Baptism, Our first covenant

Faith in Jesus Christ and repentance both prepare us for baptism and confirmation. Baptism is a covenant. God has always required His children to make covenants. A covenant is a binding and solemn agreement between God and man. God promises to bless us and we promise to obey Him. Keeping covenants brings blessings in this life and exaltation in the life to come.

Jesus taught that we must be baptized by immersion for the remission, or forgiveness, of our sins. It is an essential ordinance of salvation. No person can enter into the kingdom of God without being baptized. Christ set the example for us by being baptized himself by John the Baptist. Baptism is a symbol of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Savior. In a similar way it represents the end of our old life of sin and a commitment to live a new life as a disciple of Christ. When we are baptized we begin the process of being born again.