Water baptism is an important step for the person who has been born again. As a symbolic picture to the world of the new birth, baptism is done “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,” as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:19. When a believer is baptized in water, he is showing to the world by an outward act that he is dead so far as his old sinful life is concerned, and that he has risen as a new creation in Christ Jesus, freed from the bondage of sin.

Scriptures show that baptism by immersion was the intended method. The word baptism derives from the Greek word baptizo which means “to immerse; to make fully wet." The baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch recorded in Acts 8 is an example of this.

Water baptism does not bring about salvation, because it is impossible for an outward washing to effect an inward work. While every new Christian should be baptized as soon as possible, the example of the thief on the cross reveals that if a person dies in Christ before he is able to be baptized, he will not be denied Heaven.

Matthew 3:16; Acts 8:38-39; Romans 6:4-5; Colossians 2:1

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