Who Is Commanded To Be Baptized?
Baptism in the name of Christ is commanded of God. (see Matt. 28:19-20, Acts 10:48) All of God's commandments are addressed to people who are capable and willing to obey them. All people who are responsible to God are divided into two classes and known as "the people of God" and "children of the wicked one" the "saved" and the "lost." The command to be baptized in the name of Christ is a command addressed to "the saved" or "the lost," "the children of God" or "the children of the wicked one," and certainly not to both classes? This then raises the question, who is commanded to be baptized?
1. If the scriptures teach that baptism in the name of Christ is a command addressed to "the children of God," those already saved from sins, then certainly it is not essential to the forgiveness of sins. In that case it assumes the nature of a "christian duty" along with all the other obligations imposed upon christians.
2. But if the scriptures clearly teach that the command to be baptized in the name of Christ is a command addressed to those who are "lost" and whose sins are not forgiven, then we could not but conclude but that it is essential to the forgiveness of sins.
3. That the command to be baptized in the name of Christ was a command addressed to the "unsaved," "the lost," is made clear in Acts, 2nd chapter. Now note: (2) Peter charged this people with being guilty of the crucifixion of Christ. (Verse 36.) (b) Being convicted of this fact these people immediately asked, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" That is the cry of a "lost people," and to these lost people the Holy Spirit said, "Repent, and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (Verse 38.) Since then the command to be baptized in the name of Christ was a command given to those who were lost - the unsaved - how could we avoid the conclusion that it is essential to the forgiveness of sins? I challenge those who deny this teaching to produce the verse in which the command to be baptized in the name of Christ was ever given to Christians-those who are already saved from past sins. If those who deny the essentiality of baptism to the forgiveness of sins can not produce an example of where christians-saved people-were commanded to be baptized in the name of Christ how could they expect anyone to believe their teaching that it is "because of the remission of sins"?
If the command to be baptized in the name of Christ is the duty of a saved individual and not an unsaved individual, why would not this duty recur with other "christian duties"? Christians pray, sing, give, visit the needy, study the scriptures, and attend religious services over and over. Why be baptized only once? The very fact that "there is one baptism," that people are baptized only once, suggests the idea that it introduces one into the family of God - that it is a part of the "new birth" - that by our obedience to this command our sins are forgiven in heaven - and we pass from darkness to light and from the power of satan and wholly commit ourselves to Christ. To baptize a saved man, and because he is saved, makes just about as much sense as washing clothes because they are already clean and freshly laundered! In baptism there is a "washing of regeneration," and hence Saul was told to "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins." (Acts 22:16.)