BAPTISM

1. A command given by Jesus to the Christian (Rom. 6:3-5)

2. Sign of fellowship and covenant with Jesus and his Church (Col. 2:12)

3. Symbols of his death and resurrection (Mark 1:4; Acts 22:16)

4. Testimony to the rest of the world (Rom. 6:4)

This means that baptism is only for the Christian. And a Christian is one who has personally and willingly submitted their soul and life to Jesus. They do this because they acknowledge their own inability to save themselves (due to sin) and they accept the gift of salvation through Jesus' life and death. The true Christian will continue to show 5 signs of true conversion:

1. Growing affection and need for Jesus and the gospel.

2. Continue to love and grow in God's Word (the Bible)

3. Increased spirit of love to God and others.

4. Greater awareness of and distaste for sin.

5. Evidence of loving what is true and the things of God.

Learn more: Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections

A part of baptism is the idea of being adopted into a new family. Now, because of Christ as the head, you are a part of a family (i.e. Church). This church extends throughout time and space, socio-economic backgrounds, language and people groups, all because of their unity in Jesus. For those baptized at CBC, membership is tightly linked to this process to reinforce the idea that you have covenant with the local church. What this means after baptism is that you belong to this church in order to protect it, pray for it, give yourself to it, serve it, and belong to it.

Biblical church membership is important because the church presents God’s witness to himself in the world. It displays his glory. In the church’s membership, then, non-Christians should see in the lives of God’s changed people that God is holy and gracious and that his gospel is powerful for saving and transforming sinners.

Learn more: Biblical Church Membership IX Marks

Baptism reminds oneself and communicates to others that because of Jesus, you are dead to sin and alive in Christ. You confess that Jesus has paid for your sins (past, present, and future) once and for all and the weight of sin has been placed on Jesus on the Cross.

This means:

1. You should always be running away from sinful things and always be chasing Jesus with all the grace and passion you possess. You should no longer desire the darkness and through confession and repentance expose them in the light.

2. The Christian should be markedly different than non-Christians who do not understand, agree, or acknowledge the goodness of the Gospel.

Learn more: The Gospel Coalition

Baptism is also a testimony to the world that a person is truly a Christian and boldly says "no" to the things that are not of God and "yes" to the things of God. It is a confession to everyone who sees them (whether in person, online, in the community, or elsewhere) that they reflect the goodness of the Gospel and they are indeed a disciple of their Lord Jesus.

• When a church has an unbiblical understanding of the gospel, they don’t evangelize, they evangelize in misleading or manipulative ways, or they share a message that’s not the gospel.
  
  
• On the other hand, a biblical understanding of evangelism clarifies our role in the mission God has given to the church: we are to preach the good news about what Christ has done and pray that God would bring people to believe it.

Learn more: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/speaker-panel-with-piper-anyabwile-chan-and-mohler