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“As many [of us] as have been baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto His death” (Romans 6:3 JND).
When people got saved in the New Testament after hearing the gospel, one of the first things that was brought before them was the importance of being baptized. We must realize, of course, that baptism has nothing to do with our eternal salvation before God, for it is only the blood of Christ that can wash our sins away. Rather, baptism consists of going under the water and coming up again, and speaks of our turning our back on what we were before we were saved. We recognize that our old sinful self has nothing good in it toward God. But then, when we come out of the water, we recognize that we have a new life in Christ — a life that wants to please the Lord. We identify with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, for He went into death and shed His blood for us, not merely to wash away our sins by His blood, but to deliver us from the power of sin in our Christian lives. Now that we are saved, we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit. God wants to see our new life in Christ acting in our daily life and doing things that please Him. Now we can consider ourselves to be “dead indeed unto sin,” but “alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:11).
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