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, many Christians never think of it again - the obligation has been fulfilled.  I pray that after reading this today, your view of baptism is changed, and that your whole walk with God is transformed forever.

 

In the sixth chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul plainly teaches the basic principles of baptism, beginning with the 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 much.  After they fall, they beg God for forgiveness and then determine to be stronger and more faithful in the future only to fall again.  The real secret to victory over sin, though, lies not in their will power, but in their faith; and baptism is the very key to that secret.  Just as we trust that God has forgiven our sins - past, present, and future - through the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, likewise we must trust that God has dealt with our old man along with his bondage to the world and to sin 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 Jesus' resurrection, we too 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 the body of sin might be destroyed, so that 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 emphatic in verses 11 and 12 where 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.  If your bank statement shows $300.00 in your account, you reckon it is truly there, and you can 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 by my association with that death through baptism.  I can then draw from the abundance of His grace and find that it is so - and not only that, but I can now walk in the resurrection life of my Savior and find power to live the righteous life that He has called me to.     

 

Grace is not merely that thing that forgives us every time we sin - it is also that force 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 divine 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 therefore deduce that they “can’t be perfect.”    We must never defer to our experience or feelings over the Word of God.  Let God be true and every man a liar.  Faith is the victory that overcomes sin - not determination, not willpower, and not resolution.  The Israelites who first came out of Egypt under Moses were refused admittance into the Promised Land for one reason only - unbelief (Hebrews 3:14).  "For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end." (Hebrews 3:14).  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 yet know are sinful, but once I am enlightened, I must then submit myself to the grace of God and exercise faith in what Christ has already done in me.  This Christianity - this walking with God - is a process.  The Lord is training us to be "blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world."  (Philippians 2:15)  If the only thing that has changed about our lives since we accepted Christ is that we now attend church, our religion has become vain.  If we, as Christians, are not steadily becoming transformed into the likeness of Christ, then we are either not reading the Word, or not believing that it is relevant for us today.  Oh, how the heart of God longs for a people who will believe His Word for what it says, and not try to change it to make it compatible with societies shifting values.

 

The Bible illustrates this principle of life from death through baptism in many places.  In Exodus, we see a picture of baptism in the story of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea.  The sea represented certain death to the Hebrews.  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 and the world), 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, Noah worked on building an ark of safety to protect his family and 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 (Galatians 6:14).

 

Do not allow yourself to be kept in bondage to sin, but believe in a full salvation.  Believe that God has indeed set you free, because He has!  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.  It is no longer a matter of wanting to overcome sin; it is a matter of believing that we have already overcome it.

 

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.  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).