Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.”
The Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church, has instructed His church to be baptized in water, for in the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord Jesus told us to baptise all disciples. So why has the Lord instructed us to be baptized in water? Water baptism has no impact on our eternal salvation, for all believers are destined for heaven whether they are baptised in water or not. Water baptism does serve a purpose however, for it deals with this life in which we now live. More specifically water baptism deals with the physical body of the believer. We have already mentioned earlier in this teaching that our bodies do not change when we are born-again, nevertheless the Lord has instructed us what to do with our bodies in that we are to present them before Him as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1) and one of the first steps we take in doing that is to baptise our bodies in water. And so we see that the main reason we are baptised in water is so that the body of the sins of the flesh can be dealt with.
Romans 6:3-7 “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? (4) Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, (6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (7) For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
We have already seen earlier that when we are born-again that our old man dies. When someone dies physically their spirits leave their bodies to go either to heaven or to hell depending on whether they were saved or not. But what remains behind are their physical bodies now dead, and those bodies have to be buried. In the same manner when our old man dies, the body of sin that he resided in must be buried. And so as believers we bury the body of the old man through water baptism, for Paul declares in the passage above that we are buried with Christ through water baptism. When we are saved however, not only does the old man die but the new creation in Christ is born-again and the new man needs a body to live in. And so in water baptism, not only do we bury the body of the old man but as the above passage declares, the body of the new man is at the same time raised up in Christ so that we can now walk in newness of life. There is a further truth that is revealed to us in this passage, which is that the body of sin is deprived of its power over the life of the believer when they are baptised in water. A more accurate translation of the above passage “that the body of sin might be done away with” is “that the body of sin might be rendered powerless”. So how does water baptism cause the body of sin to lose its power over the believer? A clear way to illustrate this truth is to look at the type under the Old Covenant of the children of Israel being baptised in water, for the apostle Paul teaches us that the children of Israel were baptised in water when they passed through the Red Sea (1 Corinthians 10:20). In that account Pharaoh’s army, in pursuit of the Israelites, also tried to follow them through the sea. Once the Israelites reached dry land however, God drowned Pharaoh’s army in the sea behind them. And so we see that it was when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea in water baptism, that God destroyed Egypt’s army and thus Egypt lost its power to force the Israelites back into captivity. In the same manner when we are baptised in water the old man’s body of sin loses its power to force the believer to continue in sin.
Colossians 2:11-12 “In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, (12) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
The apostle Paul confirms the same truths about water baptism in the passage of scripture quoted above, for in this passage Paul teaches us that as we in faith obey the Lord’s commandment to be baptized in water, He performs the circumcision made without hands and removes the body of the sins of the flesh. That does not mean that the Lord removes us from our bodies, for if that were the case then we would all die physically and end up in heaven. What it does mean is that the Lord removes the body’s power of sin over the life of the believer. The other truth confirmed to us in this passage is the fact that the old man’s body is buried with Christ through water baptism, and the new man’s body is raised together with Christ in that same baptism. And so we can see that as we in faith, exercise our authority over the sins of the flesh we can begin to walk free from the sins of the flesh. Nevertheless the starting point is that we must be baptized in water. It is for this reason that the early church baptized all new converts in water as soon as they were saved, because they understood the need for believers to be able to walk free from the power of the flesh to commit sin. Sadly for varied reasons many believers choose to disobey the Lord’s commandment to be baptized in water, and therefore do not render the body of the sins of the flesh powerless in their lives and are thus never be able to fully overcome sin in their flesh.
Michael E.B. Maher
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