Baptism is water but ore than
water. It is not a “regular” dip in water. We may experience God in the shower,
through a long hot bath, or by a swim in the ocean. Old creation is still good
and still mediates God’s presence. But baptism is more.
Baptism is the experience of new
creation. The water of the old creation becomes a means by which we experience the
new. It is still water—created materiality is not annihilated—but it is also a
participation in the reality of the new creation through our union with Christ.
Through baptism we participate in the death and resurrection of Jesus. We rise
from the watery grave to live as new creatures. Baptism is a new creation bath
that does not annihilate materiality or creation. Rather, it ushers us, by the
Spirit, into the heavenlies where we are seated with Christ at the right hand
of God (Eph. 2:6). In baptism, we experience our resurrection as if it has
already happened. Death has no claim upon us because we have been baptized. We
are new creatures in Christ. (John Mark Hicks, Enter the Water Come to the
Table: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper in Scripture’s Story of New Creation [Abilene,
Tex.: Abilene Christian University, 2014], 105-6)