If there is any topic of a religious nature that has generated more discussion and disagreement than baptism, I don't know what it is. Yet, most religious groups practice something they refer to by this term. When Paul was giving the Ephesians the basis for religious unity (Ephesians 4:1-6), he said very plainly "one baptism" (v. 5). He doesn't go on to elaborate about this in the Ephesian letter; so they must have known what it was. We can find what it is if will search the scriptures. We must find what it is (and then practice it), if we are to have unity that is pleasing to God, and if our lives are to be acceptable in His sight.
Religiously, we are divided over baptism in at least three areas: (1) What is baptism? (2) Who is to be baptized? (3) Why should one be baptized? There are some other aspects of baptism over which men disagree, but if we can find a common ground for these three questions, we can pretty well unite on this subject. Now, if this unity is to please God, then one must find answers to these questions in the word of God. What has He said about baptism? What did Paul mean when he said there was "one baptism"?
To find what baptism is (as far the New Testament is concerned) we will look in two areas. First, we will look to the meaning of the Greek word that is translated baptism in our Bibles. Joseph Henry Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, says (p. 94) that this Greek word is one peculiar to the New Testament and ecclesiastical writings and means "immersion, submersion." This same idea is given by W. E. Vine in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words and in the Arndt and Gingrich Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament.
Next, we will go to the New Testament and see if we can learn what the word baptism means without having to look at the Greek word. I direct your attention to two passages. They are Colossians 2:12 where Paul says, "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead." Notice that here Paul says the Colossians had been "buried" with Christ in baptism. The other passage is Romans 6:4 where the same writer says, "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." Here again we are told that people were "buried" when they were baptized. Hence, baptism is a burial.
So we have the definition of the Greek word and the explanation given in the English translation in agreement. Baptism is an immersion, a submersion, a burial. The element in which one is immersed, submerged or buried, is water. Thus the answer to our first question does away with sprinkling or pouring as the baptism about which Paul wrote. He wrote of one being immersed or buried in baptism.
The answer to this question can be answered properly only by going to the scriptures to see who was baptized in the days of the apostles. Let us go first to the instructions Jesus gave his disciples before He ascended to heaven. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them" Here we see that before people could be properly baptized, they had to be taught. What were they to be taught? In mark's account of this same happening he says, "preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). This shows what was to be taught: the gospel of Christ. In Acts 8:36 we find a person who had been taught the gospel asking if there is anything that would hinder his being baptized. He was told that he had to believe the things he had been taught (v. 37). In Acts 2:37, we find people who had been taught the gospel, and now believe it. They were told to "repent, and be baptized" (v. 38). When we add all of this together, we find that the proper candidate for baptism is a sinner who has been taught the gospel of Christ, he believes the things he has been taught (Jesus is the Christ , etc.), he repents of his sins and upon the acknowledging of his faith he is baptized. This eliminates infants, unbelievers and those who are unrepentant.
We find the answer to this question in any one of several passages. In Acts 2:38 Peter says they are to be baptized "for the remissions of sins." In 1 Peter 3:21 he says they are to be baptized to be saved. In Acts 22:16 Paul says he was told to be baptized to "wash away thy sins." All this is in accord with what Jesus said when he told his disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He said "he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Surely all of these should show us why one should be baptized. One is not baptized because he is already saved, but is baptized in order to be saved!
When we put all of this together we find that the one baptism that Paul writes about in Ephesians 4:5 is an immersion of a penitent believer (who has confessed his faith) in water in order that his sins may be forgiven! It is upon this that we must unite. Will you accept it? Will you simply follow the teachings of the New Testament in this and all things? If so, then we can have the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
~In Gospel Power, Anderson, Alabama, 5/16/99.