1 Corinthians 10:1-2 “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, (2) all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”
So how does water baptism deal with the power of sin that resides in our bodies? In order to understand that concept we need to look back to the Old Covenant. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit teaches us that the children of Israel were baptised into Moses in the cloud and the sea. The type and shadow in this passage refers firstly to the saints being baptised into Christ, for Moses is a type of Christ. The second type is the saints being baptised in the Holy Spirit, for the cloud is a type of the Holy Spirit. And then the third type is the saints being baptized in water, for the sea is a type of water baptism. And so we see that our water baptism can be illustrated by the Israelites passing through the Red Sea. The account of God redeeming Israel from Egypt was a type of God redeeming His saints from the world. Egypt was also a type of sin that is in the world. And so the account of God redeeming Israel from Egypt was a type of God redeeming His saints from the sin of the world. When the Israelites were held in bondage in Egypt it wasn’t the ordinary Egyptian citizens that enforced their captivity however, because the Israelites were far more numerous than the Egyptians and the scripture teaches us that they were actually fearful of the Israelites (Exodus 1:9-12). It was in fact the Egyptian army that enforced the captivity of the Israelites, for had that army not been in existence the Egyptians would have been powerless to enforce their rule over the Israelites. Nevertheless there came a day when God took Israel out from Egypt and Israel escaped through the Red Sea. But Pharaoh had a change of heart and took the Egyptian army to pursue the Israelites and bring them back into captivity. God however intervened and destroyed the Egyptian army by drowning them in the Red Sea after the Israelites had passed through it (Exodus 14:5-31). And so it was in that event that Egypt lost the power they once had to enforce the captivity of the Israelites. Although Egypt still existed as a nation they no longer had the power of their army to enforce the Israelites captivity. And so Egypt still represented temptation for the Israelites and many turned back to Egypt in their hearts and thus became enslaved once again in their hearts to the sin in Egypt. Nevertheless Egypt had lost its power to force the Israelites to do their will. In a similar manner our bodies are a type of Egypt, and before water baptism our bodies have the power of sin to hold us in captivity to sin in our flesh. When the saints are baptised in water however, the power that our bodies have over us is removed and we are no longer subject to sin in the flesh. Our bodies can still tempt us to commit sin but they can no longer force us to commit sin for they have been rendered powerless. It is therefore only those who choose to turn back to sin that become enslaved to sin once again. Saints that have never been baptised in water however, have never rendered their bodies of sin powerless and are therefore still subject to the power their bodies exercise over them to commit sin. And so these believers will always struggle in their Christian walk because of their inability to overcome the power of sin in the flesh. All of these truths only work by faith however. In other words we must believe it to be able to walk in it.
Michael E.B. Maher
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