Is Christian Baptism a Mere Formality?

By Louis Rushmore
Just what is the true significance of Christian baptism? The churches of Christ are accused of making to much of Christian baptism, and going on about it all the time. The churches of Christ accuse the denominational world of making too little of baptism, and treating it as a mere formality of little to no real significance. Unfortunately, many members of the churches of Christ likewise treat baptism with little more regard than a formality or magic formula. What place, though, does the New Testament give to Christian baptism; is it a mere formality, or does it have great significance?
The act of Christian baptism concerns the utmost commitment. Christian baptism imitates the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)
It is by baptism that one is buried into a watery grave with Jesus Christ (Colossians 2:12).
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God Incarnate, died on Calvary’s rugged, cruel cross in our stead (1 Peter 2:24). It is only possible through the death of Jesus Christ that anyone can be ransomed from his or her sins (Matthew 20:28; John 1:29; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 1 Timothy 2:5-6). Christian baptism is an immersion in water to imitate the death and subsequent burial of Jesus Christ, a resurrection from the water to imitate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and a walking in newness of life to imitate the living after death by Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3-5).
Being immersed in water through Christian baptism involves making a sacred commitment to Jesus Christ in acknowledgement of what he has done for us. You and I should have died the excruciatingly painful death on the cross instead of Jesus (and our sins would still not have been removed since we would make imperfect sacrifices). Jesus Christ merely asks us through Christian baptism to imitate the death, burial and resurrection that he experienced for us. What could be more significant and meaningful than that, to acknowledge what Jesus did for us in his death upon the cross in his own appointed way?
Being immersed in water through Christian baptism involves making a sacred commitment to Jesus Christ in exchange for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus Christ is not asking you and me to die on the Roman cross that our sins be removed (and our sins would not be removed had we died on the cross, because we would be imperfect sacrifices). Jesus Christ died in our stead that our sins could be taken away, and he asks us to imitate his death, burial and resurrection through Christian baptism. The New Testament is filled with Scripture citations that definitively (without doubt) teach that forgiveness of one’s past sins occurs when we imitate the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ through Christian baptism; a few are:
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…” (Mark 16:16).
“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins…” (Acts 2:38).
“And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).
“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:21).
The act of Christian baptism involves becoming a member of the body of Christ, his church. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). The saved are added to the church by Jesus Christ himself (Acts 2:47). Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit participate in the addition of saved souls to the body or the church.
The saved and the church, then, are the same group of people. The saved of Acts 2:47 that Jesus Christ added to his church are the ones who heard the command to be baptized for the remission of sins and who were gladly baptized (Acts 2:38, 41). The apostle Paul wrote by divine inspiration that Christian baptism is the means by which the saved are placed into the Lord’s body—the church (1 Corinthians 12:13).
Consequently, the body of Christ or the church is blood bought (Acts 20:28). We who are saved are justified by the blood of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:9). We who are saved have redemption and forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 2:14; 1 Peter 1:18-19). We who are saved are brought close to God through the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13). We who are saved have peace with and reconciliation to God through the blood of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:20). We who are saved are washed from our sins by the blood of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:5).
The blood of Jesus Christ by which we are saved was shed in our Lord’s death, into which symbolically we are placed in Christian baptism (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12). Christian baptism is neither a mere formality nor something to be entered into lightly. Christian baptism is serious business because it involves imitating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christian baptism is serious business because it involves acknowledgement of what our Lord did for us, as well as a serious commitment to him.
Christian baptism is the only way the New Testament reveals that a non-Christian can come in contact with the blood of Jesus Christ, which takes away one’s sins. After one becomes a Christian through Christian baptism, he comes in contact with the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ daily (1 John 1:7-9).

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