Luke 3:2, 3 (NIV)
2 During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

The student of the Bible must not mistake John's baptism for Jesus' baptism. The baptism of John has no relevance to the New Testament Church. Even though John's baptism was a shadow of Jesus' baptism, it was only for the remission of sins, not the forgiveness of sin. The only way sin can be forgiven is by the shedding of blood.

I do believe, however, that those who were baptized by John and released faith in the operation of that baptism had a window opened in their guilt-riddled soul. This guilt had blinded them from the truth of God' s Word, and unless it was removed, they would have never recognized Jesus at the genesis of His ministry. This then, was the full purpose of John' s baptism.

Any true believer understands that it is faith in the blood of Jesus that brings forgiveness for the sins of the past, present, and future, and releases the individual searching for a true relationship with God into the born-again experience. Faith is the catalyst to salvation. This is not like the baptism of repentance which John the baptist preached.

There is a tremendous need within the body of Christ to have a clear line drawn between the baptism of repentance that John the Baptist performed and the baptism that Jesus commanded His disciples to perform, because both baptisms are quite different. After all, we, as New Testament believers, are baptized into the death and resurrection of Jesus. So, how can our baptism be the same as John's baptism? When John baptized Jesus, Jesus had only just begun His ministry. He had not yet gone to the cross and completed salvation by His death and resurrection, the very points that we identify within our water baptism.
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