Why does a person get baptized

All you have to do is declare your faith and lean back. A second reason why you should get baptized is to publicly profess your faith in Jesus. For example, when those who heard Peter preach on Pentecost were convicted of their sin, they asked him what to do, and he urged them to repent and be baptized Acts — Receiving the word and being baptized went hand in hand.

All those who embraced the gospel were baptized, and only those who embraced the gospel were baptized. Baptism was how those at Pentecost publicly proclaimed their embrace of Christ, the crucified and resurrected Messiah. And baptism is how you can and should openly declare that you trust in Christ. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Note how baptism and faith go hand in hand. Addressing a congregation of baptized Christians, Paul says that they were buried and raised with Christ in baptism.

He even uses baptism as a shorthand to refer to the whole event of their conversion. He does this because baptism is a visible, tangible, public, dramatic expression of faith in Christ. You get soaked, and everyone present sees you disappear under the water and reappear up out of the water.

Paul assumes that faith was present at the time of baptism, because faith was the reason for baptism. Faith in the resurrection power of God is why those Christians presented themselves for baptism.

And publicly expressing that same faith is why you should be baptized too. Why is it a good thing to publicly declare your faith in Christ? In addition, declaring your faith in Christ is good for your faith. Declaring your faith will deepen your faith. Confessing your faith will confirm your faith. Sharing your faith will strengthen your faith. Not only that, but baptism shows us the shape of the whole Christian life.

Instead, openly declaring your faith in Christ should be part of the regular fabric of your life from now on. Further, Jesus himself warns that faith that stays a secret is no faith at all. We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Baptism is our opportunity to die symbolically to self and be resurrected as a loving and compassionate follower of Jesus. Just as a graduation, marriage, or the New Year allows us to reset and start afresh, baptism gives us the opportunity to throw off the old self and put on the new.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are forgiven for our sins through repentance, and this cleansing is best illustrated through the symbolism of baptism. The picture in baptism is that our sins and our old life are left in the water, and we come out new, cleansed, and completely renewed in the identification with Christ in His glorious resurrection.

What a refreshing step of obedient faith for us, and what a witness to others! Jesus asks us to come to him so he can take away our burdens. Repentance is our acceptance of this offer, and baptism is our celebration. It marks your commitment to living that new life united to Him and his Body—the Church—here on earth. Baptism is our moment to mark the beginning of an entirely new life. Baptism means you believe Jesus died for your sins and, literally, physically came back to life.

Baptism declares that grace has made you new and put you in right-standing with God: condemnation, shame, and guilt are completely washed away. Baptism is a promise to continually turn away from sin something called repentance, Eph. Baptism unites you to all believers as one global, invisible body of Christ the Church across all times and geographies 1 Cor. That means you need to tangibly connect to one, be known there, and engage.

Jesus Himself commanded us to baptize all new disciples. For some of us, the question about whether or not to get baptized has an extra layer of complexity because we were baptized as a baby or child.

No matter how simple the understanding! If you did that at age five and got baptized, then there is no need to be re-baptized. Or do you reject it as I began to do? If you receive it as the expression of authentic faith, then there is likely no reason to be re-baptized. But if you reject it, then you should consider the questions here and pray about whether you are ready now.

The first thing to do is to pray! The Holy Spirit will compel us towards baptism. I should get baptized again. And do a gut-check on things that tend to make a big difference in the thriving life of a disciple:. Father, I know you are at work in the lives of all of your children. Please make the right opportunity for baptism clear to whoever is reading this article.

Christ commanded his disciples to preach the Gospel, draw people to faith in him, and baptize those who come to conversion. The Church does not neglect the mission she has received from Christ to ensure that all be baptized and reborn of water and the Spirit. By Baptism all sins are forgiven, Original Sin and all personal sins, and temporal punishment due to sin is removed. However, though all sins are removed, there remains, as an effect of Original Sin, the inclination to sin that is called concupiscence.

The effects of Original Sin need not harm us so long as we seek strength to resist them through the Sacrament of Penance, the Sacrament of the Eucharist, prayer, a deepening spirituality, growth in virtue, and a wholehearted dependence on God. Baptism also gives us new life as adopted children of God.

We become sharers of divine life and temples of the Holy Spirit.