Thursday | 27 November 2025
If baptism is immersion into the name of the Father, the name of the Son and the name of the Holy Spirit through discipleship, what is the purpose of water baptism? Baptism by water is requested by a son of God in faith for discipleship. It marks their commitment to be taught the commands of Christ and to walk in the light of the word that is ministered by His messengers. Through discipleship, they are established on the pathway of salvation that Christ pioneered for them on His offering and suffering journey. Heb 5:8‑9.
We see that the pathway of salvation is the pathway of discipleship in the community of a local church, under the instruction and care of a presbytery. For this reason, baptism by water happens under the hands of firstfruits messengers who are co‑workers of Christ. 1Co 3:9. They are sent by Christ to make disciples of those who receive and believe their message. Mat 28:19‑20. Rom 6:17‑18.
After Christ’s offering and suffering journey was finished and He rose from the dead as the first Man made in the image and likeness of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, He received ‘the name which is above every name’. Php 2:9‑11. Jesus called this entire process His ‘baptism’, saying to His disciples, ‘You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with.’ Mat 20:23. This is the one baptism through which the covenant purpose of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is accomplished in the life of a believer. Eph 4:5.
To be baptised ‘in the name of Jesus’, as believers were by the apostles in the New Testament, is to embrace the pathway that Jesus Christ specifically pioneered for the salvation of those who obey Him. Importantly, the efficacy of water baptism is not contingent upon the words spoken over the believer as they are being immersed in water. Such an orientation renders baptism as merely a sacrament.
Further Study:
Acts 8
References:
Heb 5:8-9
Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
1Co 3:9
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field; you are God’s building.
Mat 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
Rom 6:17-18
But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Php 2:9-11
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Mat 20:23
So He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.’
Eph 4:5
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.