Please read, download and print this article on Importance of Water Baptism which explains why Water Baptism should be done instantaneously. Anyone who believes must be baptised immediately is the command of Jesus Christ. Pastor Raphael Idoko's article on tithe titled: IT IS NOT MANDATORY FOR CHRISTIANS TO PAY TITHE published in this medium on 13/11/2018 has enjoyed the highest readership since this Blog commenced operation in 2016. God has blessed Pastor Idoko with discerning spirit, so his biblical knowledge is indescribable. This article is useful in every Church for message, for teaching and for exhortation.
The Publisher of this Blog has written a ten chapter Book on Water Baptism with the title: What Born Again means, part of which was shared in this Blog.
The publisher,
Many thanks for this vision. I have been blessed immensely by contributions from other men of God through this medium. I pray that you will always be in good health and succeed in all your endeavors in Jesus name. I would like you to publish this article for me.
The Christ-centered life which denotes: walking in the newness of life is absolutely impossible without baptism. Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the father except through me" (John 14:16). If we do not come to Jesus on His own terms and conditions, we are only play-acting. We might put on a good show like the biblical Pharisees and the Scribes who would wash the outside of a cup and leave the inside unwashed. But this good show will be without substance and we will only be mocking the word of God and deceiving ourselves.
Any believer who has not been baptized by immersion is only putting on white garment on unwashed body. The implication of this is that you may appeared clean by outward judgment but have issues with your conscience. Your past will continue to hunt you because it has not been spiritually taken care of. There is nothing that is as frustrating as trying to be righteous in the energy of the flesh. No wonder there are no wonders in the life of many Christians today. This article is a call to address one of the fundamental issues affecting genuine salvation. If we want results, we must do it God's way. Again, the Bible clearly admonishes us never to add or remove anything from the word of God (Deut.12:32; Rev. 22:18-19).
The importance of baptism in accessing genuine durable repentance that would ultimately culminate in living and walking in the newness of life in Christ Jesus cannot be over-emphasized. Put differently, durable genuine repentance remains eternally elusive without baptism. Hear what apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He further says, "therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is clear from the scriptures above, that for you to be a new creature, you must be in Christ and the only way to be in Christ is to be baptized into Christ. Paul puts it more bluntly when he said "buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12). From this scripture, we understand that, it is at the point of baptism that God pronounces one cleansed and is brought into a covenant relationship with God. Being baptized into Christ is essential to one's salvation.
Before one is baptized, he is sinful and spiritually dead because of his inability to keep law perfectly in order to save himself. 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). As God raised Jesus from the physical death, the repentant believer is spiritually resurrected from the waters of baptism in order to be made alive in Christ. For us to be made alive with Christ, one must be buried with him. If one is not dead and buried, one cannot be resurrected into a new life. This is a kingdom mystery that many Christians have not fully understood and appreciated. But as you open your mind to receive this truth, the Holy Spirit will grant you understanding in Jesus name (Amen).
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and cometh thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him "suffer (permit) it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness". Then he suffered him (Matthew 3:13-15). This scripture reveals another fundamental truth about baptism. It is crystal clear that baptism is not only for the remission of past sins, for if it were so, then, it would not have been necessary for Christ to be baptized because Christ knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus came all the way from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized even though he knew no sin. John tried to stop him because John, like many of us today see baptism as something meant only to deal with past sins. But Jesus made us to understand here that Baptism was part of the righteousness of God that was revealed to John, therefore in obedience to God, it was necessary for Jesus to be baptized.
We can safely conclude that the responsibility to fulfill all righteousness in reference to the will of God, that is, the way God wants it begins at the point of baptism. Hear what Jesus said, Permit it at this time, for thus, it is appropriate for us to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). Faith would not exclude baptism, for it is baptism that resulted in the fulfillment of all righteousness. The biblical definition of faith is obedience to the will of God. Saving faith moves one to respond to the will of God in obedience to the gospel. Mary the mother of Jesus said, whatever he says to you, do it (John 2:5).
Jesus did not stop at only being baptized, he strongly advocates that repentant believers should be baptized in His name. Hear what he says in his parting address to his disciples. "And he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is Baptized shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned". (Mark 16:15-16). Note the key words there, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved". According to our Savior, it is belief and baptism that give salvation.
All through the Acts of the apostles, it was baptism galore with attendant proofs and clear manifestations of the raw power of God. I would like to point out few examples here. In Acts 8, the angle of God instructed Philip to meet an Ethiopia eunuch. As a religious person, he was reading from Isaiah 53. He had no clear understanding of what he was reading. Philip preached Jesus to him. No one knew how long Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch. But hear what the eunuch said, ....here is water! What hinders me from being baptized? (Acts 8:36).
Peter's preaching of Jesus moved the people on the day of Pentecost. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2;37-38).
Paul and Silas were praying and singing in prison in Philippi. Something strange happened. Paul later preached Christ to the keeper of the prison and he believed with his household and they were baptized that same night.
Peter preached Christ in the house of Cornelius and while he was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word and hear what Peter said, can any man forbid waters, that this should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10: 44-47)
Ananias after praying for brother Saul who would later become apostle Paul, Saul received his sight and was baptized (Acts 9: 18). From the scriptures cited so far, it is clear that all the apostles preached baptism as fundamental to salvation as instructed by our savior Jesus Christ.
How many preachers today are actually preaching Christ but are not fulfilling all righteousness by failing to teach the people that they must be baptized into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus? As an evangelist or a pastor, we are to preach and mention baptism to the point that our audiences would respond as the Ethiopia eunuch "see, here is water! What hinders me from being baptized?
Some Preachers do argue that people are already saved through faith only. They often refuse to baptize people. They rely mostly on scriptures like "We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 2:8-9 and "For if thou shall confess the lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the death, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Study these verses carefully and you will understand that there is nothing in this scriptures that suggest we should do away with baptism. As I have said earlier, saving faith will always move one to obey the gospel.
Baptism simply means "to dip" or "to immerse" and it has a lot of spiritual connotations.
When one is baptized, one is buried with Christ in his dead in order to be raised from the waters of baptism to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-6). It is a response to the good news of the gospel; it is establishing a union with Christ by his death on the cross, immersion in a tomb of water and resurrection into a new life. It is also important to point out that baptism is only for adults who can make a free moral choice to be baptized. Baptism is NOT for baby or infant. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). Children cannot believe.
The apostles had one answer to the common questions that people asked them. "What shall we do or what must I do to be saved?" And this one answer is "Repent, believe and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your past sins." The apostles did not asked their audience to go for either deliverance or restitution or anointing service or to sow special trespass seed or fast for days or say a simple sinner's prayer among others.
All these aforementioned as good as they may be cannot take the place of baptism. As an evangelist or a preacher today, if you are asked the same question that Peter's audiences asked, what will be your response? Even when the Holy Ghost had already fell on them in the house of Cornelius, Peter still encouraged them to be baptized. This is a great message for us today. And the message is that,even if a person is filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, that does not exempt the person from baptism.
As I conclude, God is not a Respecter of person or title. if you are a Christian, filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongue but you have not been baptized, something very important is missing. If you have been preaching for years but have not been mentioning baptism as essential to salvation, you have been preaching incomplete salvation message. This message is not to condemn any one but rather to help us to examine our ways and adjust accordingly. Do your best and be baptized and your life will never remain the same.
If your pastor or the church where you worship don't believe in baptism, please contact us and we will help you. Salvation is personal and that is why we must work it out with trembling. Thanks and God bless you in Jesus name. Amen.
_______________
Pastor Raphael Idoko is the overseer of Living Saints In Christ Ministry. Our vision is to raise an army of disciples that will reach out to souls and resuscitate the dying love of Jesus Christ among brethren.
Pastor Raphael Idoko can be reached at:
Email: livingsaintsinchristministry@gmail.com
raph4wisdom@yahoo.com
Tel: 08026994148
For more on Water Baptism in this blog, go to search and type 'what born again means' or 'baptism' for the articles by the publisher.
The Publisher of this Blog has written a ten chapter Book on Water Baptism with the title: What Born Again means, part of which was shared in this Blog.
Many thanks for this vision. I have been blessed immensely by contributions from other men of God through this medium. I pray that you will always be in good health and succeed in all your endeavors in Jesus name. I would like you to publish this article for me.
Any believer who has not been baptized by immersion is only putting on white garment on unwashed body. The implication of this is that you may appeared clean by outward judgment but have issues with your conscience. Your past will continue to hunt you because it has not been spiritually taken care of. There is nothing that is as frustrating as trying to be righteous in the energy of the flesh. No wonder there are no wonders in the life of many Christians today. This article is a call to address one of the fundamental issues affecting genuine salvation. If we want results, we must do it God's way. Again, the Bible clearly admonishes us never to add or remove anything from the word of God (Deut.12:32; Rev. 22:18-19).
The importance of baptism in accessing genuine durable repentance that would ultimately culminate in living and walking in the newness of life in Christ Jesus cannot be over-emphasized. Put differently, durable genuine repentance remains eternally elusive without baptism. Hear what apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:27, For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. He further says, "therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is clear from the scriptures above, that for you to be a new creature, you must be in Christ and the only way to be in Christ is to be baptized into Christ. Paul puts it more bluntly when he said "buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who has raised him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12). From this scripture, we understand that, it is at the point of baptism that God pronounces one cleansed and is brought into a covenant relationship with God. Being baptized into Christ is essential to one's salvation.
Before one is baptized, he is sinful and spiritually dead because of his inability to keep law perfectly in order to save himself. 'All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). As God raised Jesus from the physical death, the repentant believer is spiritually resurrected from the waters of baptism in order to be made alive in Christ. For us to be made alive with Christ, one must be buried with him. If one is not dead and buried, one cannot be resurrected into a new life. This is a kingdom mystery that many Christians have not fully understood and appreciated. But as you open your mind to receive this truth, the Holy Spirit will grant you understanding in Jesus name (Amen).
Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and cometh thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him "suffer (permit) it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness". Then he suffered him (Matthew 3:13-15). This scripture reveals another fundamental truth about baptism. It is crystal clear that baptism is not only for the remission of past sins, for if it were so, then, it would not have been necessary for Christ to be baptized because Christ knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus came all the way from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized even though he knew no sin. John tried to stop him because John, like many of us today see baptism as something meant only to deal with past sins. But Jesus made us to understand here that Baptism was part of the righteousness of God that was revealed to John, therefore in obedience to God, it was necessary for Jesus to be baptized.
We can safely conclude that the responsibility to fulfill all righteousness in reference to the will of God, that is, the way God wants it begins at the point of baptism. Hear what Jesus said, Permit it at this time, for thus, it is appropriate for us to fulfill all righteousness (Matthew 3:15). Faith would not exclude baptism, for it is baptism that resulted in the fulfillment of all righteousness. The biblical definition of faith is obedience to the will of God. Saving faith moves one to respond to the will of God in obedience to the gospel. Mary the mother of Jesus said, whatever he says to you, do it (John 2:5).
 |
| Pastor Raphael Idoko |
All through the Acts of the apostles, it was baptism galore with attendant proofs and clear manifestations of the raw power of God. I would like to point out few examples here. In Acts 8, the angle of God instructed Philip to meet an Ethiopia eunuch. As a religious person, he was reading from Isaiah 53. He had no clear understanding of what he was reading. Philip preached Jesus to him. No one knew how long Philip preached Jesus to the eunuch. But hear what the eunuch said, ....here is water! What hinders me from being baptized? (Acts 8:36).
Peter's preaching of Jesus moved the people on the day of Pentecost. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2;37-38).
Paul and Silas were praying and singing in prison in Philippi. Something strange happened. Paul later preached Christ to the keeper of the prison and he believed with his household and they were baptized that same night.
Peter preached Christ in the house of Cornelius and while he was preaching, the Holy Ghost fell on them which heard the word and hear what Peter said, can any man forbid waters, that this should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? (Acts 10: 44-47)
Ananias after praying for brother Saul who would later become apostle Paul, Saul received his sight and was baptized (Acts 9: 18). From the scriptures cited so far, it is clear that all the apostles preached baptism as fundamental to salvation as instructed by our savior Jesus Christ.
How many preachers today are actually preaching Christ but are not fulfilling all righteousness by failing to teach the people that they must be baptized into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus? As an evangelist or a pastor, we are to preach and mention baptism to the point that our audiences would respond as the Ethiopia eunuch "see, here is water! What hinders me from being baptized?
Some Preachers do argue that people are already saved through faith only. They often refuse to baptize people. They rely mostly on scriptures like "We are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus" Ephesians 2:8-9 and "For if thou shall confess the lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the death, you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10). Study these verses carefully and you will understand that there is nothing in this scriptures that suggest we should do away with baptism. As I have said earlier, saving faith will always move one to obey the gospel.
Baptism simply means "to dip" or "to immerse" and it has a lot of spiritual connotations.
When one is baptized, one is buried with Christ in his dead in order to be raised from the waters of baptism to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3-6). It is a response to the good news of the gospel; it is establishing a union with Christ by his death on the cross, immersion in a tomb of water and resurrection into a new life. It is also important to point out that baptism is only for adults who can make a free moral choice to be baptized. Baptism is NOT for baby or infant. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:16). Children cannot believe.
The apostles had one answer to the common questions that people asked them. "What shall we do or what must I do to be saved?" And this one answer is "Repent, believe and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your past sins." The apostles did not asked their audience to go for either deliverance or restitution or anointing service or to sow special trespass seed or fast for days or say a simple sinner's prayer among others.
All these aforementioned as good as they may be cannot take the place of baptism. As an evangelist or a preacher today, if you are asked the same question that Peter's audiences asked, what will be your response? Even when the Holy Ghost had already fell on them in the house of Cornelius, Peter still encouraged them to be baptized. This is a great message for us today. And the message is that,even if a person is filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues, that does not exempt the person from baptism.
As I conclude, God is not a Respecter of person or title. if you are a Christian, filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongue but you have not been baptized, something very important is missing. If you have been preaching for years but have not been mentioning baptism as essential to salvation, you have been preaching incomplete salvation message. This message is not to condemn any one but rather to help us to examine our ways and adjust accordingly. Do your best and be baptized and your life will never remain the same.
If your pastor or the church where you worship don't believe in baptism, please contact us and we will help you. Salvation is personal and that is why we must work it out with trembling. Thanks and God bless you in Jesus name. Amen.
_______________
Pastor Raphael Idoko is the overseer of Living Saints In Christ Ministry. Our vision is to raise an army of disciples that will reach out to souls and resuscitate the dying love of Jesus Christ among brethren.
Pastor Raphael Idoko can be reached at:
Email: livingsaintsinchristministry@gmail.com
raph4wisdom@yahoo.com
Tel: 08026994148
For more on Water Baptism in this blog, go to search and type 'what born again means' or 'baptism' for the articles by the publisher.
More grace in Jesus name
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Jesus wants every believer to be baptised immediately. Baptismal class is not of God.
ReplyDeleteThe word of God is new every day. No substitute for baptism. For our salvation to be genuine, baptism is a requirement.
ReplyDelete