Saturday Read: Baptism and the Death of the Old Self

This Sunday, many churches observe the Baptism of the Lord, commemorating Jesus's baptism in the Jordan River by John. But why did Jesus need baptism? John's baptism was for repentance, and Jesus had no sin to repent of. When John protested, Jesus insisted: "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15). Jesus wasn't identifying with sin - he was identifying with sinners, stepping into the muddy water where broken humanity stood, prefiguring his descent into death on our behalf.

Paul later explained Christian baptism as participation in Jesus's death and resurrection: "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life" (Romans 6:4). Baptism isn't just a symbolic ritual - it's a drowning. The old self goes under and doesn't come back up. What emerges is new creation.

This is radically different from self-improvement, which tries to fix the old self. Baptism declares the old self unfixable and drowns it. You don't baptize something you're planning to rehabilitate - you bury it. The addict doesn't need improvement; he needs death and resurrection. The religious performer doesn't need better technique; she needs to drown her striving and rise into grace. The broken person doesn't need repairs; they need new creation.

In the early church, baptism candidates often stripped naked before entering the water, symbolizing the removal of the old identity. They went under completely - full immersion, not sprinkling - representing total death. When they emerged on the other side, they were clothed in white robes, signifying new identity in Christ. The symbolism wasn't subtle: this is death, this is burial, this is resurrection as someone new.

Peter connected baptism to the flood in Noah's day, when the old world drowned and a new world emerged (1 Peter 3:20-21). Water that destroys is also water that saves. The same baptism that drowns the old self births the new one. This is why trying to improve yourself while clinging to old identity doesn't work - you can't refurbish what God wants to replace.

Many Christians live as if they were never baptized, constantly trying to fix an old self that's supposed to be dead. They make New Year's resolutions to improve behaviors while ignoring that baptism declared those behaviors products of an identity that drowned. The answer isn't behavior modification - it's identity transformation. Not trying to make the old self act better, but living from the new self Christ created.

This doesn't mean you don't struggle with sin or that sanctification is instant. It means the struggle happens from a new position - not trying to become worthy but learning to live from worthiness already given. Not earning new identity through improvement but discovering who you already are in Christ. Your baptism - whether physical or spiritual - marked you as dead to the old and alive to the new. Stop trying to resurrect what God drowned.