New Believer, You Should Get Baptized

New believer, are you eager to obey Jesus and be baptized? We are happy for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Apostles assure you of four advantages that your baptism will bring:

1. Our Lord set the example for us to follow: “Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the spirit descending on him like a dove. A voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased,” Mark 1:9-11. The Holy Trinity took part in Jesus’ baptism: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

   They all will take part in your baptism, too. Following His resurrection from death, just before ascending into heaven, Jesus gave this final command: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you,” Matthew 28:19-20.

2. When the first church began, those present knew they had done wrong, so they asked the apostles what they should do. Peter replied, “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… Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day,” Acts 2:38, 41. Your baptism expresses your repentance (turning from wrong to right), so that you, too, receive forgiveness and God’s Holy Spirit.

3. Your baptism initiates you into a new kind of life. By baptism, you die with Christ to sin, and rise with Him to new life; God’s Spirit buries you with Jesus in His death all the bad things we have done and the desire to do them, and gives us Christ’s new, holy life, Romans 6:2-6.

4. If possible, let your family be baptized together. A Roman jailer heard Paul and Silas singing hymns while chained in prison; after a violent earthquake, in which they could have escaped but did not, the jailer asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your family.” The jailer took them to his house at once and washed their wounds; the family members heard about Christ, believed, and immediately were baptized, Acts 16:30-33.