Why is baptism necessary ? This is a question that has been asked by many who have been searching for the way to obtain a never-ending life. They have realized that this life will end in time and a remedy is needed for this fast dying flesh of ours. The answer can only come from the scriptures, for it is not our opinion that really counts.
Baptism is a necessary step in obtaining eternal life because it is a command of God through Christ and His apostles. Every Christian knows that God is pleased with those who keep His commandments and He will punish those who deliberately refuse to obey them. So Jesus, in directing his disciples as to their duties, said : “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be condemned (to death).” The first command for those who want to be saved from death was to believe his teachings. Following this belief, the believer had to be baptized to completely fulfill the command.
Jesus proved that baptism was a necessary step toward being righteous when he submitted to baptism himself. Here was a perfectly righteous man who submitted to it because as he told John the Baptist, “Suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”
If the Saviour had to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness surely we must also if we expect to receive the reward of life eternal.
When Jesus talked with Nicodemus about getting into the Kingdom of God, he said, “Except a man be born again he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can he be born when he is old ?” Jesus answered his question saying, “Except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3-5.
The birth of the spirit is something that will take place before one enters the Kingdom and does not particularly concern our subject, but the birth of the water does because Jesus was referring to the birth of the water in baptism. Thus he was showing that baptism was a re-birth which was necessary to obtain salvation in the kingdom.
To be born again would indicate a new life, being started and an old one discarded. As a new-born babe, one starts a new life of serving God and if his serving is satisfactory to God He will give him eternal life. Therefore baptism is a fundamental step to this end and is as essential to obtaining life as natural birth is to an unborn baby before he can see life. See 1 Peter 2:2.
Baptism becomes a symbol of death too, and a resurrection from the dead, for in Romans 6:3 Paul says, “Know ye not that so many of us as have been baptised into Christ have been baptized into his death ? Therefore we have been 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 should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.”
Eternal life then comes after the resurrection if we are worthy of it ; so, baptism is a vital step in obtaining eternal life.
Baptism marks a definite starting time when we are “in Christ.”
It marks the day, the hour and the minute when we “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27), while the preceding knowledge of the Gospel is acquired over an indefinite period of time. In fact, baptism is similar to an initiation into the household of Christ after studying the rules for some time previously. Until it is done, one remains without hope of obtaining that life.
From Abraham’s time onward to Christ’s, circumcision was a Divine requirement to belong to the house of God. With Christ fulfilling the significance of that act, however, baptism became the sign which indicated a member of His house. Baptism too, is a cutting off of the sinful flesh, as the Apostle said in Colossians 2:11, 12. Too, the uncircumcised were not permitted among the people of God, whether they were Jews or Gentile servants, and we see the same importance placed on the baptism of all believers who become Jews by faith. “Their circumcision is that of the heart,” the Apostle teaches in Rom. 2:28, 29.
There is a cleansing operation in the act of being baptized, also, as we learn from several New Testament statements. “And now why tarriest thou ? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the Name of the Lord.” The same is taught I Cor. 6:11, and in Heb. 10:22 where he declares, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed in pure water.” Also in 1 Peter 3:2, “The like figure whereunto baptism doth now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus.”
It is an answer of a good conscience, because the past sins are forgiven, and the forgiveness of many later mistakes is obtained through the priesthood of Jesus. So we see that baptism is very important in pleasing God and entirely essential to obtain eternal life in the Kingdom.
The Apostle Peter was sent to Cornelius, a believing Gentile, and after hearing how he and his household had believed, he said, “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized ? And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord.” Forbidding baptism would prevent their being “in Christ” and they would continue in their sins with a conscience that was not clear to face the great Judge.
They would have been old men and women in sin, consequently not new-born babes in the family of God. In addition to all this, there would be no hope of everlasting life, and there would be a direct violation of the command of God. They would be displeasing to God and could only look to “A certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.” Heb. 10 :27.
Therefore we ask as the Apostle did, “Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized ?” On another occasion he commanded, “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” Acts 2:38.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One