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Do You Need To Be Baptized...Again?

by Bryan Gibson

January 7, 2010

When Paul came to the city of Ephesus on his third preaching journey, he found some men who needed to be baptized again. Read the following passage carefully:

And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.” Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus (Acts 19:1-5).

It’s hard to fault these 12 men (Acts 19:7) too much, because they had not been taught properly. Apollos, “who knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:25), had already done some teaching there in Ephesus before Aquila and Priscilla “took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately” (Acts 18:26). No doubt these 12 men had been influenced by such teaching; however, when they learned the truth, “they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 19:5).

It could be that some of our readers were not taught properly prior to their first baptism, and therefore need to be baptized again. To help you decide, consider these four elements of the “one baptism” (Ephesians 4:5), the one that is according to the Scriptures.

1) It requires the right subject—one who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and has repented of his sins (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:12). 2) It requires the right action—burial or immersion (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12). 3) It requires the right purpose—to be saved, or to receive the remission or forgiveness of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21); to enter “into Christ” (Romans 6:3-4), or to “put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). 4) It requires the right authority—“in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 19:5).

Let all that soak in for a minute—perhaps you need to go back and read the previous paragraph again, together with all the passages cited. Do you need to be baptized again? You certainly DO, if any of the following were true of your first “baptism.”

1) You were not a proper subject for baptism. Perhaps you were baptized as an infant, making it impossible for you to believe on Christ and repent of your sins. Or perhaps you were older and still didn’t meet these conditions. 2) You were “baptized” by sprinkling or pouring. True baptism is a “burial”; in fact it pictures both the burial and the resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:3-5). 3) You were baptized for the wrong reason or purpose, or maybe you didn’t understand the purpose. Many believe that sins are forgiven before baptism, but that doesn’t agree with the plain teaching of Scripture. You can’t be “baptized...for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38), if you believe that remission of sins has already taken place. 4) You were baptized in the name of, or by the authority of, someone other than Jesus.

If you have questions about your previous baptism, don’t dismiss them too quickly. Your soul is much too valuable for that. Make sure that you do the right thing, and that may very well require you to be baptized again. If we can assist you in any way with this matter, please feel free to contact us.