The Doctrine of Baptism – Gospel Truth or Personal Experience
Another great post by Jody Fox
So then baptism by immersion is a beautiful picture of Christ redeeming us from the wrath of God unto eternal life. It’s a proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a call for all to believe by faith in the substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Christ and submit to His Lordship so that they may be resurrected into eternal life with Christ. Therefore we should rejoice in baptism, not with giddiness and jokes, but with humble joy and an overwhelming sense of the mercy and grace of Christ.
Finally, Baptism is for the church and is not an empty individualistic expression of faith. If Baptism is so clearly a proclamation of the Gospel of Christ, why would we dare take it from the church which is in desperate need of hearing the Gospel proclaimed. Baptism is then not something we do to experience some personal feeling or for personal worship. Baptism is Christ marking out through His church, men and women who are in Christ Jesus.
From these scriptures and many more, we must redeem such a glorious ordinance from an empty sign of self-glorification to an all surpassing glimpse of the glory of Jesus Christ and the redemption that He brings to all who call upon the name of the Lord.