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Baptism is death
Make no mistake. Baptism is a death. It is not a “bath”, it is immersion, and complete surrendering one’s self to be overwhelmed by the baptism. The wages is sin is death (Romans 6:23). The price remains fixed, the consequences are unchanged. But the GIFT of God is eternal life (Romans 6:23). This is Life that outlives death. Old things are passed away and all things become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We reckon (recognize) that the old man is dead (Romans 6:1-14, Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9).
The principle is really quite simple. I have missed it, avoided it, denied it, and tried to circumvent the process many times, yet the Truth still stands and God has not changed the operation of His Kingdom. If you want to advance in the Kingdom of God (and God is not pleased if we do not advance and move forward) you do so by destroying of the former things and moving on toward the goal. (What is the goal? – see Philippians 3:10-16 ). I am not talking about a gradual transition that might resemble a walk through the woods on a summer afternoon. I am talking about execution, separation by death to everything preceding. There is no going back, no free trial period that you can wrap up and send back for a refund if you are not satisfied.
Rom 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.NIV
Paul said:
Phil 3:10-16
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained. NIV
Col 2:9-12
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. NIV
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