SHOULD I GET BAPTIZED AGAIN WHEN I GO ASTRAY AND SIN AND THEN REPENT BEFORE OUR LORD?
Sakkie Parsons
Someone wrote to me and asked:
“If I have repented and been baptized, but I go astray and sin, and after a while I come back to the Lord and confess my sin, must I be baptized again?”
Here then is how I see this matter:
We must understand that baptism does not save me or cleanse me from the sin I am about to commit.
There is only one way to become a partaker of salvation and that is to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
JOHN 3:16-19
16 “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge and condemn the world [that is, to initiate the final judgment of the world], but that the world might be saved through Him.
18 Whoever believes and has decided to trust in Him [as personal Savior and Lord] is not judged [for this one, there is no judgment, no rejection, no condemnation]; but the one who does not believe [and has decided to reject Him as personal Savior and Lord] is judged already [that one has been convicted and sentenced], because he has not believed and trusted in the name of the [One and] only begotten Son of God [the One who is truly unique, the only One of His kind, the One who alone can save him].
19 This is the judgment [that is, the cause for indictment, the test by which people are judged, the basis for the sentence]: the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.
JOHN 1:12-13
12 But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—
13 who were born, not of blood [natural conception], nor of the will of the flesh [physical impulse], nor of the will of man [that of a natural father], but of God [that is, a divine and supernatural birth—they are born of God—spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified].
Through baptism, the child of God makes a public statement to the world – which only believes what they see:
“The person you knew is now dead, my God has created me a new person. I have now accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour.”
The Word say in this regard, among other things, the following:
ROM 6:3-5
3 Or are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 We have therefore been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory and power of the Father, we too might walk habitually in newness of life [abandoning our old ways].
5 For if we have become one with Him [permanently united] in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be [one with Him and share fully] in the likeness of His resurrection.
Surely, I don’t need and shouldn’t be re-baptized if I’ve wandered off and came back.
The new person you are can never die again. Your makeup of a new person is completely different now.
COL 3:10 and have put on the new [spiritual] self who is being continually renewed in true knowledge in the image of Him who created the new self—
Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son?
When you came back, your Father ran to meet you with open arms and embraced you, He didn’t go and pick up a dead body.
There are cases where someone can get baptized again – and I mention how I see such a situation.
It is unfortunately the case that sometimes people are overzealous, and then encourage other people into the baptismal bath who are not yet ready; in other words, they do not really understand what they are doing.
If, for example, you did not really understand what baptism entails when you were baptized – but now, with more knowledge, you realize what it is about and want to be re-baptized, I believe it is not wrong to be baptized again, because in the first place you shouldn’t have been baptized when you were baptized.
Then also if you were baptized incorrectly. We have an example of this in the Word that one can be baptized incorrectly.
ACTS 19:1-6
1 It happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul went through the upper [inland] districts and came down to Ephesus and found some disciples.
2 He asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed [in Jesus as the Christ]?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 And he asked, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.”
4 Paul said, “John performed a baptism of repentance, continually telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, [to confidently accept and joyfully believe] in Jesus [the Messiah and Savior].”
5 After hearing this, they were baptized [again, this time] in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And when Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in [unknown] tongues (languages) and prophesying.
For me personally, one of the ways of being baptized incorrectly is being baptized as a baby.
To summarize then how I see this matter:
No, you don’t have to, I’d even say you shouldn’t get baptized again, because of the reason you’ve gone astray.
The old man is dead and buried, the new man cannot die and therefore must not be buried either.
Yes, you should get baptized again if you were baptized incorrectly, because one can be baptized incorrectly.
Sakkie
Email: bediening@sakkieparsons.co.za
Website: www.sakkieparsons.co.za
Cell: 083 457 6669
Jude 1:24-25 To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy, to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
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