10 comments on the purpose of baptism

Because it is easy, another list (forgive me for my lack of originality!).

1) Baptism is clearly spoken of in the Bible as being linked with and prior to salvation, so we must reject any notion that baptism is purely symbolic.

2) However in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit, the sign of a which a person was obedient (Acts 5:31-32), testifying to their purified hearts, was given before baptism.

3) Christian baptism clearly borrows from John the Baptist's baptism (if not even the same thing), which is probably derived from the Old Testament customs of washing to remove uncleanliness.

4) We should understand baptism then as a desire to remove spiritual uncleanliness, hence being a baptism of repentance (Mark 1:4).

5) Presumably physical actions do not in themselves change people in their nature and habits, so we should understand the mode which baptism purifies us differently.

6) In associating the washing of water with moral purification, the two seemingly unrelated actions are linked within the minds of the baptized.

7) The desire for repentance is the basis upon which God redeems the heart of people from their sins.

8) In associating repentance with being immersed then arising out of the water, baptism includes repentance into in its meaning, thus attributing to it a salvific aspect.

9) However, baptism itself is not the key to repentance, but a sign of the inner call for God's grace, or a sign of the inner call for a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21).

10) Therefore, baptism is not essentially necessary, but yet is linked with and prior to salvation by assimilating the meaning of repentance into baptism in the mind of the baptized.