Today I had the privilage of watching a few friends get baptized.
What does it mean to be baptized? you may ask. Please, read on.
Baptism, as it is meant in the Baptist church (It’s different for the other denominations) is you making a public statement to your church congregation…or whoever comes to watch you that you are currently and intend to continue to follow Jesus Christ/God to the best of your ability. When a person is baptized they identify with the death (going under the water) and resurrection of Christ (coming back out of the water) and that he died and rose again to take away the sins of the world.
Baptism is NOT an initiation into the “following Jesus club” if you will. You were already in the moment you accepted Him into your life. For me, there was roughly a 2 year gap…give or take…between the time I accepted Jesus into my life and the time I got baptized. Baptism alone CAN NOT save a person. You have to have the understanding of what Christ has done for you on the cross and why he did it, and accept it. THAT is the moment where a person becomes a brother or sister in Christ…when they accept Him into their lives and let Him lead them…and unless they are drowning when they accept Christ into their lives…chances are that moment does not happen with immersion 
(that was a bad joke)
Baptism IS a physical SYMBOL of the change that Jesus Christ has already made in your heart when you accepted him. It happens in you FIRST and then you show other people that Jesus impacted you through the physical, and very symbolic act of baptism.