Baptism, as a ritual washing signifying cleansing or rebirth and as an initiation ceremony is found in many religions. The Christian rite of baptism had its root from Judaism. Jewish law provided for the use of water in ritual cleansing process. [Ex. 40:12; Lev. 8:6] The Jewish sect Essenes, Qumran community, had baptism as an initiation bath.

The Jews used to proselytize gentiles through baptism. The principal source of the New Testament baptism is from the ministry of John the Baptist. His baptism of repentance was forerunner of a nobler and meaningful Christian baptism. Jesus’ own baptism was the inaugural act of His public mission, and His identification with the sinful. [Matthew 3:16] Although Jesus Himself did not baptize anyone, His disciples baptized people as per the command of their Guru. [John 4:1-3]. After glorification, disciples continued this practice according to the commission given to them by Jesus Christ. [Matthew 28:19] It was a practice of incorporating new members to the Church by giving baptism. [Acts 2:28; 8:15; 19:26] During later period elaborate catechumen teaching and ritual of baptism were continued.

For St. Paul baptism was a unique personal experience, a sacramental act that confers 'being in Christ'. For you were buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from dead. [Colossians: 12] For St. Paul, baptism was a unique all-important event of Christian life. St. Paul's understanding of baptism is very much linked with his sotereological understanding. For him salvation was through the atoning act of Jesus Christ on the cross. So to be part of this salvation one has to participate in His death and resurrection. Baptism is the means to enter into this unique salvific event, according to St. Paul. This is the most important event in the life of any Christian. Salvation is an act of Grace from God. Benefit of this graceful act of God can be appropriated by the faith of the believer, which is his response to divine grace. The gift of God from above and the response to it by faith of the believer brings concrete experience in the life of the believer through baptism. So baptism for St. Paul is something to be remembered. First and foremost baptism dedicates and consecrates a believer to Jesus Christ. It brings a living union with Him. The believer becomes Son of God by this union. [Gal 3:25] The spirit of Jesus unites the believer to Christ. [Gal 4:26] Church is the body of Christ and believers are made members of the Church by baptism. So baptism is personal and communal.

Meaning of Baptism according to St. Paul

1. Baptism is cleansing:
   Baptism is cleansing of a sinful man with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus tells Nicodemus to become ‘Born Again’. The baptismal water and the power of Holy Spirit invoked purges of all the sins and awaken one to a new life; "born again of water and spirit." [John 3:5] The door of the Kingdom of God is opened to baptism. A fellowship with Christ in His crucifixion, death and risen life, cleansing and participation in grace demands complete obedience to God. Faith is the supreme precondition for baptism. Through baptism our sinful life dies and we start living in our Lord Jesus Christ, a life fit for dignity of Royal Priesthood. In First Corinthians 6:11 St. Paul says that you are washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. Through baptism one is cleansed, put right in the sight of God and sanctified so that he should be holy and without blemish. In Eph. 5:26-27 he says that Christ cleansed him by His death and consecrated him. In baptism the believer becomes the property of Jesus by invoking him and by the indwelling Holy Spirit we should bring out desired fruits.

2. Baptism is regeneration and renewal:
   A believer enters into salvation event, i.e. into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through baptism. As Christ died and resurrected, the believer dies and bury the old man on bondage to sin and resurrect as a new person like Christ resurrected with a new body. Here St. Paul gives importance to the effect of baptism. That is newness in life. [Col 2:11) In baptism, the believer puts off the body of sin and put on Christ. A new man is created in Christ in the image of God. This seed of renewal is deposited at the time of baptism. So baptism demands renewal of the soul and conscience. So St. Paul considers baptism as a new covenant. [Gal 3:21-29] The ontological link with Christ should develop in grace to the point that Christ becomes all in all. Holy Spirit brings this transformation. This divine initiation demands a higher moral life. In Roman 6:1 ff, this newness of life is stressed, "Walk in newness of life." Since a believer dies with Christ, sin has no more right over him. He is free from the bondage of sin. The power of the sin is died and believer receives the power to lead a new life. [Rom 6:3-4] In Gal. 6:14-16 St. Paul says that neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation is important. “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature, the old has passed away, behold, the new has come" [2 Cor. 5:16-21] A pure innocent baby is recreated through baptism. Image and likeness of man is created in baptism. "Those who belong to Christ Jesus crucified the flesh with its passions and lust." [Gal. 3:24] God gives the power to lead this renewed life. Victory of Jesus on the cross gives power to the believer. " God who raised Jesus can with him raise also the man, the man, who has been baptized into Christ and give him the power to live a new sort of life." [Col 2:9-13] "So consider yourself also as dead for the power of sin but living to God in Christ Jesus" [Roma 6:11]

3. Baptism is incorporation into Christ:
   Christ has bought the believer with a price from the slavery of Satan, by his blood. As He bought the believer with a heavy price now he belongs to. He has moved from the domain of Satan to the domain of God. [1 Cor. 3:23] Christ redeems the believer and Christ is living in him. St. Paul interprets verses from the Exodus of the Old Testament to make this point clear. "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ” [1 Cor 10:1-4] Moses was leading his people from the slavery of Egypt to Canaan, like that Jesus is leading the New Israel to heavenly Jerusalem, from the slivery of Satan. The Hebrews belonged to Moses who led them from Egypt. And in the same way Christians belong to Christ.

4. Baptism is incorporation into the body of Christ:
   St. Paul, in 1 Cor. 12:27 says that the Christians are Christ’s body and individually members of it. Again in First Corinthians 12:13 we read that all are baptized into one body of Christ irrespective of caste and creed and all were all made to drink of one Spirit. A believer is baptized into the body of Christ and incorporated into it through one spirit. Church is the body of Christ and Christians are incorporated into it through baptism. Thus individually and communally Christians are connected to Christ Jesus and to each other. Thus through baptism and by the action of Holy Spirit different people are made into one body by the single spirit. So St. Paul opposes division in Corinthian Church on the basis of spiritual gifts because they are all become members of one body of Christ through baptism. In baptism the spirit adds new members to the body and builds it up. The spirit is the life principle as well as the principle of unity. This spirit enhances the process of justification and sanctification to its fullness, which the believer received in baptism.

Implications of St. Paul's Baptismal Thoughts:

For St. Paul the ethical obligation of Christian starts from the salvation event of baptism. One has to fashion his life ethically in accordance with what have taken place in baptism. In baptism the believer has died to the power of sin and consequently he cannot ethically live to sin. He has entered into a new divine sphere of life and this must reflect in the believer’s daily life. It is also an act of God's grace too, but the effect of this act of grace passes on out itself to the ethical fulfillment. The Holy Spirit given to the believer in baptism enables him to fulfill this task. It is a victory with the power of God. A quite different law that of the spirit is operative in us on the ground of fellowship of life with Jesus and it no longer drives one into the clutches of sin and death but rather to God. [Rom.8]

According to St. Paul, baptism links the believer to the historical Christ event of crucifixion and resurrection. This historical event is transformed and made present to each believer at the baptism. This is the believer's assurance for his consummation of salvation at Parousia [Second Coming of Jesus Christ]. So baptism is his guarantee of the hope for final glorification. ‘Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ [Romans 6:11] ‘If we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.’ [Romans 6:8] Holy Spirit is the assurance for this glorification. Those who have become alive in Christ is already counted as raised with Him and installed in heaven with Him in Parousia. We have been sealed through the Spirit for the day of redemption. [Ephesians 4:30] So through baptism, a believer is told to live in hope for the day of the Lord. It points to a bodily resurrection at Parousia. The new creation of man which is given with baptism into the fellowship of Christ is in principle is eschatological declaration. [2 Cor. 5:17]

Thus for St. Paul baptism connects a believer to the salvation happened in Christ. This unites him with Christ into the family tree of last Adam the founder of spiritual mankind. In baptism, believer is drawn into Christ event and accompanies his Lord through death to resurrection. Thus he obtains the fruit of the Christ’s death on the cross. At the same time baptized are incorporated into the fellowship of all that belongs to Christ, the Church. This Church for St. Paul is the body of Christ fashioned and built up by Holy Spirit to which new members are joined in baptism. 1 Cor. 12:13,27 this new members strive to a high ethical life which mystically suffer. His suffering and hope for eschatology, a complete glorification in the second coming of the Lord. The dying and rising with Christ must penetrate in the life of a believer to his renewal of the soul and the conscience.

Many of the Christians fail to imbibe adequately the meaning of baptism. It is the responsibility of the Church to teach believers the meaning of baptism and its implications in their personal life for a meaningful Christian life instead of a nominal Christianity.