1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! 10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In Newness of Life
Baptizing in the River
John offered a very different baptism from the one we, as believers, now experience. John’s baptism was one of repentance. When we come to faith in Christ, we too repent (acknowledging our sin and our need for a Savior found only in Jesus). However, our baptism, although patterned after Jewish baptism (in a mikvah), is quite different. It is our way of publicly declaring to the world that we have chosen to be identified with Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection.
Baptism (a word taken straight from the Greek βαπτίζω baptizo) means to be immersed, plunged, or dipped. It is our first step of obedience after we choose to accept Christ and His work on the cross. Paul describes the resurrection part of it by declaring, “We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4 WEB)
Walking in newness of life means that our desires must change from the agenda of our old life to the agenda of our new life in Christ. That is a move from a self-agenda to a God-agenda. This doesn’t bring about salvation; it is evidence that a person has been saved. James addresses it, saying that a faith without “works” is dead. What he’s saying is that a faith without evidence is a dead faith. We can argue whether that means it was never living or once was alive, and now it’s dead. In either case, it is not a good thing. Baptism is a visual by which we tell the world, “I once was dead in sin, and now I have chosen to walk in newness of life.”
So, let’s return to the words of John the Baptizer. He says that one is coming who will baptize in the Holy Spirit. That’s the key. That’s the “ticket” as we say here in the country. It is ONLY by the power and prompting of the Holy Spirit that we can have any success at all in walking in newness of life. We can’t do it on our own, but through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. When we submit to Him, He prompts, pushes, and calls us to walk differently. He is the key. He is the only way that we can walk in newness of life. Yield yourself to Him today and walk in holiness. John promised that you and I would be able to do this, saying, “One is coming who is mightier, and He will baptize you with Himself", living in you, empowering you, and transforming you with one subtle change after another into the very image of Christ.