Why should I get baptized? | GotQuestions.org

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Hi there, many others like you have asked, why should I get baptized? Let's find out, shall we?

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You can discover even more on GotQuestions .org. If you are a believer in Christ, you should be baptized.

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If you are not a believer, then you should not be baptized. It's that simple. The primary reason for a believer to be baptized is obedience to Christ.

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In the Great Commission, Jesus told his disciples, If Jesus commanded the apostles to make disciples and baptize them, it only stands to reason that a disciple should be willing to submit to baptism.

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It does not make sense for a person to claim to be a disciple and then object to the very first thing mentioned by Jesus in conjunction with being a disciple.

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Water baptism as a ritual does not save anyone, neither does the obedience required to submit to baptism.

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Baptism is an outward picture of an inner transformation. Baptism pictures the washing away of sins and also the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ on behalf of the believer.

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Baptism shows the believer's identification with Christ. History lesson for you.

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In the first century Judaism, baptism was only performed on Gentiles, who were converting to Judaism.

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When John started baptizing Jews, they were admitting that because of their sin, they were no better off than Gentiles and should repent.

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This is why John responds to the religious leaders who were not being baptized. Do you not think that you can say to yourselves, we have

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Abraham as our father. I tell you that out of these stones, God can raise up children for Abraham.

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The religious leaders were at least in part relying upon their Jewish heritage to save them, but John tells them that their heritage was of no importance.

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John's baptism was a public declaration of one's sin and need to repent in view of the coming

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Christ. In the early church, baptism became the way that a person was identified as a true believer.

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If a person was casually connected with Christians or a church, but not baptized, no one considered him to be a

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Christian. When he was baptized, he was considered part of the church though. If he was

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Jewish, he was often cut off from his family and synagogue, and in the Roman Empire, this was when persecution might really start as well.

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Baptism does not make a person Christian, and this is important. It publicly identifies one as a

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Christian and opens up one to persecution in many cultures even today.

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In conclusion, in obedience to Christ, a believer should be baptized. The believer's baptism is a picture of the washing away of sins, the believer's death and resurrection with Christ, and the believer's public identification as a