A Buried Believer In Baptism

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/23hdre

On the surface it doesn’t make much sense. That one would have to die first in order to live. But to the Christian it makes perfect sense. We die to our old man of sins in order to live in a new life in Christ.

The apostle Paul says it this way in Colossians 3:1-3. “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

The concept of being raised with Christ is in connection with also being buried with Him. Having lived and died, we now live again. Once a new creature, a Christian, we should seek after the heavenly things instead of the things of the earth.

We have been changed, transformed. We have been buried and raised.

Jesus said in Mark 16:16, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” And Paul tells of his conversion experience three times in the Book of Acts. In Acts 22:16 he tells of how Ananias said to him, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

Baptism is a burial. From the Greek word it means to immerse. Some in the Roman church had been having trouble with the concept of laying aside their sins. Instead of following after Christ, some had evidently sinned even more in order to receive more forgiveness or grace. Notice how Paul addresses this issue and also explains how the burial that is baptism is important to the Christian. This passage is from Romans 6:1-11.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do you see that parallel thought? Christ died for our sins and was buried. But He didn’t stay buried. His resurrection proves who He is and gives the world hope for eternity though obedience to Him.

Likewise, we are to die to our sins. They are crucified with Jesus. That means that we stop sinning in our lives and leave that lifestyle. But being dead, we also are in need of burial. We are buried then into the likeness of the death of Jesus in promise of a new life. Buried with Him in death, we are also raised with Him in a new life as a Christian.

To many it still doesn’t make sense—to die in order to live. But to those who understand dying to sin and living with Jesus it makes perfect sense. As Paul said, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is.”

On Our Daily Walk today, may we take the time today to thank God for sending Jesus to the earth and may we thank Jesus for dying for our sins. If not already may we seek today to die to our sins, be buried and live with Jesus in a new life.

Our thought for the day: “I believe the promises of God enough to venture an eternity on them.” Isaac Watts

May God bless you on your daily walk.

© Our Daily Walk, Mike Baker, 2007. Permission is granted to copy these articles provided they are not sold and the author's name and copyright are included.