Water, in its cleansing properties, holds profound symbolic meaning in the context of baptism. The Old Testament provides examples that prefigure this act, such as Noah and the flood, where eight souls were saved through water, illustrating a type of baptism. Similarly, the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea represents a form of immersion, as they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, leaving behind their old lives in Egypt through what would have been a watery grave for others. This event pictures the death of a former way of life and the emergence into a new one by God's grace. In the New Testament, baptism by water continues this symbolism of purification and transformation. It is an ordinance that expresses faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. When a person is immersed in water, it represents a burial into a watery grave, symbolizing the crucifixion of the old self and the burial of a sinning life. Rising from the water mirrors Christ's resurrection, signifying a new, righteous, spiritual life. This act of immersion, requiring much water as seen in John's baptizing at Aenon near Salim, is distinct from sprinkling or pouring, which do not convey the same symbolic burial and rising. Baptism also symbolizes purification, preparing a person for the receipt of the Holy Spirit. It pictures being baptized into Christ Jesus' death, being buried with Him, and being raised to walk in newness of life. Through this ordinance, the old man is crucified, and the body of sin is done away with, freeing one from the slavery of sin. Thus, water in baptism serves as a powerful emblem of cleansing, renewal, and the beginning of a transformed existence in alignment with God's will.

Water serves as a means of cleansing in various instances. God instructed the Levitical priests to use water in many purification rituals, for instance in the cleansing of a leper. For Christians baptism by full immersion in water is a public expression of repentance of sins and the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior. Coming up out of the watery grave a new Christian forgiven of sin is clean and ready to receive God's Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. On the last day of Unleavened Bread God symbolically baptized the children of Israel as they went down into the Red Sea during the night and stepped out of their watery grave the next morning. As they looked behind them in the dawn hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and horses lay dead along the shore and many others floated in the waves. The Egyptians would never again be able to afflict them in any way as God had washed away and destroyed what had enslaved them. They were clean and free. The apostle Peter mentions Noah and his family being saved through water and Christian baptism being its antitype. In the Flood story is an example of baptism by water when the world of that time was cleansed of sin by the destruction of all humanity but for eight people. The entire earth was plunged into a watery grave and only Noah's family rose out of it to new life. Genesis 1:2 informs us that the earth was covered in water and on the third day God gathered the waters into seas to let the dry land appear. Earth rose out of the water cleansed and prepared for new life. From these examples He seems to begin every instance of new life new creation with a baptism a cleansing in water for the remission of sins making baptism an essential and vital early step in God's creative work with humanity.