◄ What Does Romans 6:3 Mean? ►

How important to know what our salvation means, and Paul tells us that the moment we trust in Christ we are baptised by one Spirit into His Body. At the moment we trust, the Holy Spirit places us into Christ Jesus and we become members of His Body, which is the Church.

But not only are we baptised into the Body of Christ at the moment of our salvation, but we have also been baptised into His DEATH. Water baptism may be a lovely picture of going down into the waters of death and being raised as a new person, but baptism into His death means so much more to the believer than this simply representative act.

Being baptised into His death, means that we are to be identified with all that He is, just as He became identified with all that we are. He identified with our sin so that we could be identified with His righteousness.

Being identified with His death on the Cross and His glorious Resurrection means that we are to die to self. We are to die to all that I am in my old, pre-salvation days. It means to put off the old sin nature (the old man - the old Adamic self) and cease from any fleshly strivings I undertake to 'please' God.

But it also means that we are to be raised to newness of life (the new, born-again life in Christ). We are to keep the old 'ME' nailed to the Cross and allow the new 'ME' (the new life in Christ) to abide in Him, rest in Him, be nourished by Him, and depend upon Him in all things.

By grace through faith, we have put off the old Adamic self and put on the new life in Christ, for having been baptised into Christ's body and becoming a new creation in Him, we are to remember that we have also been baptised into His death.

There must be death to self, death to sin, death to legalistic tendencies, death to all that is not of Christ, so that we may live as God intended us to live: in complete dependence upon Him, by grace through faith.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Jesus dying on the Cross so that I may be forgiven of my sins. Thank You for identifying with my unrighteousness so that I may be identified with Your righteousness. And thank You for identifying with my death so that I may be identified with Your life, my new life in Christ. Help me to keep all that is not of You nailed to the Cross, and I pray that I may live godly in Christ Jesus, to Your praise and glory. In Jesus' name, AMEN.