What Baptism Is and Isn't

What Christian Baptism Is

• Christian baptism is immersion in water in submission to the authority of Jesus Christ. It is an act of obedience which commits one to a life of obedience.
   
• Christian baptism is a command to be obeyed. (Matthew 28:18-20)
   
• Christian baptism symbolizes the cleansing from sin, a washing away of the old life. (Acts 22:16)
   
• Christian baptism symbolizes the new birth by which one becomes a new creature in Christ. It symbolizes the beginning of new life. (John 3:1-4, 1 Peter 3:21, 2 Corinthians 5:17)
   
• Christian baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and also of the Christian, the new believer. (Romans 6:3-10, Colossians 2:12)
   

What Christian Baptism Isn't

• It is not a guarantee of heaven. If there is not faith and repentance, water baptism means nothing.