Category: Musings on Baptism
And Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his household, and many of the Corinthians when they heard were believing and being baptized (Acts 18:8).
Again, we find people hearing the gospel, believing it, and immediately being baptized.
And it came about that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country came to Ephesus, and found some disciples, and he said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" And they said to him, "No, we have not even heard whether there is a Holy Spirit." And he said, "Into what then were you baptized?" And they said, "Into John's baptism." And Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus." And when they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. And there were in all about twelve men (Acts 19:1-7)
These disciples believed the gospel. They had faith. But, they had not been baptized into the name of Jesus, and Paul was not content to leave them unbaptized. Why?
And a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing near said to me, "Brother Saul, receive your sight!" And at that very time I looked up at him. And he said, "The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One, and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name" (Acts 22:12-16).
Paul here is recapping his conversion experience and he quotes Ananias as instructing him to "be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name." This messenger of Christ identifies baptism with washing away sins and calling on the name of Christ. It's not a "sinner's prayer" that Paul is urged to do to be forgiven or to call upon the name of the Lord (Rom. 10:13), it is baptism. Again, baptism is the profession of faith for a new convert.