The Baptism

“In the same instant you died and were born again; the saving water was both your tomb and your mother.” St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogical Catecheses

The form of Baptism is in the Likeness of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. This is why the Orthodox Church practices full immersion. Death is both a spiritual as well as a biological reality. Death is our separation from life, separation from God, who is the giver of life, who is Himself life. But for the Christian, death has been destroyed. “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death.” By this we mean that we are no longer separated from God. Adam died because he desired life for himself in himself. He chose his own life over God’s life. This is the true content of sin and the root of spiritual death. This is the sting of death, turning away and separation from God. There is no death in Christ’s death because His whole life is in God and in God’s love. His death became the ultimate fulfillment of love and obedience. Therefore death is not only destroyed but transformed. It is filled with God’s love and life. Christ turns death into bright sadness, a joyful passage, into true life in full communion with God. Therefore each grave is filled with life. Faith in Christ means following Him to His Cross and death, which leads to life. This is a Christ-like death, a Christian death, one that requires death to self and resurrection with Christ. The entire content of our faith is reflected in the form of Baptism.

“We have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Rom. 6:4.