Baptism

While all evangelical Christians believe in baptism as an ordinance or sacrament, not all agree as to the mode or means of baptism. While not seeking to create controversy with our fellow Christians, Metropolitan holds to a particular form of baptism called Believer’s Baptism. Most people will agree that the mode of baptism in the New Testament and the earliest years of the growing Church was called immersion, where the individual was completely submerged under water from head to toe when they came to faith in Jesus Christ. Metropolitan continues following that pattern for all who desire to become members.

It does not take long, in reading through the New Testament, to realize that baptism held an important place in the mind and ministry of Jesus, the early believers as recorded in the book of Acts, and the letters written by the Apostles and Church leaders that make up 21 books of the New Testament. In His final instruction to the Apostles recorded in Matthew 28, Jesus commanded those Apostles and all church leaders since then to make disciples of all peoples in a two-fold pattern: baptizing them and teaching them to obey all Christ has taught us.

Baptism carries that significance because of what it represents. Ae we read the New Testament, we see that baptism symbolizes the cleansing of our sins which came through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sin. It also symbolizes the truth that anyone who has truly believed on Jesus Christ died with Him to sin and has been raised through the new birth to life. Furthermore, the entering of the water and being immersed is an act of faith in which the believer surrenders his or her life from the top of the head to the tip of the toes, a complete surrender to Christ. Ultimately, the Bible declares that baptism acts as a seal of God’s ownership, a covenant sign that declares that the individual being baptized belongs to God as His child.

This powerful symbol carries with it a profound sense of the wonder of our salvation. While it is not a part of becoming a Christian, it is the first step of true discipleship and identification with God’s family.

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