Following Jesus in Baptism?

What is this page about?

Many churches call baptism “following Jesus” or “going public with your faith”. The idea is this. Jesus was baptized as an example. So a believer, who is already saved, is baptized too. He does it to obey, and to show everyone what has happened to him. In this view, baptism does not give anything. It shows something.

Is this what the Bible says about baptism? And did Christians believe this before the 1500s? There are two views.

Both views agree that Christians should be baptized and that faith matters. The difference is the direction. Is baptism mainly something God does for us? Or is it something we do so that others can see?

The short answer

1. The Bible never tells anyone to be baptized because Jesus was baptized. Peter does tell Christians to “follow his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). But there he means this: suffer patiently when people treat you unfairly. One chapter later, the same letter speaks of “baptism, which now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21).

2. The baptism of Jesus was different from all others. John baptized people who confessed their sins. Jesus had no sins, and John tried to stop him:

But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

Matthew 3:14 · World English Bible

In simple words: John tried to stop him. He said, “I need you to baptize me. Why do you come to me?”

The Gospels give the reasons for the baptism of Jesus. It was “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). That means: to do everything that is right before God. It showed him as God’s Son. And the Spirit came on him. None of the reasons is “to show that he was saved”.

3. Jesus spoke of a second baptism: his death. Long after the day at the Jordan he said: “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!” (Luke 12:50) And Paul says that Christians “were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3). We are baptized into his death, not into his river.

4. The New Testament says again and again that baptism does something.

• It is “for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38).
• “We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death” (Romans 6:4).
• “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (Galatians 3:27)
• It “now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21).

Not one verse calls baptism a public statement of faith.

5. Paul is the clearest example. See Part 3.

6. The early church said that Jesus made the water holy. It did not say that he gave an example. See Part 4.

7. Luther and Calvin both said no to an “empty sign”. Luther wrote that baptism “works forgiveness of sins”. Calvin wrote about people who think that baptism is only a mark, like the sign that soldiers wear to show their leader. He said that they have missed “the principal thing in baptism”. That means the main thing. The Church of England says that baptism is “not only a sign of profession”.

8. The idea of a “public testimony” first appears in 1525, in and near the Swiss city of Zurich. In that year one writer called water baptism “but a public testimony”. That was about 1,500 years after Jesus.

Does the Bible say it?

Here are six sentences. Does the New Testament say each one?

1. “Jesus was baptized to give us an example of being baptized.” No verse says this. Later writers did see an example in it. But they always said first that he made the water holy.
2. “Baptism is an outside sign of a change inside that has already happened.” This is a common saying, but it is not a Bible verse. The nearest verses say that we are buried and raised with Christ in baptism.
3. “Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.” Yes. It is in Acts 2:38, the first Christian sermon. The creed repeats it.
4. “Baptism is how you go public with your faith.” No verse says this. One verse says to whom baptism speaks. It calls baptism “the answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21). It speaks toward God, not toward a crowd.
5. “Baptism does not save you. It only shows that you are saved.” The Bible says something different: baptism “now saves you… through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). Peter says that it is not a bath for the body. He does not say that it does not save.
6. “Jesus baptized people himself.” No. The Bible says: “Jesus himself didn’t baptize, but his disciples” (John 4:2).

Paul, three days after the road

If anyone was converted before his baptism, it was Paul. On the road to the city of Damascus he saw the risen Jesus. He called him “Lord” and asked what he should do. For three days he did not eat or drink. Jesus said that Paul was praying, and that he had chosen him (Acts 9). Many churches today would say that nothing more needed to happen inside him.

Then a Christian named Ananias came to him and said:

Now why do you wait? Arise, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

Acts 22:16 · World English Bible

In simple words: Why are you waiting now? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away, and call on the name of the Lord.

Ananias did not say, “Now go and tell everyone.” He spoke with hurry: “Why do you wait?” He spoke of the washing away of Paul’s sins. And he joined the washing to “calling on the name of the Lord”. That is faith at work in the baptism itself.

Before the 1500s, nobody read this verse as Paul showing his faith to a crowd.

What the church said about the Jordan

For 1,500 years, Christians said the same thing about the baptism of Jesus. The water did not wash him. He made the water holy for us.

• About the year 107, a bishop on his way to be killed wrote that Jesus was baptized “that by His passion He might cleanse water”. “His passion” means his suffering and death.
• About 155, Justin wrote that Jesus did not go to the river because he needed baptism. He went for us, as he was born and died for us.
• In 381, the creed spoke of “one baptism for the remission of sins”. Most Christians in the world still say this creed. “Remission” means forgiveness.
• In the Middle Ages, the teacher Thomas Aquinas wrote that Christ wanted “not to be cleansed, but to cleanse the waters”.
• In 1523, Luther’s prayer at baptism said that Christ made the Jordan and all water a rich washing away of sins.
• The old English prayer book says that by the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, God made water holy for the washing away of sin.

The early church did speak about copying Christ in baptism. But it meant a different event. About the year 350, the church in Jerusalem said to its newly baptized members:

our imitation was in a figure, and our salvation in reality

The church in Jerusalem, about the year 350

In simple words: We copied Christ’s death and burial in a picture. But we received salvation in reality.

So in baptism you copy his death and burial, and you truly receive salvation. The modern phrase copies the river and leaves out the reality.

The order of events

Look at where the “testimony” idea first appears. It comes very late.

Check it yourself

1. Do this one. Read Acts 9:1-19, and then Acts 22:6-16. Mark the place where you would say that Paul was converted. Then read what he was told three days later.
2. Read Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 12:50 and Romans 6:1-11. These are about the baptism of Jesus, the “baptism” that was still before him, and the baptism that we receive.
3. Read Acts 2:38, Galatians 3:27, Colossians 2:12 and 1 Peter 3:21. Write down what each one says that baptism does.
4. Ask the person who taught you, politely, as a real question: “What did Ananias mean when he told Paul to wash away his sins?” And: “The creed says ‘one baptism for the forgiveness of sins’. Do we believe that?”