In the Gospels, John said to the people: I baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming… He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (cf. Luke 3:16). What does it mean that Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire?
Jesus will baptize through the Holy Spirit with a spiritual fire that purifies, justifies, and sanctifies (CCC 1227); it is a baptism which also illumines, transforms and inflames a person’s heart with holy fervor and zeal. In baptism, a person undergoes a spiritual purification from sins (cf. Acts 2:38) and a spiritual rebirth in the Holy Spirit (cf. John 3:5). Through baptism, all sins are forgiven, including original sin and all personal sins which were committed prior to baptism; it also remits all punishment due to sins committed prior to baptism. (CCC 1263)
John was baptizing with a baptism of repentance, so why did Jesus, who is sinless, undergo the baptism of John?
Our Lord Jesus voluntarily submitted Himself to the baptism of John, which was intended for sinners, in order to “fulfill all righteousness” (cf. Matthew 3:15). Here, “all righteousness” means “the will of God,” and therefore with those words, Jesus affirmed that He came to do the Father’s will. Jesus allowed Himself to be numbered among sinners, for He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (cf. John 1:29). Jesus’ submission to John’s baptism manifested His self-emptying and sacrificial love; His first baptism at the Jordan anticipated His second baptism in Jerusalem – the baptism of His suffering and death on the Cross. Can you just imagine what is going thru Jesus mind and heart when He approached John at the Jordan? Perhaps John intuited it as well; that is why he shouted: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
So, I’ve been baptized. Am I saved?
Through Christian baptism, the baptized receive sanctifying grace, which is the grace of justification, which enables them to have the faith to believe in God, the hope to trust in Him, and the love to respond to God’s love; baptism also gives the baptized the power to live under the prompting of the Holy Spirit and allows them to grow in virtue. (CCC 1266)
However, the frailty of human nature and the inclination to sin remains in those who have been baptized; baptized Christians continue to struggle towards holiness and eternal life, to which God never ceases to call us. (CCC 1426)
This endeavor of continuing conversion is not just a human work. It is through grace and the human cooperation to the grace which God gives that is at work. (CCC 1428)
Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for His Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility of conversion and to regain sanctifying grace. (CCC 1446) After the Baptism of the Lord was completed, a voice from heaven was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) The Father was pleased with His Son, for with all the things that the Baptism of the Son signified, the Son had just begun His public ministry to fulfill the will of God the Father.