THE PLACE OF BAPTISM
IN WORLD EVANGELISM
GOD’S PLAN FOR CALLING THE NATIONS TO
REPENTANCE
A Study by
Gary Ray Branscome
Whoever believes and is baptized will be
saved; (Mark
We live in an age when baptism is
neglected, separated from faith in Christ, and totally misunderstood.
Instead
of being held up before a dying world as evidence of faith in Christ,
and God’s
own promise of forgiveness to all who trust in Him, it is twisted into
work
(“an act of obedience”) and treated as if it had little importance. In
order to
understand why that is wrong, and what role God intended for baptism to
play
let us look carefully at how it was used by the Apostles.
On the day of Pentecost, after
convicting his listeners of their sin, the Apostle Peter did not tell
them to
pray a prayer, or ask Jesus into their heart. On the contrary, he told
them to
repent and be baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness
of
sins” (Acts
Am I saying that we need to be
baptized in order to have God’s promise of forgiveness? Not at all! God
intended for baptism to give us the same promise that John
Working through Peter, the Holy Spirit began
by
convincing those who were listening that Jesus was the Messiah, that
the Jewish
leaders had crucified the Messiah, and that God had raised the Messiah
from the
dead on the third day as Scripture had foretold. Then, when they cried
out, “What
shall we do?” Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in
the name
of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins,” (Acts
Now, every Jew who had heard Peter’s sermon
knew that
to be baptized, “in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
sins” was
to accept Jesus as the Messiah. They also knew that if they went
forward to be
baptized, every Jew who saw them go forward would know that they had
accepted
Jesus as the Messiah. The possibility of accepting Jesus and keeping it
secret
was not an option. By requiring baptism Peter was requiring them to
make their
faith public. And, the words, “Those who gladly received his word were
baptized: and about three thousand souls were added to their number
that day,”
tell us that being baptized and joining the church went hand in hand
(Acts
Another thing that I want to call to
your attention is the fact that the Jews who heard Peter’s sermon knew
perfectly well that baptism was not a work, or “act of obedience”. They
all
knew what works God’s Law required and baptism was not one of them.
They could
also plainly see that baptism was not something they did, but something
that
was done to them. They were entirely passive. The outward washing of
baptism
was instituted as a visible portrayal of the inward washing away of sin
that
takes place when we come to faith in Christ (1John 1:7).
Also consider this: At the time Peter
preached his sermon the New Testament had not been written. Therefore,
if some
of the people who came forward ever had doubts, or needed assurance of
forgiveness, they could not get it from reading the New Testament.
However, the
fact that they had accepted Jesus as the Messiah at baptism was a
constant
reminder to them that they had placed their faith in Christ. And,
therefore, had
the forgiveness that God promises to all who place their faith in
Christ (Acts
Conclusion
God intended for baptism to play a key
role in world evangelism. The purpose of baptism is to make it clear
the no one
can come to Christ on the basis of their own righteousness. All who
come to
Christ must turn from their sin, and be baptized believing God’s
promise of
forgiveness in Christ (John