The word “baptism” is from the Greek word “baptizo.” It never means to sprinkle or pour. It does mean:

• To dip under
• To immerse
• To place into
• To submerge
• To cover completely with liquid
• To make fully wet
• To bury into
• To sink
• To plunge beneath

When we are water baptized, we are testifying publicly:

• To the church (that we are part of it).
• To the world (that we are finished with it).
• To the devil (that we are finished with him and we have changed to God’s side).

Water baptism is a public testimony that we are new creatures in Christ, that we are dead to the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that we have found new direction in life, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BAPTIZED

Water Baptism is a burial and a resurrection. We are buried with Christ in the likeness of His death and we are raised with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:23, Colossians 2: 12, Galatians 3:27). It shows forth three things:

1. It portrays or pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
2. It portrays or pictures our death to sin and our resurrection to a new life in Christ.
3. It proclaims our faith. Our faith is that if we die and are buried. We shall be raised from  the dead by the power of the Lord.    

Baptism is the first of the two church ordinances. It is the doorway into the church. We are all baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. The body is His church. Water baptism portrays that work of the Spirit that adds us to the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12: 13).
 
The waters of baptism are the burial ground for our old man, which is our old nature or way of life. That is why we should make plans to be baptized as quickly as possible after conversion.