Word of life – Rom 6:3

“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into His death?”

(18 Mar – 1 Apr 2012)

To the question whether we do not know we can reply that really we do not know the nature of sin, Christ’s death or baptism. The question “Or do you not know…” encourages us to appreciate a certain mystery revealed to us in God’s Word in the context of liberation from sin, i.e. death to sin (cf. v.2), the death of Christ and baptism. It says clearly that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. What does baptism (or immersion) into Christ’s death mean? Christ’s death is the moment captured in the seventh word of Christ on Golgotha: “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” The death of the Only Begotten Son of God overcame sin and the devil. So if through the biblical faith we actualize the mystery of baptism and our union with Christ’s death at the present moment, then indeed at this very moment we are dead to sin, as said in verse 2, and we can not live in it. If we are not in actual faith, not actively in the power of Christ’s death, there is another law at work then and we can easily fall into sin. And when temptation comes and again we enter Christ’s death, once again we overcome. Seven times a day we stand in the spirit under the cross and call on the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins. Then we elicit an act of love for God when we repeat the first and greatest commandment, and we confess: “Now I lose my soul for Your sake and the Gospel’s.” It is important to utter these words with all our heart, all our soul and all our strength. This is the love of God, which involves our entering into Christ’s death and our union with His death, when He commits His spirit into His Father’s hands.