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Why Is Baptism Important?

Interview with John Piper
Founder & Teacher, desiringGod.org
By Michael Gryboski,
Christian Post Reporter, 2021/02/18

Today we have a basic but really important question we
have yet to address on the podcast. It comes from a listener
named Matthew. “Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for this
podcast. I am a relatively new believer who was saved through a very faithful Bible
preaching ministry on my college campus. I have since graduated and am now looking for a
home church to become a member. In every case I have been asked if I have been baptized. I
have not. I need to. And I plan to. But I was wondering if you could explain to a newer
believer like me, why do I need to be baptized? What does it mean? And why is this an
essential step for me to take?”

Thank you, Matthew. I love the question. It’s an honor to try to answer. Let me start
by just reading a definition of what baptism is from our church affirmation of faith.
And then I’ll try to unpack it and explain it.

We believe that baptism is an ordinance [I’ll come back to that word ordinance] by
which those who have repented and come to faith express their union with Christ in
his death and resurrection, by being immersed in water in the name of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign of belonging to the new people of God,
the true Israel, and an emblem of burial and cleansing, signifying death to the old
life of unbelief, and purification from the pollution of sin.

Now that’s a long definition, sorry. But it’ll make more sense if we just take it one
piece at a time.

1. Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord

First, we believe that baptism is an ordinance of the Lord. What we mean when we
say that it’s an ordinance is that the Lord Jesus commanded it; he ordained it. The

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