Mark 16:16 “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”
If you believe something, what does that mean? It means to accept something as true or factual, or to have firm confidence and faith in something, and quite often that belief will result in you doing something. For example, you may say that you believe that if you got hit by a car on the highway you would die, so that belief will cause you to do what? Get out of the way of traffic! Your belief had an action tied to it.
Well, when someone believes in Jesus and His Word that belief will be shown in one’s life by the way that they live and the way that they conduct themselves. It will cause an action in their life, and when someone makes the decision to follow Jesus it will cause them to do something else as well: become baptized.
Now, there are many people who become baptized just as an outward show of religion yet don’t actually believe in Jesus entirely, but someone who truly believes in the teachings of Christ will seek to begin a new life, one which is completely opposite and separate from the sinful life that they once used to live, and they will show this dedication by being baptized, dying to the sins of the flesh and then living their life for the glory of Christ.
When someone is baptized it is they are completely submerged under water, signifying their death to the carnal, sinful life, and when they rise back up out of the water, it is the start of their new life as a Christian.
Just as when we die physically on earth, and we are raised up in our new bodies when Jesus returns, baptism is the death of our life without Christ, and when we get raised back up out of the water, our new life begins.
Romans 6:4 “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Baptism is like changing oil on a car. When you take your car to the shop, they will take and drain out all of that old, dirty oil, and fill it back up with new, good, clean oil. When we are baptized, the whole old way we used to live is drained out of us, and we are filled up with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
In John 3, a man named Nicodemus was talking with Jesus. Jesus explained to him that you need to be born again to enter into God’s kingdom. We need to be born again through baptism of the Spirit.
John 3:1-7 “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
Just because someone has been baptized doesn’t always mean that they truly believe in the word of God. I know of some who have been baptized, not because they really believed, but because they were with some other friends who were being baptized and they just did it because their friends did. It takes true faith. Just like the verse at the top of the page says, you need to believe and be baptized to be saved. Because it is when you believe that you will follow Christ.
Galatians 3:27 “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
If you haven’t been baptized and born again, what are you waiting for? Today is the day of salvation!!
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 