8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
As a Christian, it is the call from God to follow Him and live differently. We symbolize coming out from the water in baptism as what has happened to us in salvation. New things will happen as we continue in our faith walk letting the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit change us.
Technology and electronics are advancing at mind boggling rates. By the time I figure out something, I am so way behind I am no longer in the race to understand how gadgets work. I have a cell phone I need to upgrade every couple of years to keep up with the times. It is basically a handheld computer and so much more. I downloaded podcasts of sermon and radio programs I listen to while driving. I open emails and respond to them from my phone. I can take photos, videos and message them to my friends. Judi enjoys showing pictures of our grandkids. Some download movies then plug their device into other monitors and listen to music. My iPhone does so much more than I can imagine, but my ignorance and pocketbook keep me limited to its possibilities.
In salvation there is so much more available to us knowing Christ, but our ignorance and our desires for self will keep us limited to the basics. Colossians 2:12-14 "For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to a new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record that contained the charges against us. He took it and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross." Jesus did not just forgive my sin; he canceled the record of my sins. Imagine, there is no longer even a record of my sins. When Jesus hung on that cross over two thousand years ago, He literally took our sins upon Himself.
Baptism identifies me with what Jesus did FOR me. Baptism also identifies me with what Jesus did WITH me. When we encounter God’s grace, we are introduced to a new way of living. We have new lives – the old doesn’t fit any more. I like the way one preacher said it. He gave up smoking. He had smoked for years. Now he felt it was not only unhealthy, but if the Holy Spirit owned him and lived within him, he wanted this temple, (his body), to be free from any drug dependency, even nicotine. Now years later he seldom has that urge to smoke. He admits he has failed at times, but he said to himself, “I am a new creature for whom I am not controlled by my desires, but my freedom from my desires and kept going.”
Baptism not only identifies me with what Jesus did and what He did to me and with me, but what He is doing now IN me by His Spirit. He empowered me with freedom to overcome sin. How do those three truths make any difference in me? You can accept Jesus Christ – then show it outwardly through Baptism. Consider your new life – you have the power to walk away from the things that are holding you back from what God purposed you to be. You can allow God’s Spirit to do what He wants in your life. Sin is no longer our master since we died to sin. Jesus is our master. We have the hope of resurrection as new creatures in Christ and new bodies when He returns. Now we live our life with a new power and new identity. We are justified by faith. We do not want to live in the way we once did. We have been redeemed by the Holy One and the Holy Spirit lives within us.
Gal. 2:20 states, “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Dale
