The Gospel With Baptism

The Gospel with Baptism

Many of us have learnt to share/preach the Gospel without baptism. What does it mean?

We were taught to present the Gospel without the need to talk about baptism. We relegate baptism to the process of discipleship where the new believer is finally ready to commit himself to be baptised.

However, this was not so in the early church. Neither is it in the Bible. The message that Jesus left for the disciples was clear: "Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝 will be saved..." (Mark 16:15-16)

Throughout the book of Acts, those who believed in the Gospel were immediately baptised in water (Acts 2:38; 2:41; 8:12; 8:13; 8:16; 8:38; 9:18; 10:48; 16:15; 16:33; 18:8).

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐡𝐢𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐰𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐬. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐮𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝, “𝐒𝐞𝐞, 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫! 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐝?” - Acts 8:35-37

What made the eunuch want to be baptised in water? The Good News aka the Gospel was shared by Philip. In other words, the Gospel must include baptism because it marks the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ. It is the full message of Christ our Saviour and Christ our Lord.

Today, we have somehow become masters in learning separation. Instead of learning to divide the Word, we have learnt to divide the Gospel to suit our audience. Perhaps it's time to go back to the Word for what it is and what it says.