Parents of children in or approaching adolescence find themselves asking, “When should my son or daughter be baptized into Christ?” Indeed, any parent who isn’t thinking and praying along these lines needs to reexamine his or her own spiritual priorities.

The short answer is simple — it’s the criterion set before the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip the evangelist in Acts 8:37: “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” When a young person can respond to this statement with genuine faith as the eunuch did — “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” — he or she should not be hindered (to use the eunuch’s word) from being baptized.

But let’s look at some related questions in greater detail.

Why does any person need to be baptized? Both Jesus (Mark 16:16) and Peter (1 Peter 3:21) affirm that baptism is for salvation — that is, for rescuing a soul from eternal condemnation. Other New Testament passages teach us that baptism enters us into the death and resurrection of Christ (Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12), enables us to put on Christ (Galatians 3:27), and adds us to His body, the number of those who are being saved (1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 2:41, 47). Jesus said that for people to become His disciples, they would have to be baptized (Matthew 28:19).

These Scriptures, along with others, demonstrate that salvation, discipleship and baptism are inextricably interrelated. One cannot be saved, participate in the spiritual benefits of Jesus’ death and resurrection, enter His body, or become His disciple without being baptized. Therefore, anyone who wants to belong to Christ and inherit His salvation must be baptized — buried or immersed in water.

When should a person be baptized? Philip’s exchange with the man from Ethiopia reveals part of the answer: when a person believes with all his or her heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, he or she should be baptized. Philip baptized the eunuch immediately after the Ethiopian’s confession of faith (Acts 8:38). The eunuch’s baptism followed his being taught about Jesus from the Scriptures (Acts 8:35) — a necessary prerequisite of faith, as we learn in Romans 10:17: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This is the pattern we observe in other conversion accounts in the book of Acts (2:14-41; 8:12; 10:34-48; 16:13-15; 16:30-33; 19:1-5).

The Scriptural timing of baptism, therefore, places the act after one’s learning from the Scriptures about Jesus, understanding the Bible’s teaching that He is God’s Son, and believing this teaching with a willing heart or mind. A child must be of sufficient intellectual maturity to do all these things before becoming a Scriptural candidate for baptism.

So where do the “why” and “when” of baptism intersect? To answer this, we have to consider another important fact about baptism: it is for the purpose of forgiving sins (Acts 2:38). Sin is lawlessness or lawbreaking (1 John 3:4). Sin is the outgrowth of evil desire (James 1:14-15) and involves willful disobedience (James 4:17). It is every individual’s own sin that makes his salvation necessary (Romans 3:23; 5:6-10; 6:23) — God Himself says, “The soul that sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4. 20).

Until a child has developed the rational maturity to choose wrong (willful disobedience to God’s law) against right (as defined by God’s law), he or she has no sin for which to be forgiven, and therefore has no need of baptism. The Bible clearly shows that a child who is yet innocent of sin is already God’s (Deuteronomy 1:39; Isaiah 7:14-16; Matthew 18:2-4; Matthew 19:13-14; Mark 10:14-15; Luke 18:16-17) and needs no forgiveness. Only after sin occurs do we require the saving, cleansing blood of Jesus.

Children mature at different rates. One child may be ready for baptism — having arrived at both genuine faith and the need for remission of sins — at a relatively early age. Another may not reach this point until well into adolescence. What parents, grandparents and other Christians can do is this: make certain that young people know from early childhood what God commands people to do in order to be saved; answer all their questions about God and His Son accurately, with Scripture; and lovingly encourage their steps toward faith.