There are many people in the South who get baptized but never repent. Maybe someone convinced you that you could accept Jesus as Savior without surrendering to him as Lord—like he was a salad bar, where you can take the parts you want and leave the ones you don’t. But all throughout Scripture, we see that to be baptized is to repent. Baptism symbolizes us walking out of the wilderness of our sin and into the new life of faith and obedience. If your life did not radically change when you got baptized, then it was not a baptism of repentance. You just got wet in front of a bunch of people.

We submerge people in baptism for two reasons.

First, that’s how it was done in the Bible. John the Baptist didn’t stand on the shore sprinkling water; he brought people into the river and immersed them. The Greek word baptizo literally means to plunge, soak, or dip. English translators didn’t render it directly but simply carried the word over as “baptize.” In Greek, it wasn’t even a religious word—it was used for drowning, sinking ships, or even recipes like one from physician Nicander, who wrote: “bapto (dip quickly) the cucumber in water, then baptizo (immerse and soak) it in vinegar.”

Second, immersion shows what baptism symbolizes. You don’t bury people by sprinkling dirt on them; you put them in the ground. Baptism pictures being buried with Jesus “into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

First, baptism is not a requirement for salvation. Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you’ll be with me in glory”—no baptism needed. Romans 10:9–10 makes it clear: salvation comes by confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart. That’s it.

Baptism is like a wedding ring. A ring doesn’t make you married; it shows the covenant you already have. In the same way, baptism shows your conversion—it doesn’t cause it.

This is why we baptize only after someone becomes a believer. If baptism happens before conversion (like in infancy), it reflects a parent’s faith, not the individual’s. Baptism is the evidence of repentance.

Martin Luther said when the devil came to dispute with him, he drove him away by declaring, “Satan, I am baptized. I have left your wilderness. You have no more jurisdiction.” (His other method involved mockery, which we’ll skip—baptism is far more pleasant!)

Baptism is not “just a ritual.” When Jesus was baptized, he heard the Father’s affirmation and was filled with the Spirit before facing Satan in the wilderness. That affirmation became the core of his resistance: “The Father has declared his love over me, and that gives me strength to withstand Satan.”

In the same way, baptism is your declaration that you’ve left the wilderness of sin and entered God’s kingdom. It’s a flag in the ground announcing that Satan has no more jurisdiction.