“I sometimes wonder if only a minority of Christians give much thought to the ongoing significance of their baptism.
Baptism is essentially a naming ceremony…We are baptized into the Name! Again we should insist that we are not changed within by baptism. But at the same time baptism summons us to live the whole of our lives in relation to the Name that has been written on us in water.
Baptism is, of course, a washing ritual. But more fundamentally the New Testament relates baptism to the idea that the Christian is united to Jesus Christ, or is ‘in Christ.’
To be ‘in Christ’ means that through the work of the Holy Spirit we have come to believe not only ‘on’ Christ but ‘into’ Christ. The result is a vital union with him in which everything he has done for us is shared with us. All the resources that are in Christ become ours.”
Sinclair B. Ferguson, Devoted to God’s Church: Core Values for Christian Fellowship, 101; 105-106.