Recently, someone asked me this question. It’s a good question. I think that many of us who were baptized when we were much younger (myself included) have asked ourselves this question. As we have studied and understood more about what the Bible teaches and have grown in our relationship with our Lord over the years, it is easy to look back at when we were baptized and say, “Well, I really didn’t understand what I was doing as well as I do now. So, I think I should get ‘re-baptized’.”
Well, before you get “re-baptized,” I would encourage you to consider this:
Baptism is based on belief in Jesus. Go with me through the book of Acts and notice some things with me.
In Acts 2, after Peter had preached that the Jesus they crucified and God raised up was both Lord and Christ, the people were pricked in their hearts (i.e., they believed what Peter had said). And, those who gladly received it were baptized in His name for the remission of their sins.
In Acts 3-4, after Peter and John proclaimed that the Holy and Just Prince of Life was crucified and resurrected, people were converted to Christ and had their sins blotted out (i.e., they were baptized for the remission of their sins). So, the number of just the baptized believing men rose to five thousand.
In Acts 8, when Philip went to Samaria and preached the word (i.e., the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, see Matthew 16:13-19 and Acts 4:12), the people of the city believed and were baptized.
Later in Acts 8, when Philip preached Jesus from Isaiah 53 (which is about the Suffering Messiah/Savior), the Ethiopian eunuch confessed that he believed that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”
In Acts 9, after Saul of Tarsus had been violently persecuting Christians, he met the Resurrected Jesus on his way to Damascus. And, when Ananias came to him three days later, he obeyed the command to be baptized (Acts 22:16) and immediately began preaching that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God.
In Acts 10, Peter taught Cornelius and his household that Jesus is Lord and Christ and that He was crucified and resurrected. As a result, Cornelius and his whole household were believed and were baptized.
In Acts 16, when Paul preached (Jesus) to Lydia, her heart was opened to his preaching and she was baptized along with her whole household.
Later in Acts 16, while Paul and Silas were in prison, they preached belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and, because they believed, the Philippians Jailer and his whole household were baptized.
In Acts 18, when Paul preached that Jesus is the Christ to Justus, his household, and many Corinthians, they believed and were baptized.
And, in Acts 19, when Paul encountered twelve men who had only been baptized with the baptism of John, Paul told them that they should believe in Jesus. The twelve did and were baptized.
Now, when we put all of this together, while some people who were baptized had more extensive knowledge of Jesus, some did not. However, the common factor in every case of conversion found in the New Testament is that the ones who were baptized believed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and was crucified and resurrected, and is now Lord and that, through baptism, they could have their sins forgiven. Now, I’m sure that all of these people didn’t fully comprehend what ALL that meant. But, they understood it enough to know that they needed to be baptized into Jesus. So, if somebody believes, even on the most basic of levels, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that He died on the cross and rose from the dead, and that baptism is for the remission of sins, then they can and should be baptized.
May I add right here that the only time we read of someone being “re-baptized” in Scripture is in Acts 19 with the twelve who were only baptized with John’s baptism. Still, they had never been baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of their sins. So, they had never really been baptized the way the Resurrected Jesus instructed people to be baptized (Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-20).
So many people needlessly worry about whether or not they should be “re-baptized.” If, when you were baptized, you believed that Jesus is the Crucified Christ and the Resurrect Son of God and that your sins would be forgiven by doing so, then you need not worry about it.
Now, if you weren’t baptized because of your belief in Jesus (e.g., you got “baptized” because other people were doing it, because it was the right thing to do, because it would make someone happy, because you thought that you were just giving “an outward sign of an inward grace” or to be added to a denomination), then were you really baptized? Not according to what we just looked at in the Bible. And, if that’s your situation, then we encourage you to believe in Jesus with all of your heart, confess that faith in Him with your mouth and with your actions by repenting of your sins, and be baptized in Him for the remission of your sins for real for the very first time.
~Curtis Carwile