Baptism

                                                                           

Our first covenant with God

 On my mission, one day we found this very nice Christian man who invited us in. He explained to us that baptism was not very important to him. "I already chose to follow Jesus Christ, I already try to be like him. Besides its like me wearing this wedding ring, if I take it off I am still married to my wife, being baptize is just like having a wedding ring," he said. I then looked at him and shared a scripture in John 3:5 saying "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." 

If you look at the gospel so far with faith and repentance, those two prepare us for baptism. It is. Perfect way to show our love for him. He set the example for all of us and we should try our best to be like Jesus Christ, like it says in 3Nephi 27:27 "And know ye that ye shall be judges of this people, according to the judgment which I shall give unto you, which shall be just. Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." 

                                     

                                     

 God has always had covenants with his people, for example the 10 commandments Moses received. 

                                     

                                 

                                        

 A covenant means a sacred promise, and as Moses received these 10 commandments he promised he would obey them. The point is that covenants remind us to repent, in Doctrine and Convents section 20:37 it says "All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church." Covenants, like baptism, have not changed.

                                       

                                       

 Finally baptism is our passport to heaven, there is no other way to get there unless we are baptize by his name and with the right authority. You could argue that Ephesians 2:8 it says"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." But when we read John 3:5 Jesus Christ clearly says we need to be baptize In order to get inside the kingdom of God. Baptism is how we apply grace to our lives. I would like to end with a scripture in the Book of Mormon Nephi 31:5 "And now, if the Lamb of God, he being holy, should have need to be baptized by water, to fulfil all righteousness, O then, how much more need have we, being unholy, to be baptized, yea, even by water!"

Let's be baptize, by the right authority, and if we obey we will be one more step ahead than we where before.