The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 requested Philip to baptize him. He had been reading from Isaiah 53 when Philip joined him. From that passage of scripture Philip "preached unto him Jesus," showing Christ to be the Savior and Substitute for sinners that God had appointed. God had "laid on Him" the iniquity of all His people and by His sacrifice of blood on the cross that iniquity had been "put away." The eunuch asked, "what doth hinder me from being baptized?" Philip's only response, the only prerequisite mentioned was, "If you believe, you may." Have you heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you thought upon the blessed message which declares full, free and final forgiveness for sin through Christ? Have you seen yourself as a sinner needing such a Savior? Has the Spirit of God brought home to your heart the reality of all the debt of your sins being paid by Christ on the cross? Do you believe the record that God has given of His Son, the truth of the good news of the gift of righteousness in Him? It is not, "Do you just believe" but "do you believe the testimony of the Lord?" Do you believe on Christ and trust Him alone to have put away your sin? Are you looking only to the Lord Jesus in the matter of your acceptance and standing with God? Is Christ your Hope? If you do, then there is nothing to hinder you from being baptized. There is nothing to hinder you and everything to encourage you to this public confession of Christ before the world. Baptism is an outward confession of our identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. In it we confess that "he was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification." Baptism is not salvation but it is the public act by which we confess before men that God has saved us in Christ. It is not a thing lightly to be entered into but neither is it to be avoided or delayed if God has revealed Christ is us as our all in all.