The New Testament appears always to make baptism an expression of the faith of the one baptized. While God and the Church act in baptism the candidate also acts in response. As we understand the New Testament faith and baptism are coincident in time in the experience of the one responding to Christ. On this ground Churches of Christ find difficulty in making baptism a process over a period of time by performing a ritual act in infancy and encouraging a response of faith in confirmation at a later time. This historical development seems to us to go beyond the principle and practice of baptism as given in the New Testament 5.
Baptism is a death, burial and resurrection.
This is the inner reality of baptism. A ritual act without this is not baptism. The inner experience and the ritual act belong to the wholeness of baptism. Baptism is incorporation into Christ and His body. By baptism we put on Christ and are baptized into His body, the Church.