A sign you could see
Baptism
In the new covenant, the sign of entrance is not a mark in the flesh but water. Baptism joins the believer visibly to the death and resurrection of Christ.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”Matthew 28:19
The sign
The sign. When Jesus sent out His disciples, He gave the sign that would mark those who belonged to Him: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt 28:19). From the first day of the church the pattern held; on Pentecost Peter cried, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 2:38), and about three thousand were added. Baptism became the public sign of entrance into the new covenant people, the outward act by which faith in Christ was confessed and the believer received into the fellowship. It uses water, an ordinary element made a token of an extraordinary thing. Paul draws out the meaning: "know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" (Rom 6:3). The sign is not empty ritual; it declares a real union, a passing through death and into life, marked upon the body and witnessed by the church.
What it sealed
What it sealed. Baptism seals the believer's union with Christ and membership among His covenant people. Paul unfolds it: "we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4). The going down into water pictures burial with Christ; the rising pictures new life in Him. It is the counterpart of the old covenant's entrance sign, and Paul makes the link plain in Colossians: circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God" (Col 2:11-12). What circumcision marked in the flesh, baptism now marks in the new people of God: belonging, cleansing, a life joined to the crucified and risen Lord. It seals the promise that the one who has died with Christ will also live with Him, and it sets him publicly among those who bear Christ's name.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. Baptism does not merely point to Christ; it plunges the believer into His story. It preaches His death, burial, and resurrection and applies them to the one baptized, who is "planted together in the likeness of his death" and shall be "in the likeness of his resurrection" (Rom 6:5). Where Passover blood and circumcision looked forward to the Savior, baptism looks back and up to a finished work, uniting us with the Christ who has already died and risen. It is worth saying honestly that Christians differ, sincerely and along old lines, over the mode of baptism, whether by immersion, pouring, or sprinkling, and over its proper subjects, whether believers only or also the children of believers. Faithful churches hold these views with conviction. What they share is the confession at the heart of the sign: that salvation is in Christ crucified and raised, and that baptism marks entrance into the people who belong to Him.
Questions people ask
What does baptism signify?
Union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and entrance into His covenant people. Paul says the baptized are buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life (Rom 6:3-4). It is the new covenant's sign of belonging, confessing that one's hope rests in the crucified and risen Lord.
How does baptism relate to circumcision?
Colossians 2:11-12 links them: believers receive "the circumcision made without hands" and are "buried with him in baptism." The old covenant's outward sign of entrance in the flesh gives way to baptism as the new covenant's sign, with the inward reality being a heart made new by the Spirit.
Do Christians agree on how and whom to baptize?
No, and it is honest to say so. Sincere believers differ over the mode, whether immersion, pouring, or sprinkling, and over the subjects, whether only professing believers or also the children of believers. These differences are real and long standing, yet all affirm the sign's meaning: salvation in Christ crucified and risen.