There is not one scripture that we can point to which teaches us that the Twelve Apostles/Disciples were baptized. There are those who believe they were based on John 3:22 which reads, “After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea and there He remained with them and baptized.” They would say, “Jesus must have baptized them BEFORE they baptized others.” But this is “human reasoning,” for in John 4:1-3 we read, “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself DID NOT BAPTIZE, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.” It is clear from this passage that Jesus “did NOT baptize” at that time and one could conclude He never did baptize anyone, including His disciples. We might also ask, “Was John the Baptist baptized?” Again, we have no scripture that shows us that John was baptized. Just before He baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, he said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matthew 3:14). This teaches us that John had NOT been baptized, nor do we read later of him being baptized.

Perhaps it would be profitable to ask, “Why were people baptized by John and by the disciples of Jesus, and why was Jesus baptized?” In Matthew 3:1-3 we read, “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, ‘REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!’ For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: ‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; make His paths straight.” Then in verse 5-6, 11 we read, “Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and WERE BAPTIZED BY HIM in the Jordan, CONFESSSING THEIR SINS…I indeed BAPTIZE YOU with water UNTO REPENTANCE.” We learn here that John was raised up by God to prepare people for receiving their Messiah by TELLING THEM TO REPENT and in their BAPTISM, they were manifesting their REPENTANCE by “confessing their sins.” Jesus also preached and told people to REPENT: “Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and  the kingdom of God is at hand, REPENT, and believe the gospel’ (Mark 1:14), Jesus was preaching the same message as John and I believe His disciples were baptizing people for the same reason as John; to “manifest their repentance by confessing their sins.”

So, the big question is: If baptism was to show a person’s repentance by confessing their sins, why was Jesus baptized? We ask this because Scripture is crystal-clear that Jesus “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:22), “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and “in Him was no sin” (1 John 3:5). John the Baptist acknowledged this truth by asking, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” John knew he WAS A SINNER and He knew that Jesus WASN’T A SINNER. Yet Jesus went on to say to John, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What did Jesus mean by those words? In what way would “righteousness be fulfilled” by Him being baptized? I believe Jesus was showing, in His baptism, that He was willing to INDENTIFY WITH SINNERS as a pledge that He would eventually “take the sinner’s place on the cross SO THEY COULD BECOME RIGHTEOUS BEFORE God.” By going into the waters of the Jordan River (which speaks of DEATH), He was symbolically “confessing their sins as if they were His own” and pledging that on the Cross He would literally have their sins placed upon Him and then bear God’s holy wrath to pay for their sins so they could become righteous through Him. We have this blessed truth in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

After Jesus died and rose again, “another BAPTISM” was announced in Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, BAPTIZING THEM in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.” Here we have “Christian baptism.” Unlike John’s “baptism unto repentance,” this baptism is for those who have been saved by believing on Christ and His finished work on the cross (see Mark 16:15-16). They manifest their “faith in Christ” by willingly being baptized in the name of the Triune God and by observing all the teachings of their Lord Jesus Christ. This is the baptism that we read of throughout the rest of the New Testament. When sinners were saved, they willingly submitted to this baptism (see Acts 10:43-48).  (DO)  (620.5)