For more than thirty years I have been preaching that immersion in water is an essential act of obedience for those who wish to be saved. I have taught that Jesus is the “author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him”(Hebrews 5:9), and in conjunction with that one of the things Jesus commands is baptism. Through the years I have concluded very few sermons without at least some effort to exhort any who have not been baptized to do that very thing.

But has that been a mistake? To answer that question, we need to carefully consider some things in the Bible.

Listen …