THE ESSENCE OF IMMERSION BAPTISM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY DECEMBER 17, 2021.

SUBJECT : THE ESSENCE OF IMMERSION BAPTISM!

Memory verse: "Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.” (Romans 6 vs 4.) 

READ: Romans 6 vs 3 - 9:

6:3: Or do you not know that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?

6:4: Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death: , that just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

6:5: For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

6:6: 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 to sin.

6:7: For he who has died is freed from sin.

6:8: Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him:

6:9: Knowing that Christ having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.

INTIMATION:

The action of baptism is by immersion. The word “baptism” is from the Greek baptizo, meaning “to dip,” “to immerse,” “to plunge,” or “to overwhelm.” Baptism by immersion is the repentant believer’s identification with the death, burial, and resurrection of our Messiah, Jesus Christ, who went to the cross as a sacrificial lamb to die the death we ought to die to pay the wages we owed for our sins. His death on the cross was for us. He came as a propitiation for our sins. Any action short of total immersion cannot be identified with the context being discussed here. As Jesus was buried in the tomb, so the repentant believer, who has identified with the deed of Christ for mankind, must be buried in water. 

The gospel is the death of Jesus for our sins. It is His burial in order that He be raised never to die again. In response to this grace of God that was manifested on the cross, where we are set  free by the sacrificial death of Christ for our sins, repentant believers are immersed in water after crucifying the old man of sin. They are resurrected with Christ in order to walk in a new life. 

Immersion is usual form of baptism; that is, new Christians were completely “buried” in water. They understood baptism to symbolize the death and burial of the old way of life. Coming up out of the water symbolized resurrection to new life with Christ. If we think of our old, sinful life as dead and buried, we can consciously choose to treat the desires and temptations of the old nature as if they were dead. Then we can continue to enjoy our wonderful new life with Jesus. 

The preposition here indicates that a union is established between the one being baptized and Jesus. As Jesus went to the tomb in a garden outside Jerusalem, obedient believers throughout the world can go to the tomb with Him. If one is not willing to go to the tomb with Jesus, then certainly that person cannot come into a covenant relationship with Christ. Unless one goes to the cross and tomb with Jesus, he cannot experience a resurrection with Jesus. Going to the tomb with Jesus is by accepting what He wrought for us in redemption. 

One establishes and signs a covenant to trust in God for salvation by His grace when his faith moves him to respond to God’s grace. This response is immersion into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism is not a work of law in order to earn God’s grace. It is a response to grace by the believer, who at the time of immersion contacts the blood of Jesus that came as a result of the grace of God. 

The condition for obtaining the newness of life, therefore, is that one go to the cross and tomb with Jesus in order to be raised with Jesus. It is only after resurrection from the waters of immersion that one comes into a new life with Christ. Without immersion, therefore, one cannot establish through works of law or meritorious deeds that which results from submission to the grace of God. 

Though baptism is an obedient response to the grace of God, salvation takes place in the spiritual realm wherein God washes one clean of sin by the sacrificial blood of Jesus. There is no magic in the waters of baptism. There is no meritorious atonement by one’s performance of the action of immersion. However, it is at the point of baptism that God pronounces one cleaned of sin, and thus, is brought into a covenant relationship with God. Immersion into Christ is essential to one’s salvation. 

When the repentant believer comes forth from the waters of baptism, the focus of his thinking is changed. His mind is turned to focus on those things that are above and beyond the world. His ambition is not to live in order to use and consume the things of the world upon his own lust, but to use the world to sustain life that is focused beyond the world. He not only thinks on things above the world, but he seeks them. 

Since the world view of the repentant believer has changed, so has the focus of his attention. When he died with Christ, his will was replaced by the will of Jesus. Since Christ lives in the Christian, then the Christian’s mind is not on things of this world. It is on those things that pertain to the work of Jesus among men. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for Your grace that manifested on the cross when Jesus paid the debt I owed, and Your gift of salvation. Engrace me to walk in the newness of life in Christ, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!