Baptized Into His Death

Baptism is often overlooked as simply a ritual or act that Christians perform as a show of obedience to the Lord. Once baptized, a Christian usually never thinks of it again. The obligation has been fulfilled. I pray that after reading this today, your view of baptism is changed, and your whole walk with God transformed forever.

The sixth chapter of Romans, which teaches us the principle of baptism, begins with a question: “Shall we continue in sin?” The answer is clearly, “no;” but the reason is very intriguing. The writer asks how we, who are dead to sin, can live any longer in sin. Many Christians I know struggle from day to day to do the right things, make the right choices, and live a life that is pleasing to God. They live their life in full awareness that they are open to temptation and subject to attack, and, therefore, are ever busy fighting and resisting those temptations – sometimes successfully, and sometimes not so. The real secret to victory over sin, though, lies not in our will power, but in our faith; and baptism is the very key to that secret. Just as we trust that God has forgiven our past sins through redemption, likewise we must trust that God has dealt with our present sins through baptism.

The statements that Paul makes in Romans 6 are very clear. We’re told that we are buried with Christ by baptism into His death so that, just like His resurrection, we can be raised and walk in newness of life (verse 4). We’re told that our old man is crucified with Him in baptism so that our body of sin might be destroyed, and we should no longer serve sin (verse 6). Paul writes in verse 7, “he that is dead is freed from sin.” Finally, Paul is very plain in verses 11 and 12 when he writes, “Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” “Reckon” is the operational word here. It means to take into account, suppose, calculate, or compute. Because your bank statement shows $300.00, you reckon it is truly there, and you write a check on that amount which someone else reckons is as good as cash. Just as surely, when faced with temptation, I reckon that I am dead to sin by the death of Jesus Christ; and I can then draw from the abundance of His grace and find that it is so.

Grace is not merely that thing that forgives us every time we sin; it is that virtue that delivers us from the power of sin altogether! Not only can we overcome sin, but we can also put on the virtues of His nature: love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, etc.

Some say that they have tried to overcome only to fall to sin repeatedly. They say that they don’t feel strong enough to resist sin, and deduce, therefore, that they “can’t be perfect.” Never defer to your experience or feelings over the Word of God, Dear One. Let God be true and every man a liar. There is a difference between being perfect and being sin free. I can live my life without committing acts that I know to be sinful, but there will be things that I do that I may not know yet are sinful, and, once I am enlightened, must afterwards submit to the grace of God. This Christianity, this walking with God, is a process.

The Bible illustrates this principle of life from death through baptism in many places. In Exodus, we see a picture of baptism when Moses leads the Israelites across the Red Sea. The sea represented certain death to the people. They found themselves trapped between Pharoah’s wrath and certain bondage, and death by drowning. God miraculously opened up the sea, and the people escaped the bondage of Egypt (sin), by passing through death into life.

Another picture is Noah’s deliverance by water. Sin had so corrupted the people of that time that God was grieved that He had made them. For 100 years, Noah preached and exemplified righteousness to them, and yet they would not repent. At the same time, he worked on building an ark of safety to protect his family and a seed of every animal from the flood that God warned would come. No one accepted God’s offer of salvation and entered the ark except for Noah’s family. What represented death to the rest of the world became life to those who believed.

Do not allow yourself to be kept in bondage to sin, but believe that God has indeed set you free. Your baptism was not just a ritual, but it is the day that you deliberately chose to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ. Praise to God, it is also the day that you were raised together with Christ into newness of life. Sin no longer has dominion over you since that day, because you are under grace. The power of resurrection is now available to you, and you are free to serve God in righteousness and truth. If we do fall (and we do fall), God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and set us aright again. As we continue on this path with God, however, we will find that He delivers us from the desire to sin.

Dear friend, do not forget your baptism. Keep it before you always, and know that it commemorates the day of your deliverance. Meditate on its meaning and power. Believe in the work that God has done for you in Christ, and never accept a doctrine that would promise you anything less. Beloved, be set free!

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. – 1 Peter 3:21, 22