First Baptist Church of Chillicothe
Our God is Able              Ephesians 3
 


STRENGTH

for the Journey

 

BIBLE STUDY

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Bible Study

Pathways to Spiritual Understanding Series

“Baptism”

Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:36-47; Romans 6:1-5

Part 1

 

Who Are The Subject For Baptism?

Before we can baptize anyone we must first know who, according to Scripture, should become a candidate for baptism.

 

  1. From the Bible we learn that there are two basic categories of per living on earth.
    1. There are the saved.
      1. The saved are those who, by faith, have trusted Christ as their personal savior.
      2. The words saved and born again are synonymous.
      3. We who are saved, are saved by God’s grace and or our merit; therefore, we have nothing about which to boast.

 

    1. There are the unsaved.
      1. those who have not yet put their faith and trust in Christ as Savior are unsaved.
      2. The unsaved aren’t unsaved because they’re more wicked than those who are saved.
      3. They’re unsaved simply because they haven’t been born again.
      4. All of us are sinners, Some are saved sinners, and some are lost sinners. The only difference between the two is the blood of Christ.
  2. From these two categories we must make our determination as to who should be baptized.

If you do a “character search” though the Bible, you won’t find a single record of anyone ever being baptized until, first they were saved.  So, we must conclude that salvation a necessary prerequisite to baptism.

 

Case studies: 2 Acts 2:35-41; Acts 8:5-12; Acts 8:26-38 Acts 10:34-48

What conclusions do you draw?

 

 

 

 

What differences do you see in each case study?

 

 

 

 

Continue Over

 

  1. What do we see in common in each of theses case histories from the Bible?
    1. The 3,000 on the day of Pentecost, the people in Samaria, the Ethiopian, Cornelius and his family, and Crispus the chief ruler, all believe, repented and were save before they were baptized.
    2. Thus, we conclude that the candidate for baptism is one who has first believed the Gospel message, turned to Christ by faith and has been saved.

 

What is the Purpose of Baptism?

  1. Perhaps it would be better to begin by mentioning what baptism does not do.
    1. Baptism does not take away sin and save  Titus 3:5
    2. Baptism is a righteous work. It’s something we ought to do after we have been saved; but it isn’t something we do to secure salvation.
    3. Peter in Acts 2:38 isn’t teaching that you should be baptized to remit sins, rather, because your sins have been remitted you ought to be baptized.
    4. A Practical illustration from everyday life.
      1. “Close the window, it’s cold outside” wouldn’t mean that closing the window makes it cold outside, but because it is already cold outside someone has given the order to close the window.
      2. When Peter said, “Be baptized for remission of sins,” he was saying you need to be baptized because your sins are remitted already.
  2. For what purpose, then, are we to be baptized? Romans 6:3-4 teaches us that baptism sets forth an example of two great Bible truths
    1. The death of Christ, Christ Died for our sins 1 Corinthians
    2. The resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Corinthians 15:4. the doctrine, according to 1 Corinthians 15:12-23 is the power of the Gospel message. If Christ did not rise from the grave, our faith is in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:17.
  3. To understand baptism, you must not miss the great truth found in Romans 6:5.
    1. “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death” the word “likeness” means “picture”.  Baptism is a likeness, or a picture, of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
    2. A picture is simply a reminder of another placed or another person, baptism is to serve as a reminder to us of the kind of life we’re to live while on earth. Romans 5:4 says, “ even so we also should walk in newness of life”. As we are buried in the likeness of His death, we are raised to walk in newness of His life.
    3. Baptism is an outward sign to others of an inward change that has already taken place.