I Love to Baptize People

We baptized Ruthann Nearons in her own swimming pool on Sunday afternoon, July 12. She and her husband, Pen, made it like a party by serving us hotdogs and hamburgers afterwards around the pool. Baptism is a celebration of a new life. Baptism means a lot to us Baptists.

We baptize those who are mature enough to think clearly about choosing to give their lives to following Jesus. We baptize believers in Christ as a way of symbolizing that they are making a personal choice to trust Jesus to save them and giving themselves to following him. We baptize by immersion under water because Jesus was baptized that way, because every baptism in the Bible is by immersion, and because it is a great way to act out the meaning of salvation. Romans 6:4-5 describes it this way:

Don't you know that all who share in Christ Jesus by being baptized also share in his death? When we were baptized, we died and were buried with Christ. We were baptized, so that we would live a new life, as Christ was raised to life by the glory of God the Father. If we shared in Jesus' death by being baptized, we will be raised to life with him.

When we go under the water, we die with Christ. When we come up out of the water, we are raised from death to our old life in order to live a new life with him. This is where we express our faith in Jesus not only as the one who will give life to us after we die, but also as the one who will give us life while we live. He will give us the power to change and live a new life.

What does this new life look like? Paul describes it when he lists the fruit of the Spirit of Christ in Galatians 5. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

I love to baptize people, because when we baptize them we are helping them to say, “I am giving my whole life to Jesus Christ. I’m changing. I’m growing. I am becoming a person more and more capable of having and passing along to others love, joy, and peace. I’m going to live that way in this life and the next.”

I also love to baptize people because dipping people under water is, quite frankly, a lot of fun.