Ecclesiology · Foundational

Believer's Baptism by Immersion

Baptism is for those who have believed, by immersion, picturing the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It follows salvation; it does not cause it. Infant baptism is a later departure from the New Testament.

Start Lesson 6 min Read Full Study 15 min Plus

The lesson walks through the topic one card at a time. The full study is the complete written article, with its sources.

What you'll learn

Show from the New Testament that every recorded baptism followed faith, so that baptism is for believers only.

Explain why immersion is the biblical mode, and how it pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Distinguish an ordinance from a sacrament, and answer baptismal regeneration and infant baptism fairly from Scripture.

Describe baptism as the believer's first step of obedience and the door into local church membership.

Lessons in this topic

01Who Should Be Baptized, and How?Plus6 min 02Is Any Doctrine Unimportant?PlusRelated lesson6 min 03Has Christ's Church Always Existed?PlusRelated lesson7 min 04What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?PlusRelated lesson7 min

Key passages

Romans 6:3–5 Matthew 28:19–20 Acts 2:41–42 Acts 8:35–39 Colossians 2:12 Acts 10:47–48 Galatians 3:26–27 1 Peter 3:21 Ephesians 2:8–9 Matthew 3:13–17

Key Scripture

“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 · KJV