Baptism

Art Katz used to say that when a Jewish believer told his parents he was going to become a Christian they said, "That’s nice." When they said they were going to be immersed, baptized, the parents of a Jewish young person would go nuts and disown the child. "You are dead to me." Art was a Jew and therefore knew what he was talking about. Art said that he believed there was something supernatural about baptism. Not that it was some water sacrament to save a soul, but it was far more than just an "outward sign of an inward change." Perhaps we would say instead of "outward sign"—a signature on the contract of abandonment to Jesus, "though none go with me still I will follow.“