Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
What makes baptism so essential for my salvation? To be able to answer such questions, we always have to go back to Adam and Eve and see what happened there. So, God created Adam and Eve and there was love, there was communion between them and God. And God told Adam: If you eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die. 1 But in Genesis 3, the devil comes and says to Eve: If you eat of it, you will not surely die. 2
The problem is when Adam and Eve chose to eat, they chose something outside of God, something opposite to God. And that's a big problem, because they chose to separate themselves from God. And God is the source of life. So, if I choose to separate myself from the source of life, I will naturally die. That's why, in Romans 6:23, it says:
''For the wages of sin is death...'' (Romans 6:23)
Why is the consequence of sin death? Because sin is separation from God. If I separate myself from the source of life, I will die. Now, that's what happened... Adam and Eve. We, in consequence, inherited that corruption in the human nature from Adam and Eve. But the Holy Trinity did not will to leave it this way.
So again, Adam and Eve’s nature is now corrupt and since we're all sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we have inherited that corrupted nature. And because I inherit their corrupted nature, I tend to sin and if I sin, I tend to be separated from God, and therefore, I will die. But the Logos, the Son of God, came down, was incarnate and became man. And He was fully God, fully human.
He died on the cross in the flesh. But when He died on the cross, because He is of one essence with the Father, this Logos, this Christ is life. And life here swallowed up death. Death could not contain life. So, Christ was naturally raised from the dead. So, that body that Christ has is alive, is raised from the dead. For me, to be alive, I need to be part of that body. If I'm outside of the body, I will be dead. I need to be in that body. So, how did Christ manage to have us in that body?
1 Adapted from Genesis 2:17 2 Adapted from Genesis 3:4
In the Old Testament, God gave Abraham a beautiful sign. He told him: When a child is eight days old, you need to take him and circumcise him. 3 When you circumcise him, that child becomes part of God’s people. He becomes part of the Jewish assembly. Saint Paul understood that very clearly and he understood that it was just a shadow for something else to come in the New Testament. And that's why in Colossians 2, he says the following... verse 11:
'' 11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,...'' (Colossians 2:11)
So, he's saying that there's a circumcision in Christ, a circumcision of Christ, by Christ. That circumcision is made without hands. It's a different type of circumcision: not the one of the Old Testament, but a new one. And he continues, saying:
12 ...buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him...'' (Colossians 2:12)
What is this new circumcision? It's baptism. When I'm baptized, I am buried with Christ truly and I'm raised with Christ again. So, when I'm baptized in this way, I become circumcised, meaning I become part of the assembly of God, God's people. I become part of the body. So, as in the Old Testament, that old circumcision meant you are part of God’s people, in the New Testament, it means the same thing, but in a different way. It means that you are part of the true body of Christ. That body that was raised up, you have become part of this body.
And that’s why, in the verses 19 and 20 of Colossians 2 as well, St. Paul continues and says that we are tied to the head. So, the Church is the body of Christ and Christ is the head Himself. And we are tied to that body. And he says that we have died with Christ. So, he confirms, in that chapter, the true understanding of baptism. And in Romans 12, verses 4 and 5, Ephesians 5, verse 30, he confirms that we are true members, literally, of the bones and flesh of Christ Himself. We are members of His body.
Finally, St. Basil, in the liturgy of the faithful, in the άγιος (áyios) part 4 , he says the following:
''Was incarnate [so, Christ was incarnate] and became man, and taught us the ways of salvation. [So, which ways, Christ, have you taught us?] He granted us the birth from on high through water and Spirit [What is this birth from on high? We go look in John 3:3, John 3:5. We understand this is the new birth by water and Spirit: baptism. Then he continues and says:] He made us unto Himself an assembled people, and sanctified us by Your
3 Adapted from Genesis 17:12 4 The portion of the liturgy where they say άγιος (áyios), which is the Greek word for holy.
Holy Spirit.'' [So, we became an assembled people, that body of Christ, through baptism.] (Liturgy of St. Basil)
So, now that I have been baptized, I still have free will. I can still choose to sin, to separate myself from God. And therefore, although I was baptized and part of the body of Christ, if I willingly, wilfully sin, I will remain outside. If there's no repentance, if there's no confession, and if there's no Eucharist being in communion back with God, uniting with Him through His body and blood, I will remain outside.
But if I do all these things, I remain inside the body. So, remaining in the body's a long life process. And once it is done at the end of our lives, then we are raised with Him in Christ. So, why is baptism so essential? Because it is the beginning of this journey of being part of the body of Christ, as well as many other qualities that we will see in future videos.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever. Amen.