SOME
THINGS BAPTISM DOES NOT DO
The churches of
Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)
Through water baptism, one gets into the Christ and into
His death
(
6:3). Scriptural baptism gets one into the body or church of the Christ
(1 Cor.
12:13). Scriptural baptism results in one's sins being washed away
(Acts
22:16) by the blood of Jesus (Matt. 26:28) These
are
all wonderful Bible truths
that point out great changes in a person's life and relationships. It is tragic that
many in the religious world do not recognize these truths.
While the Bible plainly speaks of the necessity of water
baptism
and the
blessings that result from it, it is also true there are some things
baptism
does not do. Let's look at a few of these. Baptism does not:
1. Remove financial
debts. If one has borrowed money in order to buy a
house and each month is required to pay the bank or some financial
institution
a certain sum of money, for that person to be baptized does not remove
his/her obligation to make these monthly payments.
2. Remove the consequences of sin. The
man who
gets drunk, drives a
car, has a wreck, and loses a daughter in the accident will be without
that
child
as long as he lives on this earth. He may later obey the Gospel by
being
baptized, but the consequences of his drunkenness (the loss of his
daughter)
are
not changed by his baptism.
3. Erase other people's memory of one's past
life.
Scriptural baptism
results in sins being remitted (Acts 2:38), but other people will still
remember
the past life, good or bad, of the one
baptized. The
baptized person will
have to live with this reality.
4. Give a person the right to go back into
sin.
When one obeys the
Gospel from the heart, he/she is made free from sin (Rom. 6:17-18).
Baptism,
however, is not a stamp of approval for returning to and living in sin.
Baptism
takes care of past sins, but does nothing to remove future
transgressions. Away
with the idea that says as members of the church we can plead, "But
I've
been
baptized, so I have the freedom to do as I please."
5. Make a person a member of a denominational
group.
It is possible
for one to become a member of a denomination, and it is the case that
some
denominations require a "baptism" for such membership. However,
scriptural baptism
puts one into the Lord's church and nowhere else (1 Cor. 12:13). The
Lord
adds the saved to His church and nothing else (Acts 2:41, 47).
6. Remove physical ailments. A saved
person
ought to have a better
outlook on his/her physical infirmities, but being baptized does not
remove
them.
If one suffers with congestive heart failure before baptism, that
congestive
heart failure will not be changed by baptism. Also, baptism by no means
guarantees that a faithful child of God will never have health
problems. Paul,
a
faithful servant of the Christ, had a thorn in his flesh long after he
was
baptized (2 Cor. 12:7-9). Also, Timothy had stomach problems (1 Tim.
5:23), and
Paul once went on without brother Trophimus
when the
latter was sick (2 Tim.
4:20).
7. Change an adulterous relationship into a
God-approved relationship.
Jesus said, "Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for
fornication,
and shall marry another, committeth
adultery: and
whoso marrieth her which is
put away doth commit adultery" (Matt. 19:9). A person that
divorces
his/her
mate, but does not do so because of the mate's fornication, enters an
adulterous union if he/she enters another "marriage." Jesus
calls the new union
"adultery." If an unbaptized person
enters such an adulterous union, then for
him/her later to be baptized does not change the adultery into a
God-approved
marriage. If, in God's sight, a man was simply living with a woman
before his
baptism and their legal marriage was not approved by Him, then for the
man to
be
baptized does not make the woman into his wife. Baptism is not a
marriage
ceremony. (The same applies to a homosexual if he is baptized.
Repentance
requires
he get out of his homosexual relationships.)
8. Automatically change a person's heart.
It is
the change in heart or
desire to please the Lord that should lead one to baptism! Many that
have been
immersed have failed to live faithfully to their Lord after baptism.
Why?
Their lives never changed because their hearts never changed. Moms and
Dads,
don't be deceived into thinking that if you can just get your child to
be
baptized, then that will change his/her heart. It doesn't work that
way.
Baptism must
be preceded by repentance (Acts 2:38).
9. Automatically remove barriers between the
one
baptized and other
people. While the newly baptized person ought to strive to be at
peace
with all
men (Rom. 12:18), the fact remains that those who were antagonistic to
him/her
before baptism just might retain such antagonism after baptism. A
Christian
can do his/her best to right all past wrongs, bury the hatchet, and
restore
severed relationships, but sometimes other parties just are not
interested in
such.
10. Automatically make one ready to teach a
Bible
class. It is often
the case that folks come up out of the water "on fire." That is
wonderful, and
God forbid that we should do or say anything to dampen their zeal. Yet,
it is
also true that zeal must be based on knowledge (
are given the responsibility of teaching need to be those that have
first
proven
themselves, both in their knowledge (Heb. 5:12-14) and in their
lifestyle
(Titus 2:7).
Not for a minute would we consider trying to minimize the
significance of
being baptized. At the same time, though, we must keep in mind the
purpose and
results of baptism, realizing that there are a number of things that
baptism
does not and cannot do.
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