Through water baptism, you identify with Christ's death and resurrection. When Jesus died on the cross, He took your old sinful nature with Him and put it to death. It is a vivid portrayal showing that when Christ died, you died with Him, and that when He arose, you arose with Him. But it is through death that you make your exit out of Adam s fallen race and the sin nature that once controlled you. In baptism, you are ending your history as a child of fallen Adam.
Baptism has two sides it is both a release as well as an entry.
On the one side, we are baptized into Christ s death . This means that we have died with Christ to the old man, the old nature, and the old creation. Therefore, when we go down under the water, we testify to the fact that the old person we used to be and the old world we used to serve are buried in the water. On the other side, we are baptized into Jesus Christ . Here we have become a new person, with a new nature, born into a new kingdom.