Article - Baptism into the Church
A major reason for baptism in the New Testament is to get into the church. In our religious world, we hear people talk about “joining the church” or “placing membership” at a church. Really, this is not biblically accurate. To join or become a member of the Lord’s church, He must add you to it (Acts 2:47).
The Scriptures teach that God adds you to the church when you are baptized into it. Paul said in I Corinthians 12:13, “For with one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.” To fully understand this verse one must understand what kind of a body Paul is talking about. In Ephesians 1:22-23 Paul said, “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Notice from this text we learn that the words “body” and “church” are used synonymously to represent the collective group of saved people. Now that we have learned that the body is the church, let us apply this principle to I Corinthians 12:13. Paul is very simply saying that the only way a person can enter into (become a part of) the group of saved people is by being baptized into it.
The Bible clearly teaches that a man must be baptized in water to be in the church. Therefore, those who have followed the teachings of men and have not been baptized are not a part of Christ’s spiritual body. They are a part of a man-made denomination with their salvation depending upon a man, who could never save them. </p
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