On Sunday, October 30 2016, I was baptized.
I had been baptized before. When I was six, I was baptized by my father on Christmas Day, something I will certainly remember forever. It is difficult to understand what baptism means as a six-year-old, however. I knew that it was to share with the world that I became a Christian, but that was the extent of my knowledge on the subject.
For the past month, my church has been doing a series called “Made New,” and from the beginning, my pastor told everyone that we would be dedicating the last Sunday of the series to baptisms. At the beginning of the series, I was excited to see everyone get baptized and take that next step in a relationship with Jesus, but I knew that I had already been baptized, so I tried to release that quiet but persistent thought of doing it again.
But then something was said in church. I honestly didn’t know if I had heard it before, and it made so much sense to me.
Becoming a Christian does not make you a better version of yourself, it makes you a new person completely.
I had always believed that once we were saved, we were slowly made into better versions of ourselves. I thought that Jesus slowly corrected our bad habits, or gave us better qualities one by one. Eventually, we would have all the new pieces to being made into a better, newer person. But that isn’t true! We are not slowly made better, piece by piece – we are made fully and completely new the minute we are saved. All at once, we are made new.
1 Corinthians 5:17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; A new life has begun!”
I had no thoughts going through my mind as I was being baptized. In a way, I had assumed God would say something profound as I was under the water, but he was quiet. It was peaceful. I was not feeling jittery or nervous as I had the whole morning. I felt a peace and an excitement that I have felt only a few times before.
Before anyone was baptized, we had worship. The first song we sang was “Fierce” by Hillsong, and every time I think about being baptized, I am reminded of this song.
“Like a tidal wave crashing over me, rushing in to meet me here, your love is fierce!”
His love physically felt fierce; it fully surrounded and comforted, giving off excitement and peace.
I was nervous to get baptized again. I didn’t want people to think it wasn’t genuine when I was six, or that I had given up on God at some point. I was concerned with what people would think, even though it was a personal decision that I was making, not for anyone but Christ. He vanquished the fear by showing me His great love, allowing me to physically feel it, and giving me peace the entire time.
His love was evident.
Like a tidal wave crashing over me, rushing in to meet me here, your love is fierce.
