What is baptism?
Baptism signifies entrance into the household of faith and is a symbol of repentance and inner cleansing from sin, a representation of the new birth in Christ Jesus, and a mark of Christian discipleship.
Catechism for the Global Methodist Church, question 34
37Now when they heard, they were pierced in the heart, and said to Peter and the remaining apostles, 'What shall we do, men, brothers?' 38And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' 39For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call.
1What then shall we say? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2Certainly not. How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with the likeness of his death, we shall also be united with the likeness of his resurrection.
12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so also is the Christ. 13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
27For as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
11In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, by the removal of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. 12Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. 13And although you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. 14Having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees that was against us and hostile to us, he has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.
19Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, 20by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, 21and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Having confessed one baptism, the catechism asks what baptism is. The answer is the second paragraph of Article VI of the Confession of Faith, quoted almost exactly: baptism "signifies entrance into the household of faith, and is a symbol of repentance and inner cleansing from sin, a representation of the new birth in Christ Jesus and a mark of Christian discipleship." The same article states the general doctrine that sacraments are "symbols and pledges of the Christian's profession and of God's love toward us" and "means of grace by which God works invisibly in us."
Entrance into the household of faith is what happened on the day of Pentecost. Peter told the crowd, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," and he added, "the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off" (Acts 2:38-39). Paul writes that "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free" (1 Corinthians 12:13), and "as many as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27).
A symbol of repentance and inner cleansing echoes Hebrews, where believers draw near "with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (Hebrews 10:22). A representation of the new birth is Paul's teaching in Romans: "we were buried with him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Colossians says the same, calling baptism a circumcision "not made with hands," in which "you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God" (Colossians 2:11-12). A mark of Christian discipleship follows from all of this: the baptized person now belongs to Christ and walks accordingly.
Article VI of the Confession of Faith goes on to say that children "are under the atonement of Christ" and are acceptable subjects for baptism, and that children of believing parents become the special responsibility of the church, to be nurtured and led to confirm their baptism by profession of faith. On that basis the church baptizes infants and holds confirmation classes, and a Methodist can treat the date of his baptism as the day God marked him for the new birth Wesley preached.