Buried In Baptism

I want you to understand as Paul wants you to understand that living in holiness is not a future thing to be attained in heaven. As we have already seen, we need to be keenly aware of our need of the savior and our utter sinfulness. Being aware of that we can throw ourselves on the mercy of God in Christ and strive to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God, presenting ourselves as living sacrifices. The question is this though. Once I have by faith gone to God asking for this to be true in my life, how do I practically live those things out? That is why the apostle Paul then begins to explain in the sixth chapter of Romans how to live this faith out in our daily lives. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:1-4

Obviously Paul would expect that we should have a God given desire to no longer sin if we have repented and trusted the savior. This is evident by verses 1-2. We are not to continue sinning that grace may abound, for if we have died to sin, through the act of repentance and faith in Jesus, then how can we continue willfully living in it? The answer is that we can’t continue to choose to live in sin if this is true of us. However it seems that Paul obviously knows that sin is still going to be present and happen. So therefore we are given practical steps in holy living.

Paul is using the presupposition that the reader has been baptized, or at a very minimum, knows of baptism. He then tells us that part of the symbolism of baptism is being baptized, or immersed, into Christ’s death. If therefore we are baptized into his death, we are completely dead and buried by that baptism. The reason is that just as Christ was raised from the dead, we might also be raised to walk in the newness of our new life in Christ.

Keeping this truth in the front of our mind is paramount to walking in the Spirit, and being living, loving examples of true disciples of Jesus. Paul is not telling us that some magic equation has happened that will automatically make us live holy, but reminding us that the old sinful nature no longer holds us in bondage. We as God’s children can now choose to not sin. And the power to not sin comes from the new life, or new birth. Before the new birth we were slaves to sin, but now we no longer need be. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Lord Jesus,
I want to walk in holiness, yet I seem to stumble far to often. May the truth that I have been baptized into your death, and burial, and then raised a new creature to walk in newness of life always be foremost in my mind. May I no longer offer the excuse that the devil made me do it, because I know that if I am truly your child the devil can not make me do anything, and therefore I will choose to obey you. I need your power in me to help me live this out, because apart from you I can do nothing. Amen