SIGNIFICANCE OF BAPTISM
"It is bizarre that you should take a person and put them under the water to baptise them." This is how the person on the street would look at baptism. But for the children of God, it is a most wonderful thing.
[Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord,]
Paul is writing this to people who have received Jesus as Lord.
[so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.]
You have testified that Jesus is Lord, then live and walk as someone who has truly received Jesus as Saviour and Lord.
[See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spiritsof the world, and not according to Christ.]
Paul is concerned for the new Christians because of all the influences around them that are not according to Christ. This is so relevant today when there is so much confusion even among Christians.
[For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,]
Paul reminds them that Jesus is very God of very God, the second Person of the Trinity, who said, "Let there be light."
[and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ]
He is the centre of the lives of believers, and we are complete in Him.
[having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.]
How is the true Christian complete in Him?
[And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,]
Here we note their PAST CONDITION, how they were once dead in their sins. This is an odd thing to say of someone when they are alive and well. As always, we look to the Bible to help us understand. The following verses show how we all died and separated from God, because of our sin.
Gen 2:15-17 ". . . for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely DIE.”
Gen 3:11-24 ". . . the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden . . . He drove out the man, and . . . he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." (That was the day Adam and Eve DIED. That was the most dreadful day in the history of all mankind.)
Rom 5:12 "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and DEATH through sin, and so DEATH spread to all men because all sinned."
Rom 3:10-23 “None is righteous, no, not one . . . No one seeks for God . . . All have turned aside; together they have become worthless . . . for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
[God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.]
How can such unworthy sinners ever be reconciled to God, when all our righteousness is as filthy rags before Him? It is because of the cross, and we will look at two points.
- BEFORE A MAN BECOMES A CHRISTIAN HE IS A LIVING DEAD MAN
About the condition of a non-Christian, we read in Eph 2:5 ". . . we were dead in our trespasses" Though we were physically alive, we were spiritually dead.
Eph 2:12 "remember that you were at that time separated from Christ . . . having no hope and without God in the world."
- AFTER A MAN BECOMES A CHRISTIAN HE IS A DEAD LIVING MAN
Col 3:3 "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Rom 6:11 "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
When someone is truly born from above, they die and become alive to God. To be born again, you must die.
Rom 6:6-8 ". . . our old self was crucified with him . . . For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him."
Gal 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Col 2:13 ". . . God made alive . . . together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses"
Before he was alive to sin and dead to God.
Now He is dead to sin and alive to God
What had all this to do with baptism? It has everything to do with it, because this is what baptism represents. We are buried with Him in baptism.
Also, being baptized in this way is part and parcel of the great commission, which is often not obeyed in full. Matt 28:18-20 “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, BAPTISING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The important symbolism is very clear in Rom 6:3-4 "We have been buried with Him in baptism
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life."
What do you do with someone who is dead? We bury them. Baptism demonstrates this very clearly, when the person is put under the water. That water will not do anything for you. It is an outward sign of an inward work of grace. The water will not do anything for you, just as partaking of the bread and the cup in communion will do nothing in and of itself. So is it unimportant. By no mean! These two ordinances were instituted by Jesus. When someone becomes a dead living man, they come in obedience to be baptized.
Becoming a Christian is most amazing. A miracle takes place, we are brought from darkness to light and fitted for heaven. We who were once dead have now been made alive.
Upon their profession of faith and at their own request, they are baptized. They will be answerable to God. Baptism does not save. Christ alone saves.
With His help we will live for Him. When we close our eyes in death we will open them again to see the beautiful face of Jesus. What a boast! But we do not boast in our righteousness, but we boast in the cross. Our righteousness, which is as filthy rags, is stripped, and we are clothed in His righteousness.
Closing with this simple and beautiful quote of John Newton — 'Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.'