Title: One Who Lives to God
Contents
Today is the Sunday we celebrate in our church. In our church, we hold the rite of initiation and baptism twice a year. Therefore, I think that most of those who have started coming to church for the first time in the last six months will attend the baptismal ceremony for the first time.
The rite of baptism and the rite of the Lord's Supper to be celebrated next Sunday are the two holy ordinances of the Church established by the Lord.
Admission to school is the process of confirming the confession of faith made by parents in the past as their own when a person who has been baptized as an infant reaches the age at which he or she can make a confession of faith. Because baptism is enough once, the person who has been baptized as an infant is not baptized again, but is allowed to enter the church through questions and answers.
As it is said at the beginning of the first verse of the text, “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus”
Baptism can be said to “unify us into Christ Jesus.”
Who is Christ Jesus? He is the Son of God. So baptism is union with the Son of God.
It's like taking over the world. It is to possess eternal truth. It is to enjoy eternal life. It is to live a blessed life forever. What could be better than this?
Those who are being baptized today have made a very good choice and decision. You have made the most important decision of your life. You have made the best choice, the best decision, more important than any other decision you have made: choosing the school you want to go to, choosing the job you want to work in, and choosing the spouse you will spend the rest of your life with. Sincere congratulations.
But looking back at the first part of verses 3 and 4, “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death.”
At first glance, you may think that it is good.
“I thought it would be good to be united with the Son of God, but does that mean that we will die and be buried like him? What does this mean?” It may be because of the question. But you must know that it is a good death and a death that must die.
Because that death is a death to live, and it is not a death that anyone can die at will.
Look again at verses 4-5
“Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. If we have been united in the likeness of his death, we will also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.” Amen.
To die with Christ Jesus through baptism means to live in a glorious new life just as He was resurrected. This means that those who are baptized are chosen for salvation and eternally blessed life.
It seems that you have chosen and decided to be baptized, but the truth is that God decided to choose you from ages ago, and you have come to be baptized today. How grateful and honored are you? So that's my congratulations.
However, if you are baptized mechanically without thinking, you will not be united with Christ and be saved and enjoy eternally blessed life. You must be baptized with a sure confession of faith. What is your confession of faith?
At the beginning of verse 6, it says, “We know,” and at the end of verse 8, it says, “I believe.” And at the end of verse 9, it says again, “I know.” You must clearly know, believe, and be baptized with the contents of verses 6-9.
Look again at verses 6-9
“We know that our old self was crucified with Jesus so that the body of sin might be put to death and that we would no longer be slaves to sin, because the dead have been set free from sin. If we have died with Christ, we also believe we will live with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, will die no more, and that death will no longer have dominion over him.”
Now, what do we need to believe and confess in order to be baptized?
We are all sinners before God and we are bound to die forever as the price for our sins, but God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross instead of us, so that we would not be slaves to sin and that death might not have dominion over us. It means that you have been brought back to life.
Now whoever believes in it and is baptized will die to sin and live to God.
The original baptismal rite was brief, but completely immersed in the water and then out. Fully immersed in the water symbolizes death, burial and disappearance. But that death is not another death, but a death to the power of sin.
It is a death that pays off the debt of sin, a death that frees us from the fear of condemnation.
Have you ever been in debt and suffered from debtors? Only those who have experienced it will know the pain and horror.
It feels good to borrow money. Because I can buy what I want and do what I want to do without my money.
However, as the day to pay off debt draws nearer, anxiety, anxiety, and worry begin to build up. When the debt pressure starts, I have no appetite and I can't sleep well. The debtors you see in movies and TV shows are terrifying. If the debt is not paid on time, the interest will snowball and turn into a debt that can't be repaid even if you die in an instant.
You may even lose your home or property. They are even pressured to give up their organs.
You must be dragged away by thugs, beaten, and subjected to terrible blackmail and torture. You may even get bodily injuries.
Sometimes, even the wife or daughter you love is captured and subjected to hardship or taken away. It's not possible.
So some people can't stand it and kill themselves. However, no matter how much debt a person dies, all debt is extinguished. Because you can't make the dead pay their debts.
But there are other debts besides the debts of the world. It's a sin price. Sin can be sweet and savory when made.
But the penalty for that sin is only death. But death as the price for sin does not end with death.
There is eternal punishment and death of suffering. There is a death that, at once, completely liberates us from this damning fear and suffering. It is a death in which only one Son of God can die.
Jesus Christ died that death for us. And by being joined to him through baptism, we can die eternally to that sin and death. It is death, in which we will live forever. For it is death that becomes a living being to the eternal God. That's what verses 10-11 say
“For in his death he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Verse 11 says, “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
On the one hand, it means to be convinced that we are dead to sin and alive to God by the grace of Jesus Christ, and on the other hand, it is an exhortation that we should live a new life as those who have received such wonderful grace. do.
Baptism is a symbolic act of professing the belief that the person being baptized is buried and buried in Jesus Christ for a life in a world dominated by sin and sin. It is an act of publicly declaring a commitment to live a new life together.
The Apostle Paul says in the New Testament in Colossians 3:1-4:
“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the above. There Christ sits at the right hand of God. Think of the things above, not the things of the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.”
A Christian who has been resurrected as a people of the kingdom through baptism is no longer a seeker of earthly things.
We are dead to the things of the earth. We should become a people who think and pursue only the above.
I pray that all of us who look forward to a life of glory to be enjoyed only with the Lord.