Christian Baptism

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

In his message yesterday Derek Prince shared with us the last two requirements needed for John’s Baptist: confession of sins and the evidence of a changed life. In today’s program as he continues his message ‘Immersion In Water,’ he focuses on the requirements for Christian baptism in water and it’s meaning in our lives. Be sure to listen at the end of the broadcast for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

Even though he didn’t know He was the Messiah he said, ‘You’re more righteous than I am. I shouldn’t be the one to baptize you.’

“But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed him. Then Jesus, when he had been baptized, came up immediately from the water and, behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him.
And in John’s gospel it says ‘and abiding on him.’
And then there came a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’”

It is impossible to overemphasize the importance that the New Testament attaches to being baptized in water. Because in this scene all three persons of the Godhead endorsed it. Jesus went through it, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and had not descended upon Him until He was baptized in water, and then God the Father spoke from heaven and said, ‘This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.’ God, if you might say reverently, bent over backwards to emphasize the extreme importance in His eyes of being baptized in water.

Now, I want to point out the nature of Christian baptism. It is not a baptism of repentance because Jesus had no sins of which to repent. He was not baptized because He had repented, He was baptized by John but He was not baptized with John’s baptism. What was the purpose? He states it Himself:

“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

He doesn’t say for me, He says for us. He identifies Himself with all who will follow Him through the waters of baptism. And He says it is fitting, it is appropriate, it is becoming in this way to fulfill all righteousness. That’s what you do when you’re baptized in the name of Jesus Christ as a follower of Jesus. You are not baptized with a baptism of repentance. You have repented but that’s not why you are baptized. You’re baptized to fulfill all righteousness, to complete all righteousness. This is such an important point that I want to emphasize it. If you turn to Romans chapter 5:1 Paul says of us as believers in Jesus:

“Therefore, having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

So Paul says through our faith in Jesus we have been justified. Now that’s one of the most important terms in the New Testament, very little understood. I say it has a number of different meanings: acquitted, declared not guilty, reckoned righteous, made righteous. It has all those meanings. But through our faith in Jesus we have been acquitted, we’re declared not guilty, we’ve been reckoned righteous and we’ve been made righteous. And that’s why we should be baptized. Not because we’ve repented of our sins but because it’s the way to complete our righteousness. We already have righteousness imputed to us through our faith in Jesus. Now water baptism is the appropriate way to fulfill, or complete, or carry out

that righteousness.

I think this is very, very little understood today. Generally speaking, as I’ve said, the importance of water baptism is very little understood. The sort of answer you get is, ‘Well, if you want to be baptized, we’re having a baptismal service in two weeks, put your name down.’ That is not the way the New Testament dealt with baptism. I’ll show you that.

Now baptism essentially is a commitment. I’m talking about Christian baptism. It’s an identification with Jesus in His death, burial and resurrection. Romans chapter 6:3:

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

So, Christian baptism is identification with Jesus in death, burial and resurrection. We died with Him, in the watery grave we’re buried with Him, and then out of the watery grave we arise with Him to walk in newness of life, a different kind of life than what we led before. And Paul says He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. But if you go back to Romans chapter 1:4 you find He was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit. So, when we are baptized it signifies we’ve come to the end of our own life. We’ve come to the end of doing things in our own strength and righteousness and power. From now on we’re going to be like Jesus. When we come out of the tomb, the watery tomb, it’s to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus did not raise Himself from the dead. That’s very significant. He was raised from the dead by God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 1:4:

“He was declared to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness through the resurrection of the dead.”

Two different courts—one Jewish court, one Roman court—had sentenced Him to death as a criminal. But on the third day when the tomb opened and He rose from the dead, God reversed their decisions. He said, ‘This is my Son. He’s altogether righteous and I’m bringing Him back to life because He’s going to be the author of life and godliness to all who will believe in Him.’ Oh, how important the resurrection is! And water baptism is an enactment, a fresh enactment, every time it takes place of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And in the early church you could not get into the church unless you went through that enactment of the faith that you professed. See, it wasn’t enough just to say, ‘I believe,’ they had to act out their belief.

Now, once you’ve been buried and raised again, your life does not belong to you. If you want to go on living your own life you should not be baptized because baptism is your death sentence. And then it’s your resurrection. But when you’re resurrected, your life does not belong to you. See? It’s a commitment to discipleship.

In Matthew 28, at the end of the chapter Jesus told His disciples what they were to do in proclaiming His gospel. Matthew chapter 28:19–20. He said:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So He said go and make disciples of all nations. He never told us to make church members, did you notice that? Do you know the biggest problem in the church today? is church members who are not disciples. Because they misrepresent the truth that we’re trying to proclaim. If you’re not willing to be a disciple, you have no right to be baptized. Baptism is a commitment to discipleship. They didn’t spend a lot of time teaching them before they were baptized, but once they made the commitment then they taught them. See, that makes sense. Why waste time teaching uncommitted people? Let them prove their commitment and then begin to teach them what they need to know.

See, I’ve been through this in a mission in East Africa. They spent weeks teaching the candidates for baptism but in actual fact, at the end of that what they often did was baptize pagans. They got the head knowledge, they never had the heart experience. They never made a real commitment to Jesus. I was led to analyze this and I’ll show it to you in a little while.

But let’s just consider now the requirements for Christian baptism. We’ve studied the requirements for John’s baptism, let’s study the requirements for Christian baptism. Jesus said, first of all, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them. So, a person who is to be baptized must have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. You remember what I said the gospel is? It’s three historical facts: Jesus died, He was buried, He rose again. If you believe that, it’s reckoned to you as righteousness. You are justified. So, we have no right to baptize people who have not been confronted by the simple facts of the gospel.

Second, the next requirement was repentance. On the Day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2:38 we read the response of Peter when the convicted but unconverted crowd said to him:

“‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’
And Peter answered in verse 38:
‘Repent . . .’
You remember what we said, repentance is always the first step.
‘Repent and let every one of you be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

This is God’s program. It’s all in one verse, why should we split it up and separate it by weeks or months? I was so ignorant about the gospel that when I got saved I got baptized in the Spirit. It didn’t happen in a church, it happened in an army barrack room. I only learned later that you’re supposed to wait. At the same time I was baptized in the Holy Spirit I got the gift of tongues and interpretation. Thank God I hadn’t been put together with Christians who said you have to wait so long to get all this. Peter didn’t say that. He said it’s a package deal. Repent, be baptized in water, receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I can tell you, if you present the truth to people that way and they respond, that’s how it will happen. It doesn’t take a long time. It’s not a long, drawn-out process. It’s a crisis, in a way, you move from one dimension to another dimension. Thirdly, to be baptized people have to believe. In Mark 16:15–16 Jesus said to His disciples:

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”

And what a reproach it is on us that after 2,000 years we still haven’t done the job. That’s just by the way.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”

So you are not qualified to be baptized if you have not believed. You have to be a believer. He who believes and is baptized will be saved. Let me point out to you that Jesus never offers any guarantee of salvation to those who believe without being baptized.

Announcer:

Listen again tomorrow when Derek Prince in his teaching on ‘Immersion In Water,’ will share several New Testament accounts of baptism for believers when the conditions have been met. This week’s message is available on audiocassette No. RC4164, and also on video. Our special offer this week is the deluxe hard cover edition of The Spirit-filled Believer’s Handbook. This 500 page hard cover edition contains a more in depth study of the six basic doctrines of the Christian faith covered in this radio series. To receive your copy of ‘Immersion In Water’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for audio cassette RC4164 or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of $15.00 or more for The Spirit filled Believer’s Handbook.

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