ETERNAL BENEFITS OF BAPTISM

HEB 10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled {clean} from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Baptism then is not a public testimony. It is not an outward sign of an inward change. It is not a baptism into a church. It is not a ritual. It is not a ritual bath as in other religions.

Baptism is designed by God to produce something real and eternal in our lives. We cannot take the next step into God’s eternal purpose without a valid baptism.

(1) Baptism is an immersion into the death of Jesus Christ.

(2) Baptism is an immersion into a death to sin.

(3) It cuts us loose from the old nature of first Adam.

(4) It destroys the “body of sin” or the sin factory.

(5) It is a burial into death.

(6) It is the preparation for resurrection.

(7) It frees us from slavery to sin.

(8) It frees us from the fear of death.

(9) We are freed from sin so that we can be enslaved to God.

(10) Death and burial sets us free from the law so we can serve in newness of the Spirit.

(11) Baptism is our escape from the world system.

(12) Baptism loosens us from Satan’s authority.

(13) Baptism brings us under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(14) Baptism is another step into God’s purpose.

(15) At baptism God provides us with a good conscience.

(16) Baptism is our first obedience to the word of God.

(17) At baptism we are clothed with Christ (as with a garment).

(18) Baptism brings to a conclusion all that was before so that in Christ Jesus all things can become new.

(19) Baptism is one of the foundations of the Christian life.

(20) God will not permit us to go on to maturity until the foundations are complete.

Heb 6:1-2

Until we can accept the fact that baptism is essential and exercise faith in all the provision of God released in baptism, we will not be able to exercise faith to experience all the benefits of baptism. This has been the experience of too much of the church. Since very little was experienced, she has developed a doctrine that nothing much happens in baptism. Therefore, baptism can’t be very important. The church acknowledges that baptism is one of the “sacraments” of the church so we must do it sometime. Before faith or after faith is irrelevant.

Of course we should know it is not “the water” that does the work but it is our faith working through our obedience that grasps the promises of God to bring them into our experience. Repentance prepares the heart to believe what God has said will happen. Baptism outside of repentance and faith produces nothing and nothing happened in baptism is the testimony of many.