Life is full of paradoxes and one of them is that, often to our trepidation, something which appears at first sight to be simple and straightforward turns out to be complex and problematic. Such is undoubtedly the case of our topic for today’s reflection, i.e. water baptism.

Within mainstream Christianity all churches teach and practice water baptism and, as far as I am able to discover, they all accept the Biblical sequence that water baptism follows after the acceptance of Jesus Christ by the grace of God through faith. (The exception is those that believe in infant baptism but we will come to that.) So why do we have so much controversy and confusion over this simple matter? The answer is because the chronological sequence just mentioned,
Never! The thief on the cross crucified with Jesus Christ was graciously saved and not baptized in water but went with Jesus to Paradise.

Water baptism cannot remove temptations

Water baptism is not some super-umbrella under which we shelter, making us impervious to and untouched by the rains of temptations. All Christians will suffer temptations as long as they reside this side of Paradise.

Even Jesus Christ himself, sinless and baptized, went out from his baptism in the River Jordan to be tempted. The Bible records it thus, “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water…Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.” (Matthew 3:16, 4:1)

Temptations are normal to all believers, and have nothing to do with their spiritual standing. It is God who empowers them to overcome, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Water baptism cannot make you a child of
These are powerful symbols of the highest order. In like manner water baptism is a symbol, a public acknowledgement that our sins are repugnant and now cleansed by the power of the Almighty God, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9), and henceforth we publicly admit our allegiance to Jesus Christ and the