Friday | 21 February 2025
Paul was highlighting the second aspect of baptism when he wrote, ‘How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised 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.’ Rom 6:2-4.
Having been baptised into Christ by the Father, we then need to be baptised in water by a messenger who has been sent by Christ to make disciples. We are baptised into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus to walk in a new and living way upon which regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit are at work in us. This is necessary for our salvation. Tit 3:4-7.
Paul described this dimension of baptism as ‘the circumcision of Christ’, writing, ‘In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead’. Col 2:11-12. While it is necessary for salvation, baptism, which joins us to the circumcision of Christ – that is, His offering journey from Gethsemane to Calvary – is more than just the process of dealing with sin. This circumcision is also the guarantee of the resurrection! It connects us to the regenerating work of Christ so that, as we are co-crucified with Christ, and cease to live according to the principle of the flesh, we are, by faith, able to live by Christ’s life in us. This is the life that we will live, forever.
Further Study:
ROMANS 6
References:
Rom 6:2-4
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 baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised 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.
Tit 3:4-7
But when the kindness and the love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Col 2:11-12
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.