Baptism is a burial, and a rising from the grave.
Neither sprinkling nor pouring is a burial. A person cannot rise up out of sprinkling or pouring water. Neither pictures the symbolic meaning of baptism, therefore they can have no meaning or significance.
When a person is plunged into the water, he is in a watery grave. He would not live but a few minutes unless brought up out of the water—unless he rises from this watery grave. Therefore a person immersed in water is in a literal grave.
This is the amazing symbolism—the true meaning of baptism. It pictures, in symbol, the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
This symbolism is a dual picture, as all things in God's plan are dual in operation. It pictures the crucifixion of the old self, or of the sinning life, the burial of this sinning self, and the coming up out of this watery grave, symbolic of a changed person resurrected to a new, righteous, spiritual life in Christ Jesus.
Baptism also symbolizes purification which prepares a person for the receipt of the Holy Spirit.
These 5 verses are packed full of symbolism. Baptism pictures:
Going down into the water—burial in the water pictures the death of Christ, and of the old self. Coming up out of the water pictures Christ's resurrection, and a spiritually resurrected person walking from that day on "in newness of life."
Water baptism is the ordinance ordained of Christ by which we express our faith in Christ as Savior—our acceptance of His death, burial, and resurrection for us, and our repentance of the old life and burial of it, rising to new and higher life from that day on. It is a wonderful ordinance, full of meaning.
