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Regeneration: New Life from God

the means of salvation. Let’s examine the Scriptures for evidence of the
purpose and place of baptism in the life of the one who receives Christ.

John the Baptist came preaching and baptizing. His message was,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2), and his
hearers confessed their sins and were baptized by him (Matthew 3:6;
Mark 1:4–5; Luke 3:3, 7–8). Jesus also began His ministry gaining and
baptizing believers, “although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but
his disciples” (John 4:1–2). Just before He returned to heaven, Jesus
commanded His disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations,” after
which they were to baptize them (Matthew 28:19).

The apostles obediently followed their Lord’s command and baptized
believers as an essential part of their ministry. On the Day of Pentecost,
Peter declared, “Repent and be baptized” (Acts 2:38). Baptism was
instituted by the Lord and preached by the early church. New believers
were baptized following repentance of sins and belief in the Lord
Jesus Christ.

In John 3:5, Jesus uses water as a symbol of the cleansing one receives
through His atoning work. In the Old Testament, water symbolized the
washing processes that took place in the temple ritual. The orthodox Jew
would interpret water in a religious context as that which cleanses. Thus
when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, He was saying he could enter the
Kingdom only if he were cleansed from sin and given new life by the Holy
Spirit. When Paul says that God “saved us through the washing of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), he refers to the cleansing from
sin that takes place in us. At the
moment of regeneration “the old has
gone,” cleansed by a supernatural act,
and “the new has come” Baptism symbolizes
(2 Corinthians 5:17). At this point, the
new believer is commanded to follow the death and
his regeneration experience with burial of the sinful
water baptism.
nature and the birth

Baptism is an outward witness of the new nature.
to the world of the change of
nature within. It symbolizes the

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