Lesson 3 · Upper Room Study Guides

Baptism in Jesus’ Name

After we repent, Scripture calls us to be baptized in water. The apostles baptized by immersion, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.

Key verse

“Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Acts 2:38 · NKJV

Why baptism

Baptism is our obedience to the gospel — buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12). It is where our past sins are washed away (Acts 22:16).

In the name of Jesus

Throughout Acts the believers were baptized in Jesus’ name (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5). There is salvation in no other name (Acts 4:12), and whatever we do is to be done in His name (Colossians 3:17).

A clear conscience

Baptism is the answer of a good conscience toward God (1 Peter 3:21) — a public step of faith and a clean beginning.

Search the Scriptures

Read these passages in your Bible

  • Acts 2:38
  • Acts 4:12
  • Acts 22:16

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Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version (NKJV).

Work through it

Read every baptism in Acts in one sitting

Acts 2:38, Acts 4:12, and Acts 22:16 are the three study references, and the second section names three more: Acts 8:16, 10:48, and 19:5. Read all four baptism accounts together and note in each case who was baptized, who did the baptizing, and what name was used. Then read Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12 for what the act pictures, and 1 Peter 3:21 for what it answers. Acts 22:16 is Paul recounting his own baptism years afterward, so it is worth setting his account beside Luke's in Acts 9. The pattern this lesson describes is a cumulative one, and reading the passages together is how you check it for yourself.

What it asks

A conversation with your pastor

The step at the end is concrete, and it is not one a web page can take for you: ask your pastor about being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have repented and have not been baptized, the lesson's plain counsel is not to delay. This is lesson three of the six-lesson New Believer study, following repentance and coming before receiving the Holy Ghost — the order Peter himself gives in the key verse. The whole series reads free here and prints as a seven-page booklet with a fill-in-the-blank Bible study on each lesson. If you were baptized in some other way and are unsure what to make of that, it is a fair question and better asked out loud than settled privately.