Growing In Christ

Chapter 12 BAPTISM

Matthew 28:19King James Version (KJV)

19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

First off, baptism does not save you. It will not prevent you an entry into Heaven. Baptism, however, is a symbol of being buried with Christ, and dying to the world and sin, and then being raised with Christ. I want to stop right there and give you a spiritual picture of this.

We find in the Holy Bible how water can be and does represent Gods judgement or wrath. After all, how'd He flood the earth back in Noah's day? By water! So to be 'gone under' water, shows to go down into Gods wrath & judgement with Christ, because that's how He sees us (dying & being buried with Christ), and then springing up out of the water, meaning coming out of Gods wrath & judgement!!!

How wonderful. To be dead with Christ is to live with Christ (Romans 6:8). As stated, Baptism does not save the soul. Nor does it prevent an entry from Heaven if you fail to be baptized. But! I highly encourage you (with Gods leading of course), to follow through and be baptized if you have not already, as it shows you have died with Christ, and are risen with Him, in a public announcement if you will.

DEAD WITH CHRIST:

Whenever Jesus hung on that Cross, we was with Him in Gods eyes. Yes, we who have believed, were crucified with Christ.

Galatians 2:20King James Version (KJV)

20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth 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.

Jesus bore our sins in His own body, and took what should have been our deserving punishment. So, to God, we died with Christ. We died to the world, and to sin, and even unto death. Meaning we were crucified to crucify these things in our lives! For truly what we have died to, ought to die to us. We are to mortify the deeds of the body, which is sin, and live!

DIE TOGETHER, LIVE TOGETHER:

Jesus and us who are saved are a team! A team does all things together. I would write that we win & lose as a team, but hey! If you be on Gods team then you're undefeated eternally because you have Christ eternally (Hebrews 13:5)! A true team sticks together, and lifts one another up in the cruelest and most trying times. We died with Christ, so it only makes sense that whenever we died with Him, that He knows our pain. He knows our infirmities. He knows our weaknesses and griefs. Therefore, He being not only our Savior, but also the LORD over our lives, absolutely can help us, and relate to us, even delivering us from the traps and bondages of the world, sin, and death.

RISING TO LIVE WITH CHRIST:

Again, how powerful and amazing is it  the symbol of Baptism is!!! You 'go under' representing being immersed into Gods wrath and judgement, and you 'come up & out' risen from His wrath & judgement to a new life of being justified freely by faith. It's a new life, and, after all, rightly so because we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ died for our sins, and was resurrected for our justification.

Romans 4:25King James Version (KJV)

25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

He died because of our sins, and was raised so that we may be justified! Eternally justified. Did you know that's what justified means? It literally means cleared of all guilt. This means Christ died for all our sins, and even everything that latches onto sin, and is a product of sin! Then was raised to life so that we would be justified. Meaning that His Holy work was accomplished, and accepted by God, and whosoever will believe in Him, shall be saved and justified (cleared of all guilt).

We are risen with Christ. That's what the whole purpose of the symbol of baptism is all about! Being RISEN with Christ! So then, because we are risen, we also ought to walk and to live as risen. Whenever Christ died, He defeated every foe, every enemy, and every obstacle that would stand in our paths meant to be against us to kill us. Therefore, we should live as victorious conquerors. Because, after all, we are. Mortifying the deeds of the body, and putting to death everything that tries to trample us and kill us. WE now have dominion over all our enemies and have every worthy reason to trample over and put to death our enemies because Christ has!

FOLLOW THROUGH:

Again, I urge you if you have not already, to follow through and obey God to be baptized. As again, it is a public, powerful confession and symbol of what God has done in you. You have died with Christ to sin, therefore you have died to the world, sin & death, that the old man will no longer have dominion over you, and have risen with Christ to newness of life and justification, so that you may walk as a victor and not a victim.