What Is Baptism?

Baptism is a personal, obedient response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When someone repents and is baptized, they are not joining a denomination or checking a religious box. They are responding to God’s invitation for forgiveness, transformation, and new life.

The Bible consistently presents baptism as:

• Essential

• Intentional

• Immediate

When people believed, they were baptized. Not later. Not someday. Not after everything felt perfect.

Who Should Be Baptized?

Anyone who has believed and repented

Baptism is for people who have heard the gospel, believed it, and turned toward God in repentance.

The pattern in Scripture is always:
Believe. Repent. Be baptized.

Anyone old enough to understand repentance

We wait to baptize children until they can personally understand sin, repentance, and obedience. The Bible never records infant baptism. Every biblical example involves people who consciously believed and responded.

Anyone baptized in a different way than Scripture teaches

Some people were baptized sincerely, but not biblically. In Acts 19, believers were rebaptized when they learned the fuller truth about Jesus. Their humility and obedience mattered more than their past experience.

If your baptism did not align with Scripture, rebaptism is not rejection. It is alignment.

Why Be Baptized?

Because Jesus did it

Jesus did not need baptism. Yet He chose it to “fulfill all righteousness.” If the sinless Son of God submitted to baptism, so should we.

Because Jesus commanded it

Baptism is not optional. Jesus connected belief and baptism together. The early church took His words seriously and acted on them immediately.

Because the original church practiced it

From Jerusalem to Samaria to the Gentiles, the church baptized believers consistently, clearly, and without delay.

The question Scripture asks is simple:
“Why delay?”

How Does the Bible Teach Baptism?

By full immersion in water

Baptism in the Bible is always immersion. The word itself means to submerge.

Immersion:

• Mirrors Jesus coming up out of the water

• Reflects burial and resurrection

• Portrays death to the old life and rising to a new one

Sprinkling cannot picture a burial. Immersion can.

In the name of Jesus Christ

Every baptism recorded in Scripture was done in the name of Jesus Christ.

Not once do we see a different formula used by the apostles.

Why?
Because Jesus is the saving name.
Because all authority belongs to Him.
Because forgiveness and salvation are found in His name.

When someone is baptized in Jesus’ name, they are calling on the name that saves.

What Happens When I’m Baptized?

Baptism is not empty. God does real work in that moment.

Sins are remitted

The Bible plainly states that baptism, in Jesus’ name, is for the remission of sins. What repentance begins, baptism completes.

The old life is buried

Baptism is a burial. The past no longer defines you. What was dies in the water.

New life begins

Just as Christ rose from the grave, baptism marks the beginning of a new life directed by God’s Spirit.

A clear conscience before God

Baptism brings inward peace. Guilt loses its grip. Shame no longer has authority.

A public commitment

Baptism declares, “I belong to Jesus.” It is a clear, visible line in the sand.

What If I Feel Nervous or Unsure?

That’s normal.

Almost everyone feels that way before baptism. The people in Acts did too. What mattered was not their confidence, but their obedience.

You don’t need to have everything figured out.
You don’t need a perfect past.
You don’t need to wait.

You just need to respond.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

If you have believed the gospel and repented, baptism is not something to consider forever. It is something to obey.

If you feel that quiet pull in your spirit saying, “This is for me,” that is not pressure. That is invitation.

We would love to talk with you, answer questions, and help you take this step.

Click the button below and let us know you’re ready to be baptized.