The word "baptized" is not the
translation of the Greek work in Romans 6:3-4, but a
transliteration spelling it out in English letters.
The word in the original language means to dip. The
figurative use of the word means to take on a new
identification. After I dip a white shirt into red
dye I no longer refer to it as the “white shirt,”
but the red shirt. It has a new identification.
The apostle Paul wrote, "Do you
not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?" (v.
3).
The word Baptizo in Romans six
means "the introduction or placing of a person or
thing into a new environment or into union with
something else so as to alter its condition or its
relationship to its previous environment or
condition."
Paul is referring to the act of
God when He introduces a believing sinner into a
vital union with Jesus Christ. In this vital
relationship the power of his sinful nature is
broken and the divine nature implanted through his
identification with Christ in His death, burial and
resurrection. The believer's relation to his
previous state and environment is changed and he now
has a new environment which is defined as being "in
Christ."
God placed us in Christ when He
died so that we might share His death and thus come
into the benefits of that identification with Him.
We were placed in a new environment, Christ. We have
a vital union with Christ. Paul declares we are "in
Christ." In our new environment in Christ we have
righteousness and life. Our condition is changed
from that of a sinner to that of a saint.
The Holy Spirit baptized us
into Christ. He placed us in Christ in order that we
might share His death and be separated from the evil
nature. He also placed us in Christ in order that we
might share His resurrection and have His divine
life imparted to us. The Spirit of the resurrected
Christ imparts to us a new quality of life. It is a
new source of life that God imparts to us. It is
only through this new source of life that we have
the ethical and spiritual energy to live the
Christian life.
Why did God do this for us? We
share Christ's resurrection in order that we may
order our behavior in the power of this new life.
With the power of this new power we can consistently
say no to sin and yes to the indwelling Christ. We
do not have to sustain the same relationship to sin
that we were in the habit of before we became
Christians.
"Therefore we have been buried
with Him, through baptism into death, in order that
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory
of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of
life" (v. 4).
Water baptism symbolizes the
power of the sinful nature being broken, because we
are dead in Christ, and the divine power that we
have in our identification with His resurrection. We
have now been permanently delivered from the power
of sin. God has imparted to us a divine nature, new
life, spiritual birth and we can now respond to it
rather than sin.
The apostle Paul commands us to
live "as instruments of righteousness unto God"
(Rom. 6:13). We do not do this in our strength, but
in His power of the resurrection.
It is a resurrection that
restores the lost image of God, in which we were
created by making us to awake in the likeness of
Christ. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus.
One day when Christ returns we
will stand with Him with resurrected bodies in
glory. Our whole nature, body, soul and spirit" will
be "made alive in Christ." And if we are in our
Lord, our physical restitution is assumed to us with
equal certainty with our spiritual.
We enjoy the righteousness of
Christ now and on the great day of the resurrection
we will be clad in the incorruptible glory of
redeemed bodies (Rom. 6:9; Rev. 20:6).
We share in the resurrection
power today (Cot 3:1, 3). The believer cannot
deliberately live in sin because we have this new
relationship and identification with Christ. We have
died to the old life, and have been raised up to
enjoy a new life in Christ. Because we are alive in
Christ we are admonished to "walk in newness of life
by abiding in Christ."
Dead in Christ—risen from the
dead—alive in Christ and free to walk in the newness
of His life.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
Anyone is free to use this material and distribute it, but it may not be sold under any circumstances whatsoever without the author's written consent.
Unless otherwise noted "Scripture quotations taken from the NASB." "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE" © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible copyright ©1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://www.bible.org/. All rights reserved.
Wil is a graduate of William Carey University, B. A.; New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, Th. M.; and Azusa Pacific University, M. A. He has pastored in Panama, Ecuador and the U. S, and served for over 20 years as missionary in Ecuador and Honduras. He had a daily expository Bible teaching ministry head in over 100 countries from 1972-2005. He continues to seek opportunities to be personally involved in world missions. Wil and his wife Ann have three grown daughters. He currently serves as a Baptist pastor and teaches seminary extension courses in Ecuador.
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