Baptism Does Not Have To Be By Immersion

# 221 Today’s Living Word comes from Mark 1:10 “And immediately coming up from the water,”

Get the picture here. Jesus has been baptized by John and now comes up out of the water, that is, He steps out of the water and onto the shore. That is all that is being said here. Some have used this passage to prove that the baptism of Jesus was done by immersion, and then intimated that all baptisms must be done by immersion in order to “count.”

Dr. Iver Olson in his booklet, “Baptism and Spiritual Life” says, “There is not a single instance of a New Testament baptism that can be proved to have been by immersion. People read immersion into the text...or approach the text with their minds already made up that baptism absolutely means immersion.”

A thorough study of the word baptize as used in scripture would go a long way in clearing up this misconception. (It doesn’t always mean “immerse.”) While baptism by immersion is a beautiful picture of “being buried and raised with Christ,” it’s not the “picture” that we are after in baptism, it is the actual effect.

That effect is summed up by Paul in Titus 3:5, “according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

And as Peter states in 1 Peter 3:21, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you”

I’m Duane Matz and that’s today’s Living Word.