3 Part series on Baptism-written by Ryan Burchett
The title of this came about from recent series of discussions I had with a friend of mine. I’m truly blessed to
know someone who is so willing and so passionate about studying the Scriptures and getting down to the truth. During our discussions, my friend brought up some interesting questions that I had never really had to have an answer before in my life. The Bible says that “iron sharpens iron” which perfectly describes this situation. It was through these discussions and tough questions that I have now been able to get to the core truths and solve some of these ‘man-made riddles.’
1. Baptism - Have you ever had someone ask you “what do you think about Mark 16:16, John 3:5, or Acts 2:38? During the discussions with my friend, these verses of Scripture were brought up (amongst others which spoke the same messages). When these verses were brought up to me, the question was then asked, after some discussion, “how can we possibly say that baptism is not required for one’s salvation?” “By saying that baptism doesn’t have a role in saving someone, wouldn’t we be adding/taking away from Scripture and twisting it to say what we want it to….which by the way is condemned by Scripture?”
I must admit, when these questions were asked and these verses were available as ‘back-up’, I really didn’t have an answer. I had my own interpretations, I knew what the answers were, and I KNEW WHAT I BELIEVED……or did I? Any answer that I did have, which went along the lines of “we are saved by the grace of God through the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross for our sins. Baptism is merely an outward symbol, a public showing of one’s newness of life, and an act of obedience to the Lord.”
However, my friend said “show me Biblical proof. Show me actual verses that say this.” And rightfully so. If we answer someone about Biblical things yet we don’t have specific Scriptures to back them up, our answers or interpretations mean nothing. So, when I say I’m very thankful for my friend in asking me these questions, I tell you the truth. He forced me to look deeper into these issues than I ever had before – “iron sharpens iron.”
So, what did I find out?
First of all, as my friend brought up in our discussions, we must allow Scripture to speak for itself……which I totally agree with. We are not to add or take away anything from the Scripture we have been given…..doing anything of the sort would be blasphemous. However, we must be careful with this ‘rule of thumb’ as well because it can set us up for many misinterpretations. If Scripture is taken literally on every front, we will be in for some sad misinterpretations, let alone the fact that our interpretations are 99.9% of the time based off of our English translations. If we really want to let Scripture speak for itself and know what it is truly saying, we have to look into the original language, which in the New Testament case is in Greek. Why? Because there are many words such as ‘baptism’ and ‘repent’ which are two extremely crucial words in our English language, however in the Greek they often have more than one meaning and sometimes they are even used as references or parallels for other words found in other verses. This is why God commands us to “meditate on the Word….and to write it on the tablet of our heart.” We have to STUDY Scripture to really get it, not just READ it.
With that said, here is what I’ve discovered about ‘baptism’ –
In Acts 2:38 for example it says “….Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins….” Seems obvious and simple to understand correct? We first must repent and BE BAPTIZED for the what? Remission of sins……..
Is this a point where in the English language we should take this literally? Let’s consult the original Greek text.
“Repent” in the Greek is a second person imperative, indicating a mandate for ALL to repent…this is of course an absolute in the Christian faith. (Luke 13:3) Here’s the tricky part in the English translation – “Be baptized” is a third person passed imperative, stressing individual responsibility to obey (“BE” – the Greek word here being ‘kerygma’ meaning ‘proclamation’). Knowing this, the phrase “be baptized” in the original text gives us the meaning in English that being baptized is an outward evidence of the genuineness of repentance and faith. Therefore, it should read something like this: “because of the remission of sins.” (another parallel to this word ‘kerygma’ is used in Acts 10:47 to name one example)
