Perrydox.com is devoted to the pursuit of truth, whether plain or paradoxical, whether simple or sublime, or simply absurd yet absolute.
Is Everyone Qualified to be Baptized?
Not everyone is “qualified” to be baptized. Does that sound harsh? Then let me explain.
The Ethiopian eunuch asked, “What prevents me from being baptized?” On his mind was probably the restrictions placed on people such as himself which kept him from entering the temple or Tabernacle (Deuteronomy 23:1). He was not “qualified”. Philip gives him the good news saying he is no longer excluded, by giving another qualification – “If you believe you may” (Acts 8:37). If someone does not believe, they are not qualified, such as infants.
What about someone who refuses to repent? Are they qualified? Read Paul:
• “What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (CSB’17 Romans 6:1-3)
If someone is not willing to confess Jesus, are they qualified? I think you are seeing the pattern.
Now that I have demonstrated not everyone is qualified to be baptized, let me switch gears and go a different direction on why someone could not be qualified. And this time it has nothing to do with them, and everything to do with the baptism.
Baptism is a historical reenactment of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus:
• “Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” (CSB’17 Romans 6:3-4)
Since our baptism is into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, is someone qualified to be baptized into His death, be buried with Jesus, and resurrected out of the watery grave if Jesus had not yet died, been buried, and resurrected? No. This is why great men of faith such as Abraham, Moses, David, and more were not baptized. They didn’t “qualify” because baptism into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus had not yet occurred.
And now you know why the thief on the cross didn’t need to be baptized, and yet could still be saved. Baptism into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus did not apply to him because Jesus hadn’t yet done all those things. Therefore the thief was not qualified because baptism didn’t apply to him.
Comments