What does water do when getting baptized?
Question:
I was asked a question, which is, "What does water do when getting baptized?" How can I answer this scripturally?
Thank you.
Answer:
It gets you wet.
"Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you -- not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience -- through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (I Peter 3:21).
The water in baptism is more of an incidental. It is obeying God -- the appeal to God by following His directive -- that saves a person through the resurrection of Jesus. There is no power in the water itself. It is the submission to God's command that brings about the change. That is why people who claim that baptism is unnecessary totally miss the point.
When Naaman was told to dip in the Jordan seven times to be cleansed from his leprosy, the water in the Jordan had nothing to do with his cleansing (II Kings 5). Yet, if Naaman dipped in any other water, dipped only five times, or just skipped the whole thing as being unnecessary, he would have remained a leper. What made it important is that God commanded it and Naaman submitted to it. God is the one who cleansed Naaman, not Naaman nor the water. And the same is true regarding baptism.
