Paul asks: 'Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?' Baptism isn't a symbol only. It's a participation. You're dying with Christ.
I was baptized at thirteen because I'd 'made a decision for Christ' at youth camp. I went under the water and came up wet. That was it. Nobody explained that I was supposed to be dying. Dying to myself, dying to the old me, participating in Christ's death. I thought baptism was about addition—adding Jesus to my life. It's actually about subtraction—putting to death the old life.
Twenty years later, I finally understood. I had to actually die. My plans, my control, my preferred future—all had to go under water and not come back up. That's what baptism meant. I couldn't just add Jesus while keeping everything else intact. So I died. The person I was—ambitious, self-focused, arrogant—I let that person die. And someone different came up out of the water. Not because I performed a ceremony, but because I understood what the ceremony meant. I participated in Christ's death so I could participate in his resurrection.
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