What Is Baptism?

May 28, 2026 | Doctrine

What Is Baptism?

Baptism is the foundational ritual of Christianity and a beautiful and tangible picture of the gospel. The New Testament Gospels begin with the ministry of John the Baptist and his promise of one coming whose baptism would be greater (Mark 1:4–8). They end with Jesus’s Great Commission to his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19, emphasis added). The ministry of the apostles and early church assume the ongoing and foundational importance of baptism (Acts 2:38, 41; 10:47-48; Rom. 6:3-4; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). But what is baptism? What does it mean for the Christian life? And how should it be practiced? THE MEANING OF BAPTISM In the Old Testament, water was an important biblical symbol of both creation and judgment. Consider these examples: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth… And the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen. 1:1-2, emphasis added). From these waters, God began to bring forth and create everything. During the time of Noah, when the world had turned away from God, God brought a flood on the earth—the undoing of creation with the waters of judgment. Yet, God saved one family through these waters and brought them out on the other side to a new creation. At the Exodus, God saved his people from Egypt through the crossing of the waters of the Red Sea, even as he brought those same waters crashing down in judgment on the armies of Pharaoh. Yet God’s people were brought through to the other side as the redeemed people of God. Forty years later, God made the next generation of his people pass through the waters of the Jordan River to the Promised Land as his reconsecrated people. God later included the images of deliverance through water in the rituals and symbols of the tabernacle and Temple and priesthood. So, when John the Baptist came, many years later, baptizing in the Jordan River for repentance and forgiveness, the people understood what he was doing. He was calling them to be remade and re-birthed as God’s people. It wasn’t enough that they were circumcised children of Abraham. They needed to go through the waters again—to be cleansed, to repent, to leave the past behind, and to come out as the new people of God. And when John said, “He who is coming after me is mightier than I… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” he was saying that Christ would bring, not just the rituals, but the reality of these things. Jesus’s own death and resurrection became the ultimate fulfillment of both judgment and new creation. After Jesus, the ritual of Christian baptism became a symbol of participation and union in his death and resurrection, going under the waters of judgment and coming out as a new creation (Rom. 6:3-4). With this background, the use and meaning of baptism in the New Testament becomes clear. Baptism is:

Baptism is not magic. It’s not a ritual work that makes someone a Christian. Baptism is a symbol and picture of the work of salvation that God has done in a believer’s life through faith in Christ. When someone is baptized, they are publicly declaring themselves and being recognized as a forgiven follower of Jesus Christ, washed from their sins and walking in newness of life. That’s what baptism means. But baptism does do something also. Baptism is an encouragement and means of grace to believers. When a person is baptized, it’s a sign, not just to others, but to the recipient that God loves them, is pleased with them, and promises to be with them. Like when Jesus was baptized and the Holy Spirit came down on him in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my Beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” when someone is baptized in Jesus’s name, they know that they have been adopted in Christ, are part of God’s family, and God promises to be with them. They can say, “I am his, and he is mine, forever and forever” (See Eph. 1:13-14). *This article was written by Pastor Matt Foreman of Fatih Reformed Baptist Church and was used by permission. Matt has clearly articulated our convictions on Biblical Baptism and we are grateful for his charity and clarity.

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