They Went Down into the Water

I am a Baptist. I should say that without making it a fight.

I believe the people who get baptized have already heard the gospel and believed it. Then they go down into the water. All the way under. Buried with Christ. Raised with Him. That is what I see when I read the New Testament, and I have never been able to make sprinkling mean the same thing.

Who

Philip and the Ethiopian did not have a long meeting about modes. The man believed, they came to water, and they both went down into it. I keep coming back to that because it is simple and I like to complicate things.

I will not baptize a baby. I love babies. Mine have been dedicated to the Lord in prayer more times than I can count. That is not baptism. Baptism is a believer's public burial and resurrection. If the person cannot confess Christ, I wait.

How

Immersion is not a Baptist hobbyhorse I picked up at camp. The word itself means dip. Paul talks like a man who has been put under. Buried. Raised. You can sprinkle and still love Jesus. I am not the gate. I just cannot look at Romans 6 and then dab a forehead and call it the same ordinance.

I have sat in rooms where this was treated as a minor detail. It is not minor if Christ commanded it. It is also not a license to sneer at a Presbyterian who actually opens his Bible. I have been that sneering man. It did not make me more faithful.

The church

Baptism is not a private spiritual moment I give myself in a creek so I can post about it. It belongs to the church. The same people who will watch me fail, feed me the Word, and put the bread in my hand.

If you have believed and you have never gone down into the water, talk to your church. Don't wait for a feeling that makes it cinematic. Christ already died. Christ already rose. The water is not magic. It is obedience with your whole body, which is about the right size of response.