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Getting Wet or Getting Right

Baptism is an important ordinance in the church, but it is often misunderstood. Many people view it as a religious relic or superstition, treating it like a lucky rabbit's foot. I have seen quite a few videos on social media of celebrities getting baptized, including athletes at their team practices. While I hope these are sincere, part of me wonders how many players hope the baptism will help them score touchdowns, and how many celebrities hope the baptism will further their career. 

Baptism is not something we do to hedge our bets, like Pascal's wager (if the Christian is wrong, no harm done, but if the atheist is wrong, heaven and hell hang in the balance; therefore, trust in God). Neither is baptism something we do in hopes that God will bless us.

Baptism is a picture of what a person professes to believe. When the Ethiopian eunuch believed, he was baptized on the spot. Baptism publicly proclaims the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as the candidate goes under the water in death, and is raised up to a new kind of life. 

Therefore, baptism should not be casually done if there has not been in a change in the one being baptized. If the sinner has no intention on repenting, the act of baptism cannot be a true symbol of what he says he believed. Take it from the one who had baptism in his name. John the Baptist chided the Pharisees, who he called a brood of vipers, because they did not "bear fruits in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8)." 

What does that mean? When people asked John to be more specific, he told them to feed the hungry if they had food to spare, to clothe the shivering if they had coats to spare; and then he told the tax collectors to stop overcharging the people, and the Roman soldiers to stop abusing their authority.

In other words, baptism demands a changed life. A person who is not willing to change is not ready to be baptized. Maybe you got wet, but that doesn't mean you got right. You cannot leave the baptistry and go back into a pattern of sin.

Maybe you need to truly repent, then bear fruits in keeping with that repentance. If your baptism was just checking a box rather than a sign of your change, it might be time to get baptized the right way. 

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