Why does the Creed mention Baptism?
Baptism, the act by which a person is immersed in water in the name of the Holy Trinity and thereby joined to Christ, is the expression of one’s faith and the means of entrance into the Church.
The Creed itself was adapted from an ancient baptismal confession of faith; and the very word “creed” comes from the Latin credo, “I believe.”
Baptism is specifically mentioned in the Creed not only on account of the Creed’s baptismal use, but because faith must be sealed by Baptism, the first of the Mysteries (Sacraments): “‘What must I do to be saved?’ And they replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house… and he was baptized at once, with all his family” (Act 16:30–33).
Baptism is part and parcel of the confession of faith, as the Apostle teaches: “There is one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all” (Eph 4:4–6; see Q258, Q303).
The Lord himself bears witness that access to the Kingdom, and to “the glorious liberty of the children of God” (see S013), is bound to the new birth of baptism: “to all who received him he gave the ability to become children of God… born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (Joh 1:12–13; see Q139, Q383). The freedom of God’s eternal life cannot be anchored in our “body of death” (Rom 7:24), but in the spiritual Body of Christ: “Amen, amen, I tell you: unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God! What is born of the flesh is flesh; what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Joh 3:3–6).
Baptism is the beginning of our salvation, a journey of grace and faith in which the words of the Apostle are progressively fulfilled: “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2Co 3:17–18; see Q107, Q162).
