Baptism -- Termination and Germination

Baptism -- Termination and Germination

Matt 3:6 And they were baptized by [John] in the Jordan River
as they confessed their sins.
Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been
baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
(5) 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.

Matthew 3:5 and 6 reveal that many were baptized by [John] in
the Jordan River, confessing their sins. To baptize people is
to immerse them, to bury them in water, signifying death. John
the Baptist did this to indicate that anyone who repents is
good for nothing but burial. This also signifies the
termination of the old person, that a new beginning may be
realized in resurrection, to be brought in by Christ as the
life-giver. Hence, following John's ministry, Christ came.
John's baptism not only terminated those who repented, but
also ushered them to Christ for life. Baptism in the Bible
implies death and resurrection. To be baptized into the water
is to be put into death and buried. To be raised up from the
water means to be resurrected from death.

Whenever anyone repented in the presence of John the Baptist,
John put him into the water....By baptizing the repentant
ones, John indicated that they and all their past had to be
terminated and buried. Burial, however, was not the end,
because burial always brings in resurrection. Thus, on the one
hand, burial is termination, but on the other hand, it is also
germination. Those whom John terminated in baptism were to be
resurrected, not in him, but in the One who was to come after
him.