Baptism

We display our alma mater with bumper stickers, wear shirts embroidered with the name of our employer, get tattoos of our favorite sports team’s logo… We have lots of ways to identify ourselves with larger groups of people. That’s essentially what baptism meant for people in Jesus’ day. Even though it’s a holdover from a different culture, the church throughout history has considered water baptism as one of two ordinances of the church—the other being communion.
Baptism today is publicly identifying with the person and teaching of Jesus Christ and a welcoming into the local expression of the body of Christ (the church). Jesus himself even signed up to be baptized (Mark 1:9), which is all the more reason to follow his lead.