What is baptism?

¹⁶But the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had sent them.

¹⁷When they saw him, they bowed down to him, but some doubted.

¹⁸Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

¹⁹Go,and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

²⁰teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

¹What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

²May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

³Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

⁴We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

⁶knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

⁷For he who has died has been freed from sin.

⁸But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;

⁹knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!

¹⁰For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

¹²Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

¹³Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

¹⁴For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.

³⁷Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

³⁸Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

³⁹For the promise is to you, and to your children, and to all who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God will call to himself.”

⁴⁰With many other words he testified, and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation!”

⁴¹Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.

²⁶But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise, and go toward the south to the way that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert.”

²⁷He arose and went; and behold, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem to worship.

²⁸He was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹The Spirit said to Philip, “Go near, and join yourself to this chariot.”

³⁰Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

³¹He said, “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” He begged Philip to come up and sit with him.

³²Now the passage of the Scripture which he was reading was this, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As a lamb before his shearer is silent, so he doesn’t open his mouth.

³³In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will declare His generation? For his life is taken from the earth.”

³⁴The eunuch answered Philip, “Who is the prophet talking about? About himself, or about someone else?”

³⁵Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture, preached to him Jesus.

³⁶As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”

³⁸He commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

³⁹When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, and the eunuch didn’t see him any more, for he went on his way rejoicing.

⁴⁰But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.