Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Does One Serve Christ Or Satan In Baptism?

This question was asked in derision. Even while on earth, the devil constantly tried to entrap our Lord. But truth has nothing to fear when it is handled honestly. When one is being baptized, he is neither serving Christ nor Satan. He is not serving anyone at all, for he is not active! He is passive and submitting to a burial!

Paul expressed it: "Buried with him by baptism" (Rom. 6:3). One being buried is not acting or serving! The dead is buried, but is serving neither Christ nor Satan. Paul details the process by which one became the servant of Jesus Christ, "But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (Rom 6:17-18).

The transition was in their obedience to the FORM OF DOCTRINE, which was the death, burial and resurrection (I. Cor. 15:1-3). It was when they had died to sins, had been buried in baptism, and raised with Christ that they became the servants of righteousness! "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).

It is clearly revealed that one is buried with Christ in baptism to become a servant of Christ. The one who is baptized changes his state and relationship with Christ. "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3: 26-27). One is OUT of Christ until baptized INTO Him; and one is saved, not by faith only, nor by baptism only, but by the union of FAITH and BAPTISM.

Even as Christ said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved...." (Mark 16:16). But one is not saved until sufficient faith leads to baptism: "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:12). Until one has faith in the operation of God that raised up Christ from the dead, he will not submit to baptism! But being baptized into Christ obtains a new relationship:  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17). And there, as a new creature, he begins to serve Christ. Will you not then let your faith lead you to obedience?

Obey Christ by being buried with Him in water baptism and He will add you to His church (Acts 2:27).