Live The Life

by Terry Laughlin | Apr 20, 2016 | Baptism

You are Expected to Live the Life

          Once you have through repentance received Jesus Christ and identified with Him through water baptism, you are expected to live the life.  Romans 6:3-23 says, “…don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 

If we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with Him 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.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him.  The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.  For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. 

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!  Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.  When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Let the Holy Spirit prick your spiritual heart with this question: what are you dying for?  Each of us is spending our lives on something: the flesh, the world, Satan or Christ.

Galatians 5:19-25 says, “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

Publicly Identifying With Christ

by Terry Laughlin | Apr 20, 2016 | Baptism

Publicly Identifying With Christ – Important Step for the Christian

          After accepting Jesus Christ as personal Savior and Lord, the sacrament of water baptism is a very important step in the Christian’s life.  In Matthew 3:13-17 we read of Jesus being baptized.  The Bible says, “…Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.  But John tried to deter Him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you.’  Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now, it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”  “Righteousness” (δικαιοσύνη dikaiosúnē) here is conformity to all of God’s standards for the believer. (The Complete Word Study Dictionary, New Testament)

Christ is the standard for Christians.  Jesus was not being baptized for the repentance of sin, for He never sinned. (2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26)   This baptism for Jesus was an ordination, publicly fulfilling God’s standard for Him, and thus opened the gates of heaven for the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to accomplish God’s will for Him.  (Matthew 3: 16; 4: 1-11)  Jesus’ baptism forever changed the way His followers would look upon the celebration of water baptism.

When we receive Jesus Christ as personal Savoir and Lord, through faith we become children of God; and we are baptized we are identifying ourselves with Christ publicly. (Galatians 3:26-29; Act 10:1-47; Acts 8:26-39)  The baptism celebration ceremony is a public proclamation of whom we are uniting ourselves with.  A similar form of ceremony is performed at a wedding; specifically the exchange of a wedding rings, where witnesses observe whom you are pledging yourself.  Before a soldier can wear the uniform, a ceremony is performed when a soldier makes a public proclamation of loyalty.

From the earliest time in church history to now, the body of Christ has used symbols to communicate her faith and life.  One of the symbols of repentance and receiving the new life promised in Christ is water baptism. (Acts 8:36; 10:37)  A wedding ring is a outward symbol that a person is married to someone, the person God has given them, to be their partner throughout life on earth, and is given in front of witnesses at the ceremony. A military uniform is an outward symbol that a person is involved with the armed forces—the type of uniform dictates which branch and division. There are regulations on the wearing and caring for those uniforms.  Military personal are expected – and required – to wear respective uniforms during appropriate occasions, just as Christians are expected to participate in baptism.  The celebration of the Christian’s baptism is a symbolic act saying, “I am dying to self-centeredness and sin-centeredness for the righteousness of God and Christ-centeredness.”