Believer's Baptism by Immersion

A summary for understanding the position of Providence Baptist Church

Every Christian has a testimony of God’s grace at work in his or her life. That
testimony may vary on many points regarding the circumstances of their salvation
experience, but the common theme for every witness is “Jesus Christ died for me.” Both the Lord’s Supper and baptism remind us of the message of the Gospel – that by Christ’s death, He saves us from sin and binds our hearts together as one. Therefore, we understand baptism to be a visual testimony of one’s experience with Christ.

“For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we
shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:5).

As a Baptist church, one of our biblical distinctives is the position we take on
believers’ baptism. In keeping with our commitment to the Scriptures, we believe that
the Bible teaches that we are to baptize by immersion those who put their trust in Christ. In other words, baptism is for those who are believers already (Acts 2:41, 8:12, Matthew 28:19-20). The water of baptism has nothing to do with cleansing or the washing away of our sin. Only the blood of Christ can do that (Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 9:14, 1 Peter 1:18-19). Instead, the water of baptism represents death and the grave, just as in many places in the Scriptures water portrays God’s judgment in death, such as the condemnation of the world of Noah through the flood, or the drowning of the Egyptian army in their pursuit of the Israelites. In baptism, the picture painted by the water is a visible, outward symbol of a “water grave” into which the believer is immersed, lowered as into the tomb. As they are then raised from the water, the image of resurrection to new life is portrayed in the minds of those who witness this act of faithfulness to the command of Christ. Colossians 2:12 reflects this identification with Christ as: “…having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

The act of baptism saves no one from sin. Our salvation depends entirely upon the
grace of God in Jesus Christ. We can add nothing to that through baptism or any other deed we perform ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9). It all depends on the perfect sufficiency of the redeeming grace of Christ who died to pay the penalty for our sin, once for all!

Other Christian churches equally committed to the Scriptures have differing
perspectives on both the mode and meaning of baptism. However, we see that the “plain sense” approach to the New Testament teaching and narratives on this subject leads us to conclude that baptism is for those who have already been born of the Spirit to eternal life in Jesus’ name. Many see it as a sign of the covenant promise of God to be administered prior to one’s salvation, but in reading the New Testament we do not find any evidence that this was the practice of the early church, or that this is supported by the teaching of the epistles to the churches.

Rather than practice baptism as a covenant promise as do many Christian churches,
we find that the clearest, most direct evidence in the New Testament’s teaching and in the early church’s practice indicates that people were baptized after their conversion and not before. This follows consistently with the meaning of baptism as a symbolic expression of the believer’s identification, first with the sacrificial death of Christ, and then with His resurrection life.

In practicing baptism by immersion, the mode itself is significant in two ways. First,
the literal translation of the Greek word for the verb “to baptize” is “to dip, to immerse.” The word was used when the writer would speak of dyeing cloth, as the fabric was “dipped” into the dye, or of tempering a piece of metal, heating it, shaping it, then “immersing” it into water. Therefore, in order to follow the teaching of the Scriptures, and to remain as faithful to the text as possible, we believe that we continue the biblical practice of baptism when we immerse the believer in water. This is the mode of baptism that we see Jesus, Himself experiencing (Matthew 3:13-16, Mark 1:9-10) though Jesus’ baptism was certainly not because of any sin, but as He says “to fulfill all righteousness.”

Second, immersion most accurately portrays in visible form the verbal testimony
given by the believer. When the Scriptures read, “buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4), they speak of the identification of the believer with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. The baptismal practice of lowering and raising the person down into and up out of the water gives strong visual impact to the testimony.

The command of Christ to His disciples in Matthew 28:19-20 in what is known as the
Great Commission instructs them to make disciples, and then to do two things with the new followers of Christ – teach them His commandments and baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The church, then, has a responsibility to be faithful to this commission in every way. First, we take the mandate to make disciples very seriously. Secondly, we follow through with each new believer by teaching and training them in what it means to walk with Christ and grow to maturity in Him. Thirdly, we ask those who come to faith in Christ and commit to be His disciples to be baptized as He commanded. Therefore, each person desiring membership in the body of Christ here at Providence must be baptized by immersion after becoming a believer in order to practice what we believe is the New Testament model for those who belong to the Savior.

Baptism services are held regularly here at Providence. If you are interested in becoming a Providence member and have been baptized by immersion as a believer through another Christian church, we do not ask you to be baptized again. However, if you have not been baptized by immersion since you came to Christ, we ask you to do so. If you have not attended one of our baptism services, we encourage you to join us for that wonderful experience as we are privileged to hear the personal testimonies of the work of our Lord in the lives of those being baptized. Baptism services are announced in the bulletin and are generally part of the third Sunday evening (6:00 PM) service each month and other special occasions as scheduled.

If you would like to be baptized at Providence, please call Becky Estes at 326-3000 for information. If you desire to discuss baptism with someone, please contact one of our pastors, elders or deacons.

March, 2008