words.

A witness others can see

Because it is public, baptism is a witness. It preaches to everyone present. The person being baptized proclaims that they have died with Christ and been raised with him; the church rejoices over a brother or sister added to the family; and those still outside see the gospel acted out before their eyes. Many believers can trace their own first step toward Jesus to the day they watched someone they loved go down into the water. Baptism is quietly one of the church's oldest forms of testimony.

It is also a mercy to the one baptized. In a moment of decision made before witnesses, there is a strength to look back on. When later doubts or trials come, a Christian can remember that they were publicly and gladly marked as Christ's, and that he does not let go of his own.

Joined to the people of God

Baptism is not only about the individual and God. It brings a person into the church, the body of Christ. Paul says that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body. The newly baptized are no longer alone; they belong to a family that spans every nation and age, bound to gather, to pray, to break bread, and to bear one another's burdens. Nobody is meant to follow Jesus in isolation, and baptism is the threshold across which the solitary believer becomes part of a people.

This is why baptism has always been tied to the local church rather than done privately. It is a covenant moment, in which the believer says, I am the Lord's, and the church says, and we are yours. Both promises are meant to be kept.

The promise attached to the sign

Peter did not command baptism and leave the crowd empty-handed. He attached a promise: the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is a sign with a word of grace spoken over it. It points the baptized to everything Christ has won for them, the forgiveness of all their sins and the indwelling presence of God. Christians describe the exact way the sign and the gift are joined in somewhat different terms, but all agree that baptism is no empty ceremony. It is the seal of a real and living grace.

So the question turns around. Given the command of Jesus, the promise of forgiveness, the gift of the Spirit, and the welcome of the church, the wonder is not why anyone would be baptized, but why anyone who has trusted Christ would delay it.

Following the pattern of Jesus himself

There is a reason beyond the command that draws believers to the water: their Lord went there first. Though he was without sin and had nothing to repent of, Jesus came to John at the Jordan and insisted on being baptized, saying it was fitting to fulfil all righteousness. As he came up from the water the heavens opened, the Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father's voice declared him the beloved Son. To be baptized is to follow Jesus into the very step he chose to take, to stand where he stood, and to be marked with the sign he was not too great to receive.

That pattern shapes the whole New Testament. Baptism is never presented as an optional extra for the especially committed. It is simply what those who believed did, from the three thousand at Pentecost to the last households in Acts. To be baptized is to take one's place in that long line of the followers of Jesus, doing what he did and what his church has always done.

Answering the common hesitations

People hesitate over baptism for tender reasons, and it helps to name a few. Some feel they are not good enough yet. But baptism is for those coming to Christ for grace, not for those who have made themselves worthy first; you come as you are and let him wash you. Some fear a public moment. Yet the very publicness is a gift, a testimony that strengthens both the one baptized and the church that witnesses it. Some were baptized as infants and wonder what to do now that they have come to personal faith; that honest question touches a real difference between Christian traditions, and the wise path is to take it to a trusted pastor, which a companion page can help you think through.

Whatever the hesitation, it is worth remembering that Jesus met people where they were and welcomed them in. The step toward the water is not a leap you make alone but a response to a Lord who has already come near, and a local church exists in part to walk beside you as you take it.

A word to the one deciding

If you have come to trust Jesus and have not yet been baptized, Scripture leaves little room for putting it off. You do not need to be impressive, only willing. You are not proving your worth; you are receiving a gift and obeying a Lord who loves you. Speak to a pastor or a mature believer in a local church, and let them walk with you toward the water. It is one of the gladdest steps a person ever takes.

A note for all traditions: baptism and the Lord's Supper are kept across the whole church, yet Christians practice them in genuinely different ways. Where believers sincerely differ, the main views are named here fairly and without taking a side, because The Living Bread is non-denominational. What unites us is greater than what divides us: obedience to Christ, remembrance of his death, and union with him.

Related: What is baptism? · How Christians differ on baptism · Who is Jesus? · Baptism and the Lord's Supper