Why Should I Get Baptized?
Clay Harrington |
June 11, 2025
Why Baptism Matters: A Biblical Call to Obedience and Spiritual Release
In Matthew 28:19-20 we read the following:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is a direct quote from Jesus Himself—which leaves little room for misinterpretation.
Why Baptism? What Does the Bible Say About Baptism?
Why does Jesus expect, even command, His disciples to be baptized?
The short answer — because it’s what the Father requires.
In the same way obedience to our parents brings about earthly blessings (cue Ephesians 6:1-3), obedience to our Heavenly Father brings about spiritual release.
How Does Obedience Lead to Spiritual Breakthrough?
How so?
Recall how Jesus desired to “…do what He saw the Father doing…” (John 5:19). In Matthew 3:13-15 (NLT) we read:
13 Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John.
14 But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
15 But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.”
In other words (and translations), Jesus’ baptism was required in order to “fulfill all righteousness.”
What we read that immediately follows is wild… the Spirit of God descended on Him like a dove and His Father’s voice is heard from Heaven sharing how proud He is of His son!
Two thirds of the Trinity celebrate what was seemingly insignificant in the natural but considered to be breakthrough in the spiritual.
Obedience is the love language of heaven. And our obedience brings about a spiritual release.
If baptism was important enough for Jesus to follow through with AND important enough for Jesus to command His followers to do, then who are we to refuse to take the plunge?
We get baptized because it’s what God desires every believer to do. When we choose to be baptized in obedience, this brings about a spiritual release.
What Does Baptism Symbolize? 4 Prophetic Declarations
Furthermore, baptism serves as a powerful declaration in 4 ways:
1. Baptism Is a Public Declaration of Inner Transformation
Today, when we get baptized, we are publicly professing that we choose Jesus over everything. We’re publicly professing that we’re unashamed to follow Him.
We are publicly declaring to the world that there has indeed been an inner transformative work of Christ, and thus compelled to exalt Him for the rest of our days.
2. Baptism Prophetically Declares That You Have Died with Christ
In Romans 6:3 (NIV) Paul asks the growing Church in Rome:
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”
Paul continues to explain in the verses that follow: in order to be united in a resurrection like His, we must first be united in a death like His—the death of the only one worthy to eradicate the tyranny of sin once for all.
Paul was adamant in ensuring the children of God knew—or at least were reminded—that everyone who comes to a saving faith in Christ must realize that they come to Christ to die. Not only to self, but to join in on the death of the Holy and Anointed One.
When we go down into that watery grave, we are declaring to the world that we willingly join in the death of Christ.
And if we join in on a death like His, we also will enjoy the New Life He gives—which leads me to our third point…
3. Baptism Prophetically Declares That You Have Been Raised to New Life with Christ
Since we’re joined with Jesus’ death, we also get to taste and live this new life in Christ today.
Like Paul famously quotes in 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV):
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
Mic Drop.
In Romans 6, Paul carries on to say in verse 4:
“…just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
Once we come up out of that watery grave, we are signaling to the world that we have joined the new life in Christ and therefore are deemed new creations.
We are declaring that the inner transformative work in our hearts—by Holy Spirit—has made us new.
Water baptism prophetically proclaims this truth to the world.
4. Baptism Declares to the World That You’re Part of the Family!
Baptism announces to the world that you are now a part of a Kingdom community united by the Spirit.
You now have more in common with a believer of Jesus than a blood relative who doesn’t.
All children of God have something greater than blood that unites them… they have the blood of Jesus and the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:13 (NLT) Paul extends on this point:
“Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.”
In Jesus we all share the same Spirit—even though we may share physical and worldly differences. If we all share the same Spirit, what seemingly separates us in the natural is null and void due to the Holy Spirit’s unifying presence in the spiritual.
As children of God, we are family!
Baptism declares that we have joined with a Kingdom family that unites us greater than any earthly affiliation ever could.