Day 2

“Or 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.” Romans 6:3-4

We all know the cliché; “It’s not what you know but who you know.” Well, I would argue that both are important. Do you know God? Do you have a relationship with Him through receiving His son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior? That is where new life begins. He is the source of God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives and so we must start there. However, so many believers stop there and never move on to the “what you know” of the Christian life.

In verse 3 Paul asks; “Or don’t you know…” OK here comes a news flash and this is something that if God were not telling us this information then we would not know that; “…all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” What the heck does that mean???

In the New Testament the word baptism has several meanings. Literally, it meant to immerse or to dunk under the water. It also had a figurative meaning. Used in the cloth dying industry it referred to the action of submerging a piece of cloth into the dye. Then, when the cloth was brought out of the dye, it had changed color. What was once white was now red or blue or whatever color the dye was. The action of baptizing the cloth into the dye changed the cloth so that is became completely identified with the color of the dye.

The bible says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus. We are the cloth and He is the dye. That means that we have become identified with him. Being baptized into Him has in a way colored our lives. It means that what happened to him has been transferred to our lives. So when Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose from the dead, the effects of all those things are given to us. We are baptized or united with him in those things. They never actually physically happened to us but God applies what happened to Jesus to us and so the effects of those actions become a part of our reality. We are the cloth and his actions are the dye, so God baptizes us into Him and we become like him. Complicated isn’t it…that is why the verse says…Or don’t you know?” No, we didn’t know that…but now we do! So what does that mean for us?

Ok, we have been baptized, or united with Christ. As a result we have become united with Him in his death, his burial and resurrection. Read it again out loud in verse 3 and 4. Go ahead I will wait. Good…now note that this is what God has done this for us. He has united us with Christ in these things so that there could be an affect in our lives. Pay attention, because what he says next is crucial if we are going to be able to experience being set free from the bondage of sin!

Why has God done this? He tells us in verse 4. “…in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” By uniting us with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has made it possible for us to live a new life. The most important word in these verses is that little 3 letter word “may”. It is possible for us to live a new life. This is now possible because since Jesus died it is as if we too have died and since Jesus was raised to a new life it is as if we too have been raised to a new life. In this new life that we have in Christ the bondage of sin, or the control of sin in our lives has been broken and now we have a choice. We can choose to sin or we can choose to not sin.

So if you have ever felt like you are being tempted and you have to sin…that is a lie. If you feel that you are addicted to sin and it has you in its grasp and there is no letting go…that is a lie. If you feel you must masturbate in order to relax and go to sleep…that is a lie. We are not chained to sin any longer. We can choose to give in to the temptation or we can choose to walk…or run away.

Look, I know this isn’t Sunday Morning Comic Strip truth. It is complicated truth and not easy to understand. God has told us this because we need to know it if we are going be able to experience the new life that is possible in our relationship with Christ. So do not give up and go back to your “fluff of the day” devotional, or worse yet, no devotions or study of God’s word at all. Hang in there and God will get us through it. See you tomorrow!

Heavenly Father – Thank you for what you have done for me. I want to fully understand what this means that I have been baptized into Christ. Thank you that his death, burial and resurrection has paid the penalty of sin in my life and broken its power so that I do not have to sin. The chains have been broken and I am now free to choose to not sin. Help me today to make that choice at every moment of temptation.

Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”