Acts 2:38
“Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The importance of baptism has been a very touchy thing for me for many years. Let me give some history with my experience with the word baptism. My earliest memory was when I was between five and six. I had gone to church with my Mama I have no memory of what was being said other than the words my Mama kept whispering me to me, in a nut shell I was an evil child and God did not love me and I could never be baptized. Those words stuck hard to my young mind and heart.
Second memory about baptism; I was in the fifth grade and had gone to church with a friend. Apparently they where baptizing some people and asked if anyone felt the need to come up and be baptized. My friend kept elbowing me telling me I needed to go up there if I didn’t I would go to hell. I remember becoming very hurt and angry and telling her that it didn’t matter it was her God and not mine her God did not love me. After all my Mama had made sure many times that I knew this.
After this I went home I guess I was very upset because that evening my mother gathered us all in the backyard and did some form of baptism I remember her saying the words” "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there will I be also." She sprinkled my head with some water and that was that. Didn’t mean anything to me I felt just as empty and unloved as I had before. But at least if anyone ever asked me again I could say that I had been baptized.
The other day as I am reading Acts 2 the verse that stuck me hard was 38. I have never fully understood what baptism is until I dug deeper into this verse. All my knowledge came from wrong sources and well meaning sources but wrong none the less.
I have been making one very critical mistake in my misinformed information. I have thought that baptism is the only way for salvation. Not true it is a public sign of conversion not the means of conversion. Proof of this is the thief on the cross that when he placed his faith in Christ. Christ said “ today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43) There was not any water available for baptism only a dying man’s faith that God’s grace through His son would be sufficient.
I believe that many take baptism for granted. I believe that it is an incredible privilege and with that comes a huge responsibility as believers to inform non believers and others that baptism does not provide the means of our salvation. Rather, God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone saves us. I still have yet to make that public step into baptism However I am grateful that after all this time of believing that my Mama was right I now know that I am not going to hell.
I do not know when I will make that public commitment I do know that when the time is right I will. I feel that Baptism is a necessary threshold that each of us must cross into a life of fruitful service unto God. But before I can do that I must trust in God.
