◆Baptism IV 1 Pet. 3:21 September 8, 2024

We have studied baptism three times so far. Who is to be baptized? Those who have repented of their sins and made a decision to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. Who is to baptize? Not individuals or groups, but churches. What does baptism mean? It means and represents the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, as well as the death and burial of our old self that lived our lives without God, and resurrection into a new life of walking with Him. Today, for the fourth and final message on the theme, I would like to study and confirm what baptism is NOT. I will talk about three things. First, baptism is not “baptism” as a washing or cleansing ceremony.  Second, baptism is not a condition for salvation. Third, baptism is for living people.

First, I said that baptism is not “baptism.” You may be surprised. I know that people who believe in Christ are usually said to be baptized and become members of the church. The word “baptism” is probably more unfamiliar to many Japanese people. Baptism in the most common translation in Japanese, if you look at the Chinese characters, is a washing rite. This means that baptism has the power to wash away sins. However, baptism does not have such mystical power. People are saved by believing, and then they are baptized as a form of public confession of their faith to the church. Romans 10:9-10 clearly tells us how one is saved: “For if you say with your mouth publicly that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Indeed, with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one professes and is saved.” The word baptism is not mentioned here. If we look at Acts 2:38, we see that when those who were pierced by Peter’s message asked him what they should do and how they could be forgiven of their sins, he replied, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.” The New Translation 2017 seems to translate the order of repentance, salvation, and baptism more clearly. It states “For the remission of the sins of each one of you, repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” A repentant person is baptized. It is indicated that we do not receive it to be washed clean of our sins, or to be forgiven of them. Let’s think about that sinner on the cross next to Jesus. The sinner who repented near the end of his life could never have been baptized. He could never have become a member of the church. But he repented and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Then the Lord did not say that he must be baptized and washed clean. He said, “Let me tell you plainly, you are in Paradise with Me today.” This episode indicates that baptism does not cleanse sins. In the church where I used to pastor, we used to sing praise using “Seika.” But there were a few songs among them that we could not sing. One of them was Seika hymn No. 205. The reason is that the song says, “Baptism cleanses us from our sins.” Baptism does not have the power to cleanse sins.

Second, baptism is not a condition for salvation. I think I already made it clear in my talk about baptism not being “baptism.” Once again, it is enough to remember that prisoner next to Jesus. He could not be baptized even if he wanted to. He was on the cross and would soon have to die. But he was saved by believing in Jesus. And it is enough to remember the words of Romans 10. One is justified by believing in one’s heart and saved by confessing with one’s mouth.

One last thing. Baptism is for the living. There is not a single example of baptism of a dead person in the Bible. Only those who are alive and have confessed their sins. On the day of Pentecost, as many as 3,000 people believed in Jesus and were baptized. All of them were people who were alive. The next example is the Ethiopian official. He was a convert, but on his way to Gaza, he met Philip, who revealed to him a passage from Isaiah that he had been reading, and when he learned that it spoke of Jesus, he believed in the Lord and was baptized in a nearby river. He was, of course, a living person. Let us again remember the man who was hanging on the cross next to Jesus. He died and his body was taken down. The dead man was not baptized. There are a number of groups that call themselves Christian but are not Christian at all in fundamental ways. One of these groups is said to perform baptisms for the dead. Some baptize for relatives or ancestors who died without believing in the gospel. Some baptize for those who believed but were not baptized until the end. I have also heard of people giving drop rites to corpses or submerging the corpses in water. However, such things are not in the Bible, and if we do something that is not in the Bible on our own, we are even blaspheming God. Therefore, we do not baptize the dead. We do not even think about it. I know you have never heard of such a thing or thought about it, but I would like to close this four-part message on baptism by adding this last point.

Translation based on DeepL (www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)) with modifications.