Third, baptism is the passport of the kingdom and the kingdom citizen’s swearing-in ceremony. As we saw in chapter 1, when Jesus inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth, he established the church as an embassy of that kingdom. He gave the church the “keys of the kingdom” in order to identify its citizens before the world by affirming the professions of those who credibly confess faith in him (Matt. 16:19; 18:18–19). And the initial and initiating means by which