Why Should I Be Baptized?
Why Should I Be Baptized: 5 Key Points
- Baptism is a public expression of our personal decision to follow Jesus.
- It is a commitment to living a life of love, compassion, and faith like Jesus.
- Baptism marks a dedication to following Jesus and becoming more like him.
- It brings forgiveness, hope of eternal life, and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- Baptism is like washing our spirit and committing to playing on God’s team in the game of life.
Transcript
I get a number of questions as the pastor of Brewster Baptist Church and one of those questions is, “Why should I be baptized?”
Well, let me try to answer that quickly for you.
First of all, if you have a car do you ever wash it?
What would your car look like if you never washed your car?
It would look horrible; it would be dirty and you’d have dead bugs all over it. It would just be awful, right?
No one would have a car and never wash it.
Well, baptism is in a sense a washing of our spirit, and unlike washing a car, which I tend to do at least a couple times a month, baptism is something you do once in your life.
And baptism is a public expression of our personal decision to follow Jesus as the leader and savior of our life, as the one who is our teacher and our friend for the rest of our life.
Baptism is… if you think about life as a game, a competitive game, where there are two teams on the field. There’s God’s team and there is the adversary, those spiritual forces that are opposed to God’s good will for all of creation and for all of humanity.
Unlike the Olympics for example, or going to a professional sports game, there are no stands, so you’re either playing for one team or you’re playing for the other team.
Now you may be on the bench you may not be actively actively involved but you’re really on one side or another by default,
Baptism is a way of saying in the game of life I want to play on Jesus’ team.
I want to play on the team that’s working for God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
That will involves loving God and our neighbors. It’s about doing good and building up other people as well as trying to live a life that looks like the life of Jesus: a life of compassion and generosity, of integrity and courage and faith and love and joy.
So why should I be baptized?
I should be baptized when I reach the point where I can make a personal decision: I want to follow Jesus for the rest of my life.
- I believe in God.
- I believe there is a God who has created all things.
- I believe that Jesus is the son of God, who models for me how I am to live as a member of God’s family.
- Who through his death on the cross my sins are forgiven.
- Through the power of his resurrection we have the hope of eternal life.
- And we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us to grow in Christ likeness every day.
Why be baptized? It’s a sign to the world of your personal commitment to follow Jesus and to become more like him for the rest of your life.