How important is Christian baptism? Well, on the founding day of the Christian Church – the day of Pentecost – St. Peter’s hearers asked him what they must do. He answered: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”

When Samaritans first came to faith in Christ, Luke tells us that Philip the evangelist preached “the good news of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ…[and] baptized, both men and women.” When the Gospel reached the first Gentile converts, in Acts 10, Peter commanded that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Upon St. Paul’s conversion in Acts chapter 9, “He got up and was baptized.” In chapter 16 of Acts, we have the record of the first European convert, a woman named Lydia, who came to faith at a Bible study. We read, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message…she and the members of her house were baptized…” In Philippi, a jailer asked Paul and Silas what he should do. “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved,” they told him, and we read that, “he and all his family were baptized” that very same night.

How important is Christian baptism? One last Scripture quote (it’s the last thing Jesus said to his disciples before leaving them to return to heaven): “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Baptism is part of the commission our Lord gave to the church. In other words, baptism is not optional for anyone who is serious about following Jesus Christ.

But what difference does it make? Does baptism magically or mechanically change my position before God? Does it guarantee heaven? If it is only an outward demonstration of inward faith, why do it at all? Isn’t faith alone enough? Just what is baptism?

There are three things to know about baptism. (Well, there are probably four thousand things to know, but here are three of them.) Baptism is a Decisive Act of Faith, it is a Dramatic Act of Faith, and it is a Declarative Act of Faith.

In the early days of the church, baptism was adult, as opposed to infant, baptism. Being baptized held something of the same place that “going to the altar” held in evangelical churches for more than a century. When people were ready to make a decision to follow Christ, they were baptized. They may already have believed Jesus’ claims (and the church’s claims about him). But at baptism, they embraced Christ himself. They committed themselves to follow Jesus. Going under the water didn’t make them Christians. Faith in Jesus Christ did that; without faith, baptism would only have made them wet.

So, if baptism does not make us right with God or guarantee us heaven, what does it do? Why be baptized at all if salvation is by faith? First, baptism is a decisive act of faith. It is a decisive step away from a life centered around self and toward a Christ-centered life.

Some words just go together. Peanut butter goes with jelly. Ham goes with cheese. Rod goes with reel. Baptism goes with repentance, and repentance is a decisive word. On the day of Pentecost, Peter told his hearers to “Repent and be baptized.” To repent is to change from the inside; to change one’s mind and, as a result, one’s actions. Baptism is the announcement that we have repented.

Baptism is the demonstration that we have made the once-for-all choice to follow Christ. In the early days of the church, if a man became a Christian, he might be excommunicated from the synagogue, refused entry into the temple, and ostracized by his family. It was a costly decision to make. But when he made it, he sealed his decision by being baptized.

Paul alludes to this kind of decisiveness in Romans 6:1. “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? May it never be!” Shall we remain in sin? Shall we stay where we are, satisfied with a life we know is sinful? Or shall we go on? Those who are baptized have made their choice. They will not stay where they are. They will move forward with Christ.

The Australian coat of arms pictures two animals: the kangaroo – nature’s pogo stick with a pouch – and the graceless, flightless emu. Not a lion or a tiger. Not an eagle or a falcon. Why did Australia choose such animals? They are, of course, Australian animals, but there is more to it than that. Australians identify with these two animals because they share a common characteristic: Both the emu and the kangaroo can only move forward, not back. The emu’s three-toed foot causes it to fall if it tries to go backwards, and the kangaroo is prevented from moving backwards by its large tail.

People who are baptized have chosen the emu and the kangaroo for their coat of arms. They are going forward with Christ. They have made their decision, and by the grace of God there will be no turning back.

A young couple was married at the church of Sts. Peter and Paul in San Francisco. When the bride was asked, “Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband,” she replied, “I don’t know.” People who are baptized do know. They are like the widow who had been seeing a widower regularly before he returned to his own city. (This was many decades ago.) After he left, he sent her a letter, requesting her hand in marriage, and asking her to communicate her answer by telegram. She went to the telegraph office and asked how much a telegram would cost. She was told so many spaces for so much money. She used every space she could afford. Here is what she sent. “Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.”

That is what the person being baptized has said to God. “A dozen times, yes.” And a dozen times “no” to a life without Christ. The word the church has used to describe baptism is “sacrament,” which comes from the Latin, “sacramentum,” the pledge a Roman soldier took to be obedient to death. Baptism is a decisive act.

Baptism is also a dramatic act. By that I mean that baptism dramatizes outwardly and visibly what God has done for us inwardly and invisibly. This is one reason for baptizing by immersion. (There are other ways to baptize – sprinkling and pouring – and I have no argument with those who practice them.) The Greek word “baptizo” was used of people being drowned and of ships sinking; it meant to plunge, sink, drench, or overwhelm. Immersing people in baptism dramatically portrays what God has done for them through Christ.

Faith unites a person to Jesus Christ. This is clear in Romans 6, where the “with him” phrases (in English) are emphasized. We were “buried with him” (v. 4); “united with him” (twice in v. 5); “crucified with him” (v. 6); and we “died with him” (v. 8)

But Romans 6 is hardly the only place where we see our union with Christ stressed. There is Galatians 2:20, where Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20). And so: “We died with him” (2 Tim. 2:11); were “buried with him” (Romans 6:4 and Colossians 2:12); “made alive with him” (Colossians 2:13 and Ephesians 2:5); and “raised with him” (Ephesians 2:6). When we believe in Jesus Christ, we are united to Christ. And though we are never said to share in his birth or baptism, we do take part in his suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and some day, his reign.

This is how the picture works: when the baptismal candidate goes under the water, it is a picture of their death. The man or woman they were has died and was buried. In bringing them up out of the water, we dramatically represent their resurrection. They have been raised to new life—a life united to Jesus Christ, now and forever.

Etched into the black granite of the Viet Nam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington, visitors see the names of 58,156 American military personnel killed in the war. For many people, the sight is overwhelming. Some walk slowly and reverently down its length without pause. Others stop before certain names, remember their buddies or sweethearts, dads or sons, and wipe away the tears.

But for three vets – Robert Bedker, Willard Craig, and Darrall Lausch –visiting the memorial must be surrealistic, for their names are carved into the stone. Because of data-coding errors, each of them was incorrectly listed as killed in action. They are listed among the dead, yet they are alive. In baptism, the believer is listed as dead, and yet is alive to God through Jesus Christ.

Baptism is also declarative. The Ethiopian eunuch was baptized without many witnesses, but that was because there were not many people around; he was not trying to keep his commitment to Jesus secret. Those who choose to be baptized are doing just the opposite: they are taking their stand with Jesus. They are declaring to anyone and everyone, “I am on his side.”

Because baptism is declarative, whenever I baptize people, I encourage them to invite their friends and family to witness their baptism. These people are planting their flag, not in the sand, but in the water. They are telling their friends that Jesus is worthy of their time, their energy, and their lives. And, just maybe, they are awakening in their friends’ hearts the desire that has awakened in theirs: the desire to be with, and be like, Jesus.