Monday, July 20, 2009
Romans 6:3-4, 6-7 Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death . . . knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR BAPTISM?
I would guess that most of you don't remember the day, because you were likely baptized as infants. When you and I were brought to the Savior to be baptized, we were (as infants) spiritually dead and under the power of sin, bound for eternal death (cf. Ephesians 2:1 ff). This is the case because we are all born in the image of sinful Adam, without even a spark of good in us.
But God, who is rich in mercy, cleaned us up.
He washed away our sins (cf. Acts 22:16) and in baptism joined us to Christ by the gift of a living faith. We were so closely joined to Jesus at our baptism that God's Word says when Jesus died on the cross our sinful selves died too. We were freed from sin's power over us.
If that sounds strange it's because we usually look at it from a different perspective. We say: "Jesus took our sins upon Him and died for them." This is just a different way of saying the same thing. Picture it: All of our sins, our sinful selves were nailed with Jesus to the Cross, and died and were then buried in the tomb.
Do you see then what is meant when it says that we were "buried with Christ through baptism into death"? This was done so that we should be freed from sin's power over us. We are children of God and not slaves of sin.
Why do we still sin? We won't completely be freed from our sinful nature until soul and body are separated in death. Until that time we are like a car with two drivers--both fighting over the keys. May the Spirit of God enable us today to push the old man out of the driver's seat.
