Getting Baptized a Second Time

If there are questions that remain regarding regeneration, repentance, true salvation, and water baptism you can dive deeper into these subjects with Dr. Richard Caldwell as he exposits the Word of God in the following sermons:

The Life That Pleases God:    • The Life that Pleases God - Hebrews 1...  

Description:

In this episode of the Straight Truth Podcast, a listener has submitted a question regarding their conversion and profession of faith in Christ as it relates to their water baptism. Dr. Josh Philpot shares with us that the listener states they were baptized as a child, later they left the church, but have recently begun submitting to God through their understanding of His Word. Dr. Philpot also shares that the listener has shared that they want to obey the command of baptism, but aren’t sure if it was true the first time; they want to know if they should be baptized again. Dr. Philpot presents this to Dr. Richard Caldwell asking should this person be baptized again, what biblical advice can he offer here.

Dr. Caldwell says the question for the listener is not, should I be baptized a second time, but, have you been baptized? For baptism to be baptism it must follow conversion. What the listener will need to wrestle with is, were you truly regenerate when you professed faith initially? Do you believe that the Lord saved you then? If your conversion was genuine and you were baptized after being saved, then your baptism is genuine and legitimate. If it clear to you that it was not, then you need to be baptized.

Dr. Caldwell gives an illustration of a wedding ring and marriage to help us further understand water baptism. The wedding ring is given and worn to symbolize the actual marriage event that has taken place, it’s not the marriage itself, it does not make us married by just putting it on. So, if you have not yet married the ring cannot have this symbolic significance. Like this, baptism does not make us a Christian, but on the other side of conversion, it speaks to the reality of salvation that has taken place in our life. Therefore what we have to get right with water baptism is that it takes place on the right side of our conversion, not before, but after. To help us even further, Dr. Caldwell also shares his profession of Christ at age 7, and later conversion at 16 along with some of the challenges that he went through in regards to his baptism.

Dr. Philpot shares that the listener has mentioned something regarding reformed theology and being awakened more to the things of God. He mentions that often when this happens, people have become aware of the doctrines of grace, coming to the true knowledge of God and that it’s His saving work in their life. Some of these things that we learn in reformed theology are sometimes things that we never knew, had never been taught or previously understood, but when they become known, understood, accepted, and real to us it quite often feels like a second conversion. But he says to Dr. Caldwell, this wouldn’t necessarily indicate or mean that a person was a non-believer before, would it? Dr. Caldwell’s answer is no, not at all, of course not. He says this is true when we discover some area of doctrine that we were ignorant of, in some cases it is like a second conversion and this is especially so if it’s the doctrines of grace. In these truths, we come to know God in a way that we didn’t know Him before, but it doesn’t mean that we weren’t saved and didn’t know Him, it just means that we vastly underestimated who He is. He explains that when the gospel comes to us and we see ourselves as a sinner in need of God’s grace, understanding that Jesus is the all-sufficient Savior, and we turn to Him in faith, believing that it is through Him alone that we receive forgiveness of our sins and through His finished work on the cross, in His death burial and resurrection that we are saved, it’s in that very moment that we believe, that we are saved. Just because we didn’t know at that time that it’s all the sovereign work of God doesn’t make it any less real. What we come to know in the doctrines of grace is a better understanding of what has already happened in our life, it’s an explanation of what God Himself has done.

A final point of advice Dr. Caldwell offers for the questioner, and for anyone else who might be asking these questions- if you find this to be an issue that continues to nag at you, there is probably a reason. If sometime in eternity, it is revealed that you were mistaken and were truly converted at the younger age, yet you followed through with water baptism now because you wanted to be certain that you honored the commandment of the Lord, you will not have sinned. Wanting to honor God in a baptism that has understanding is not sinful. So if there’s no doubt that you’re baptized today and in doing so, you know what you’re doing and why, that’s a God-honoring action.