Baptism is a Sacrament in which the believer, when the body is immersed three times in water, with the invocation of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, dies for a carnal, sinful life and is reborn from the Holy Spirit into a spiritual, holy life. According to Jesus Christ, baptism is a necessary condition for being born again to enter the Kingdom of God (John 3: 3-5).

Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, the Lord said, he cannot enter the kingdom of God (John III, 5). Water baptism was started by the Forerunner of Christ, John. He baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in the one who is coming through him, ie in Christ Jesus (Acts XIX, 4). Then Jesus Christ, by His example, sanctified baptism by receiving it from John. Finally, after His Resurrection, He gave the apostles a solemn command: Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Repentance and faith are required of those who wish to be baptized, which is why the Creed is read before baptism. Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts II, 38). He who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mark XVI, 16).

At baptism the following rites are performed: 1) Before the baptism itself, there is a threefold denial of the devil, who by the power and name of Jesus Christ is driven away from the baptized. 2) The water for baptism is consecrated partly by prayers and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, and partly by the sign of the cross, which is depicted three times in it with consecrated oil. 3) The baptized person is immersed in water three times in the name of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. 4) He wears white clothes, which means purity of soul and purity of the Christian life. 5) A cross is placed on him to forever remind him of the commandment of Christ: if anyone wants to follow Me, reject yourself and take up your cross and follow me (Matthew XVI, 24). 6) The baptized and the recipients with lit candles go around the baptismal font three times, which means a victorious procession, spiritual joy and spiritual enlightenment. 7) The baptized person’s hair is cut, which, as can be seen from the prayer read in this action, is done according to the word of the Apostle Paul, who commanded us to do all things for the glory of God. Those who sin after baptism should be thought to be more guilty of their sins than the unbaptized of theirs, because they had a special help from God for good, and rejected it. If, having escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, says the holy apostle Peter, they become entangled in them again, and are overcome by them; the latter is worse for the former (II Petr. II, 20). Thus, in the sacrament of baptism, several rites are used, each of which has a symbolic spiritual meaning: the baptized person’s appeal to the west (symbol of darkness) to renounce Satan, who is spiritual darkness; anointing the baby with oil before immersion in water (font) for invincibility in the fight against Satan; immersion in water, in which the Holy Spirit secretly descends on the baptized, bestows the seed of Life (the parable of the Sower) and cleanses from sins; Laying the cross on the chest means that the baptized person wants to constantly remember the cross, the symbol of salvation, and to bear it patiently (and with joy) all his life: wearing white clothes indicates that the baptized person has been cleansed of sins and should lead a clean life. In addition, white is a manifestation of the joy of betrothal to Christ (the Holy Fathers teach that the soul of every person is called to become the bride of God); walking around the font is a symbol of eternity; haircut is the surrender of the newly baptized to the will of God.

The sacrament of Baptism is performed on a person once in a lifetime, it introduces him into the bosom of the Christian Church and opens the door to a new life in which the divine laws, not the secular ones, operate. The choice of faith, the adoption of Orthodoxy – a serious and responsible decision.