The Miracle of Baptism

 

 

If you have been following the Ephesians series which started with “A love letter”, I can assure you that another installment is coming soon. However, I would like to share with you a teaching on baptism which I just completed. This material will go on the new website for my church “Life Talk MInistries” due to be completed in April. If you have questions regarding this teaching, please ask. -Pastor Scott

Baptism- An often misunderstood miracle of God for the Christian life. Baptism is the means by which God crucifies the sinful nature of man. The apostle Paul questioned the believers of his day in Romans 6:3, “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”

The death Paul speaks of is the death of the sinful nature which was inherited through Adam. The crucifixion of this nature is the key to the Christian life because through it we become free to serve the Lord in the new way of the Spirit. Paul continues, “For we know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin–because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”

Unfortunately, this truth has escaped many in the church, including pastors and teachers who say that baptism is symbolic of our commitment to the Lord. Some go so far as to make it an act of declaring membership into a particular church or denomination. And there are still others who refuse to baptize infants, instead favoring infant dedication until such a time that the child can “make their own decision”. These practices and teachings show a grave misunderstanding of what baptism is. They deny the true purpose and desire of God for His people.

Keep in mind that baptism does not bring salvation. The Scriptures are clear that eternal life comes through belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But baptism does bring a type of salvation to the Christian still living out their life on this earth. Remember, Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). And Paul agrees, declaring, “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness” (Rom 6:20). The past tense he uses tells us that he is speaking to someone who is no longer a slave to sin.

How did this happen? How did this individual obtain their freedom from sin? The answer is baptism, which saves us from being controlled by the sinful nature. The truth is that every believer was in the heart of Jesus when He went to the cross. The crucifixion of their sinful nature took place at that time, but manifests itself spiritually at baptism.

So what does the baptized person become once they are free from the sinful nature? To be precise, the answer is “a new creation” (2cor 5:17). But even that name does not fully describe the benefits of baptism. If you are a baptized believer, consider yourself to have taken on a new identity–the identity of Christ! Once the sinful nature is dead and buried, the Spirit of Jesus comes to dwell within the believer. You are possessed–once and for all–by your Savior. Thus Paul proclaimed,

Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Understand that apart from the miracle of baptism, Paul’s statement makes no sense. There is no other provision within Scripture which for our own crucifixion. Neither is their another way to be crucified and still live. Nor is it humanly possible to “die to self”. That concept is another name for Baptism.

Your new identity is complete in Christ. Therefore, regard yourself to be as Christ says you are and as the Scriptures declare. Thus you are perfect, holy, blameless, sanctified, and a slave to righteousness. These are true of you at all times, because who you are is a spiritual truth which remains in Christ, who remains in you.

You may question the validity of my last statement, recalling your imperfect behavior at times. Well, because of baptism, Paul could make the following statement regarding himself, when he did the things he did not want to do (sinned): “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is the sin living in me” (in his flesh). Paul proclaimed that his new identity remained separate and established in Christ in the midst of sin. Baptism makes the death of the sinful nature so complete that it no longer exists to cause sin. The only thing that remains is your humanity, or flesh. Though the flesh is capable of sin, it is not who you are. It is only the tent in which you dwell. Note that Paul says, “it is no longer I myself”, again calling our attention to the fact that he is not who he once was.

There are those who read this theology and contend that this frees the believer to sin all they want, claiming that it is not them, but “the sin living in them.” Not true. Paul addresses this topic more than once, including Romans 6, 7 and 8, Galatians 3, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 2 and 3. The book of 1 John, chapters 3 and 5 also speak very plainly about sin and the new creation. But let me just say this. Faith is a gift from God given in order to save an individual. Only through that same faith is it possible to understand the spiritual blessings of the miracle of baptism. To understand them is to rejoice with God in our newly acquired freedom to live by way of the Spirit. True faith never rejoices in sin. Even when we know that committed sins bring no condemnation (Rom 8:1), faith would never allow us to pursue them. To do so would be to abuse God’s grace. One must wonder if the individual who does these things (rejoices in sin) ever really believed in the first place.

Baptism is the foundation of this earthly Christian life. When we die or Jesus returns to claim His bride–the church–the benefits of baptism will not be necessary. As I said before, it saves you–in a way–from bondage to sin in this life. Peter declares,

1 Pet 3:20-21 [20]…God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, [21] and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also– not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

Just as the water caused Noah’s ark to rise above the death in this world caused by sin, so does baptism free us to rise above and leave behind, what we once were. This is true because when Jesus rose from the dead, He did not bring your sinful nature back with Him. He left it there, crucified and buried!

 

Praise the LORD!