Baptism & Belief

In the Gospel of John, a man named Nichodemus came to Jesus on a rooftop at night, to ask Him about His teaching. Jesus said that a person must be born again, by water & the Spirit. I always heard this meant one must be baptized, be immersed in water, to be saved, but this view seemed to contradict John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosever believeth in Him should not perish, but will have everlasting life."

When rereading John last year, I discovered something: Nichodemus visited Jesus in Chapter 3. Moreover, John 3:16 was part of his conversation with Jesus! Christ was not saying to merely believe that He exists, that He is God's son, or that He has the power to forgive: He was saying that we must believe His word.

Moreover, Baptism wasn't exactly new; John the Baptist had already been preaching a message of repentance & Baptism for forgiveness, & Jews already used a form of ritual immersion for new converts. Nichodemus should've already known about that, so Jesus's words shouldn't have gone over his head. After Christ's death & ressurection the emphasis changed, from a ritual cleansing, to a spiritual unification with Christ's death, burial, & resurection.

Baptism is important. It's a basic part of the Christian faith; it unites one with Christ. It washes away sin. Baptism saves.

Verses About Baptism:

Not an exhaustive list; you can find that easily enough with a search engine, but a selection of significant verses:

• Mark 16:16 Jesus commands his disciples to teach & baptize.
• Acts 2:36-48 The men already believed in Christ, otherwise they wouldn't've asked "What must we do?" Peter still said they needed to be baptzed.
• Acts 19:1-7 When the writer of Acts says someone believed, that belief implies baptism too.
• Acts 22:12-16 Paul recounts his conversion, noting that he was told that baptism washes away sins.
• Romans 6:1-11 Paul notes that baptism unites us with Christ's death, burial, & resurection.
• Colossians 2:8-15 Notes that Christians do not need to be circumcised physicaly, but spiritualy through Christ, through baptism into His death & resurection. That was a major debate in early Christianity, & it shows up often in Paul's letters.
• 1 Corinthians 12:12-20 In Christ, we are united, being baptized into His body.
• 1 Peter 3:18-22 Baptism saves, but not in the same way as Old-Testament washing ceremonies.

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