#baptized

Eternity Comes To Life

“What shall we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? …And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).” Romans 6:1-2,18AMPC

Who do you identify with? Christ Believer? Non-believer? Does being a Believer mean that we’re completely righteous without sin immediately? Let’s see if we can work this out to break it down into something that’s easier to understand.

In Genesis 2:16-17 God told Adam, if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he’d die. In chapter3 they ate from that tree.— Immediately their souls died, — the soul is the part of mankind that was created to live for eternity. It took 930 years for Adam’s body to catch up with his soul and die.

The moment a person says, ‘Jesus I believe that You’re God’s Son. Will You forgive my sins, come live in my heart, and be my Lord and Master?’ their soul comes to life. On the outside no immediate changes are seen. But the soul, that part of us which was dead at our birth, will come to life. Eternity comes to life in this person once again.

There’s another part to us, called our ‘body,’ ‘flesh,’ ‘earth suit.’ This part of us takes a lot of convincing that there’s any change. The flesh still craves the addictions, sinful lifestyle, habits, self-love, hatred, ill-will, everything that it previously enjoyed. Earth-suits don’t know they’re free from slavery, baggage, hopelessness, and emotions.

Fleshly earth-suits are like my son when he was very young. His favorites were playing outside, and eating ice cream. One afternoon, we played at the park for hours. It was time to go home, via Dairy Queen. He didn’t want to leave the park. I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the car, and Dairy Queen. Not wanting to give up playing so easily, he sat down with his back to me, looking at the playground. We’re like that with the Lord… He says, ‘I’ve got freedom for you.’ Meanwhile we drag our feet and bodies back towards what is familiar.

Our text tells us that we don’t have to be slaves. V4 “We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.” For all of us the baptism symbolizes death to our sin and old way of life in the water. Christ died for us, we’re buried with Him in the water. This is our crucifixion of self with all of its sin.

Crucifixion of self leads to life and freedom, which we’re going to take a couple more devotionals exploring.

Have you invited Jesus into your life? Were you ever baptized? Doing so brings benefits but as always, it’s your choice. You choose.

LET’S PRAY: LORD God thank You for devising a way to die to our old sinful lives and be set free from addictions. Please help us to learn our identity and freedom, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.