Bottom of the pool
Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Let me lay out a scenario for you if you will. A child raised in a Christian home with regular church attendance. Followed routine church practices and requirements including infant baptism (sprinkling); later in life, they truly come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior; do they need to be baptized again? There are much bigger questions that can lie here that are deep in the religiosity of the particular sects of religion they practice. Some believe that in an infant baptism that produces salvation; some believe that any baptism produces salvation; some believe all their religiosity wrapped up in together produces it; but does any of it? NO! Only through a humble repentant heart that desires to be forgiven through the sacrifice that Jesus Christ paid on the Cross will be saved. Only through the understanding that Grace is what saves you; no act or work or deed of your own merit will ever get you into heaven; none except you swallowing your pride and accepting that fact. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
Let me probe a little deeper. That later in life is you that came to know Christ, but you don’t feel as though it is necessary to be baptized (submerged), for you were sprinkled as a child. Necessary is a difficult answer, but why would you not do it anyway as a public profession of your new life in Christ? Are you ashamed to publicly profess Christ? Luke 9:26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. What reason other than embarrassment could there possibly be for not being water baptized? Do you think God is going to be mad at you for doing it twice? Would He not be glorified in it both times? What about the day that you stand before Him and he asks you why you did NOT follow that tug on your heart to be baptized? Is there truly any answer that will suffice?
Do you know what the word baptize means? I found this online; “It comes from a Greek word which means “to submerge in water.” Therefore, baptism by sprinkling or by pouring is an oxymoron, something that self-contradictory. So then a baptism by sprinkling would mean “submerging someone in water by sprinkling water on them.” Baptism, by its inherent definition, must be an act of immersion in water.” There is no point in your life, no age in your life, no reason in your life if you know Christ as your Savior to not be baptized by submersion. How glorious it will be to be at his feet and tell him you were proud to identify with his death, burial, and resurrection. You are leaving your old life on bottom of the pool, and arising to a new life in Him.
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