What is the meaning of baptism?

Baptism symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. God’s great redemptive event of all history – the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ – is pictured and reenacted in the water baptism of every believer. Secondly, baptism symbolizes the present death, burial, and resurrection of the believer. Through baptism, the believer shows that he has died to sin, that his old life has been buried with Christ, and that he has been raised to walk in the newness of life.