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and poured it on his head. It says, “They both went down into the water.” The same
thing happens in John 3:23, where baptism is happening “at Aenon near Salim,
because water was plentiful there.” So, all of that to say, the third point is this:
baptism is an immersion in water.

4. Baptism is in the name of the triune God

Fourth, baptism means doing this immersing in the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19: “Go . . . make disciples . . . baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This means that not
just any immersing is baptism — like, diving into a swimming pool is not baptism.
There is a holy appeal to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit to be
present in this act, and make the portrayal true and real in what it says about the
work of redemption.

There’s no salvation without the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity,
one God in three persons. When we call upon their name — Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit — we’re depending upon them, all of them. And we’re honoring them. And
we’re saying that this act of baptism is by them and for them.

5. Baptism demonstrates faith

Fifth, baptism is an expression of faith, and therefore only for believers, which is
why we don’t baptize infants, who are not able to believe. And let me just give you
one verse for why you should seriously consider the fact that it’s only for believers,
and that it is an expression of faith. When I was in Germany, studying with nothing
but Lutherans — in all my classes I was the only Baptist — at the University of
Munich, we went away on a retreat and talked about baptism, and they all turned to
me and said, “So, why don’t you baptize babies?”

And I took them to Colossians 2:12. And I’ll tell you what they said, but here’s the
verse: “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with
him through faith . . .” Did you get that now? Burial and resurrection in baptism,
the symbol of baptism there, the symbol of burial and resurrection in baptism, is
“through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.” And

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