Likely because our oldest daughter is turning eight next month, I was recently thinking about baptism ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù specifically regarding baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the things I was pondering is the purpose of baptism. I think its purpose is multi-faceted, and here are a few of the reasons I came up with why people are to be baptised (cultural reasons not included):
- It’s a commandment
- To follow Jesus’s example
- As a sign of our covenant to mourn with and comfort others
- As a sign of willingness to keep the commandments and remember Jesus
- Because we want to be children of Christ
- As a symbol of starting a new life
- To live in heaven
Can you think of others?
What about:
Making it possible to receive other ordinances and their blessings
I like that list- that’s mostly what I thought of too. It’s been on my mind as well, since we just baptized our oldest last month!
Well in the bible dictionary under Baptism, it states that Jesus Christ was baptised himself to “fulfil all righteousness”.
It also goes on to say baptism is for the sanctification of sins, when followed by the reception of the Holy Ghost.
Jesus was baptised and set the example for us – to me, the most important part of baptism is the representation it has to our Saviour – it is what he commanded us to do, as you rightly said, and it is that first major step in which we can become closer to our Saviour and work for our Celestialisation.