(*Disclaimer: I believe it is the confession of your faith in Jesus Christ alone that saves you and ushers you into the adopted child of God, instantly and without fail…not all these steps. Afterall, the thief on the cross, the one who was dying beside Jesus, declared Jesus as Lord, right on the spot, and Jesus told him, that he would be with Him in Paradise. That thief did not have the opportunity, the chance to get water baptized. But we on the other hand, do. No only that but the Bible instructs us, take a look).
Growing up in church, I knew that baptism was strongly encouraged, and an essential step to declaring your faith publicly, announcing your confession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
But water baptism alone does nothing, it only symbolizes what Jesus did for you when you received Him as your Savior and Lord.
With water baptism…
What happens in the water?
I understood that this was a step of obedience, and was an instruction from my church…
But like everything else, I tend to ask that question, “but what actually, practically happens? How does it work?”
I’m not trying to dumb it down to remove the spiritual power and significance and beauty of water baptism that sometimes oversimplifying things can do, but I learned in my bible reading the other day what the answer to this question is, the answer is in Romans 6.
Romans 6 tells us exactly what water baptism symbolizes supernaturally; instantly and simultaneously.
I would say there are two major parts. The first part, we talk about every time we watch a baptism service, you rise with Christ.
The second part that I just feel like exploded in my understanding as I read this text, what I want to emphasize to you and expound upon today is that we die to sin.
Figuratively, symbolically, and spiritually you were baptized into HIS death, so that when you rise out of the water, just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the Father, we too can live and behave in newness of life. (Romans 6:4, AMPC)
Selah that for a moment, ya’ll.
Think about this.
I really don’t think we understand the depths of this right away… I know I didn’t.
You can live and behave in newness of life.
You can.
Now, Paul takes it a step further.
He says that our old self was nailed to the cross with Jesus in order that our body of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be a slave to sin.
We are to consider ourselves dead to sin and dead to our relationship to those old habits, old ways, those old temptations and things we used to do and give into.
We are to die to that generational ‘I’ll always be this way because this is what my family did…’
Die to that mindset of there being a thing you can never pass up… because it’s power over you has been severed…
The relationship you had to those things is now BROKEN in Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11)
Now, Paul tells us our part:
“Don’t let sin rule anymore in your mortal body; don’t allow it to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lust and evil passions. Do not continue offering your bodily members as instruments to wickedness, or in other words, don’t let your body do those things anymore.” (Romans 6:12-14)
Do you think that God, who was inspiring these words of scripture, would tell Paul to write this, if it were not absolutely possible for every believer to practically do?
The only reason you believe you cannot, is because you don’t know Jesus cares about this part yet; you don’t yet understand how much His love and grace is there for you to do this very thing… you just believe something else more.
Instead of offering your body to be used for lusts and evil passions, as instruments of wickedness, we are to present our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness…
It’s just the plain and simple truth.
Paul tells us the spiritual law of it, the spiritual rule in Romans 6, verse 14: “for sin shall not exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law, but under grace.”
But should you choose to continue in sin anyway, Paul tells us what will happen in that regard, too, in verse 16: “Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether it be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness?”
It’s another plain and simple spiritual law. It’s black and white. If you continually choose to surrender to sin, you will be its slave. If you continually choose to surrender to righteousness, you will be a slave to righteousness.
The temptation to sin will always be there, it never goes away.
But what does happen when you begin to yield to Christ, to righteousness, that righteous desire becomes louder than the temptation to sin.
God’s grace meets you, and His grace always abounds greater than sin… there’s always more of God’s grace, His empowerment to overcome than the measly temptation to sin.
The water signifies the crucifixion of the old you.
The water nailed the old you to the cross.
Your old nature died.
Now you are made new, In Christ.
You are still you, I am still Jessica.
I still have the same hair and skin and body type. But the real me is hidden In Christ.
The real you is the discovering the fullness of who Jesus really is, and allowing yourself to be fully known by Him, your Creator.
We will all stand before the Father fully and transparently seen and known one day, why not go ahead now.
Stand before Him in your mess.
Stand before Him fully disclosed.
Come up out of that water and step into newness of life… let His love embrace you and mold you into His likeness, filling you up, satisfying your hunger and quenching your thirst.
The old you died in the spiritual realm.
Can you know it?
Now the only reality is to rest as you discover the real you, your realest self, in Him.
It’s hidden there.
And if you’re like me, I never knew it was there for too many years.
It was always there to be discovered by me, and I was always every moment of my life looking for it.
That’s the whole point of everything… that’s the whole cause.
And that’s exactly what happened in the water…
“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? Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 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 if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God]. We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men]. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions. Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness. For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God’s favor and mercy]. What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not! Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)? But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed. 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). I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death. But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life. For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:1-23 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/rom.6.1-19.AMPC
“But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded, So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.”
Romans 5:20-21 AMPC
https://bible.com/bible/8/rom.5.20-21.AMPC
“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. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Colossians 2:11-14 NKJV
https://bible.com/bible/114/col.2.11-14.NKJV
Mama Talks Jesus 
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