Water baptism symbolizes the believer’s total trust in, and total reliance on, the Lord Jesus Christ, as well as a commitment to live obediently to Him. It also symbolizes unity with all the saints (Ephesians 2:19), that is, with every person in every nation on earth who is a member of the body of Christ (Galatians 3:27–28). Water baptism expresses this and more, but it is not an entrance into Christianity. Instead we are baptized because our Lord commanded it and because we obey Him. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Before we are baptized, we must come to believe that we are sinners in need of salvation (Romans 3:23). We must also believe that Christ died on the cross to atone for our sins, that He was buried, and that He was resurrected to assure our place in heaven (1 Corinthians 15:1–4). We then turn to Jesus, asking Him to forgive our sins and to be our Lord and Savior, and the moment we do that we are born again, our eternal salvation is guaranteed, and we begin to die to ourselves and live for Christ (1 Peter 1:3–5). At this time we are qualified to be scripturally baptized.
At the river, pool, or baptistery, we let ourselves be completely immersed in the water. This symbolizes burial with our Lord; we are baptized into His death on the cross and are no longer slaves to self or sin (Romans 6:3–7). When we are raised out of the water, we are symbolically resurrected—raised to our new life in Christ to be with Him forever, born into the family of our loving God (Romans 8:16).
The fact that baptism is not a prerequisite for salvation is best seen in the example of a saved man who was not baptized in water, the criminal on the cross (Luke 23:39–43). This self-confessed sinner came to acknowledge Jesus as his Lord while dying on a cross next to Him, and he asked for salvation and was forgiven of his sins. Although he never experienced water baptism, at that moment he was baptized into Christ’s death, and he then was raised to life by the power of Christ’s word (Hebrews 1:3).
Christians have been commanded to be baptized, and we should do so out of obedience to, and love for, our Lord Christ Jesus (John 14:15). Water baptism by immersion is the biblical method of baptism because of its symbolic representation of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
altruistico 
Not commanded. Encouraged. Faith grows as a result of willingness and trust, not obedience. Our God is not a master. He is our Father, and our relationship is Love.
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Welcome, Cleanmo;
If we turn our lives over completely to God then are we not His servant? If we are His servant; are we not obedient to Him? If, then, we are obedient servants to God does this not make Him our Master? Yes, God is our Father, our Lord and our King. Do we not also serve our Father? Our Lord? And, our King?
We need only look at Matthew 25:14-20 (The Parable of the Talents) to understand Christ’s message on stewardship, obedience and servitude to understand our Lord as Master….. This parable is certainly a familiar one. We learn a number of truths from this parable. First, God is sovereign. He has created us. He has endowed us with certain gifts. He watches us as we use them (or neglect them or even abuse them). He dispenses judgment based on how we use these gifts. If you look at it negatively, it means that nothing truly belongs to us, and we have no rights outside of God’s gifts. God is our master, and to him we owe total obedience. That is a hard teaching to accept.
We are only stewards of whatever we have, whether it is wealth, or talent, or intelligence, or whatever it may be. And God expects us to use whatever he has entrusted to us in the service of his kingdom. We are accountable to God. And the more God has entrusted us with, the more he expects from us.
Again, this is a hard teaching to accept in this day and age. Some interpreters of this passage see the third slave as the hero, rebelling against the unfair and cruel master who arbitrarily grants favors and dispenses punishment. Why should the master have so much while the slaves have nothing? The problem is that Jesus did not tell the parable in that way. Jesus told it to reinforce the sovereignty and authority of God, and our human responsibility to him. Now, it is true that Jesus told this parable two thousand years ago, but the truth of the parable has not changed. And that is really the second truth: that God’s Word does not change. It is eternal and unchanging. Even if our sentiments change, God does not. And if we struggle with a passage from Scripture, it is not God’s responsibility to conform his Word to our feelings, but rather our responsibility to conform our feelings to his Word.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless and keep you and yours…
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I’m not. I’m His child, not His property. We are all free to worship Him as we wish. I’ve no need for a master, nor to be a slave.
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Yes, if we are truly a follower of Christ, then we are His children. But you also must remember we were purchased with a price. A very high price indeed. We were purchased with Christ’s blood on the cross. In order to be a servant of Christ we must surrender ourselves over completely to Him; doing His will and not our own.
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. — Galatians 2:20 (ESV)
Being a Christian does not just equal a moment of faith and then I get to do what I want. It doesn’t even equal being baptized and then trying to make it “to church” regularly. Really living as a Christian means living like Christ.
In this passage, it presents the picture of being crucified with Jesus. It calls to mind the teaching we read in Romans 12:1, which said we should be living sacrifices. This is about sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed Himself for us, we should sacrifice ourselves for Him.
This is a picture of total surrender. Instead of fighting against Jesus, trying to go our own way and do our own thing, we simply do what Jesus wants. We act as though He is the conquering King who has the right to tell us how to live.
May the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob bless and keep you and yours always.
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