|
|
The Way of Baptism, Part 6
life
after baptism
by Lisa Panasuk and Andrew & Matthew
Hohnberger with YD
Staff
Part 1
| 2 | 3 | 4
| 5 | 6 | 7
| 8 | 9 | 10
| 11
Baptism is not something to take lightly. It is not something you do because all your friends are getting baptized, or because everyone in your family gets baptized when they are 12. “Great responsibility comes to those who have been baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Strive to understand the meaning of the words, ‘Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ [Colossians 3:3]. In the new life upon which you have entered, you are pledged to represent the life of Christ. . . . The sins that were practiced before conversion are to be put off, with the old man. With the new man, Christ Jesus, are to be put on ‘kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering’ ” (Sons and Daughters of God,
page 300).
In other words, when we have committed our lives to God in baptism, we make new choices. Instead of thinking selfish, complaining, unhappy, or distrustful thoughts, we choose “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22, 23). This is what it means to walk in the Spirit or in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
After baptism, we are to remain dead to sin.
This means we continue to choose God’s way, instead of our own way. We all have tendencies to sin, but when we are baptized, we are showing that Christ is worth more to us than these sins. We become “dead to sin” (Romans 6:2).
SDA Bible Commentary, Volume 7, page 908, says it this way: “As you arose from the watery grave at the time of your baptism, you professed to be dead, and declared that your life was changed—hid with Christ in God. You claimed to be dead to sin, and cleansed from your hereditary and cultivated traits of evil. In going forward in the rite of baptism, you pledged yourselves before God to remain dead to sin. Your mouth was to remain a sanctified mouth, your tongue a converted tongue. You were to speak of God’s goodness, and to praise His holy name. Thus you were to be a great help and blessing to the church.”
It’s important to remember that God loves us, and never asks us to do anything that is not in our best interest. In fact, the reason we don’t naturally do the things God asks us is because we cannot see the future and we don’t know everything. But God sees everything, and He “never leads His children otherwise than they would choose to be led, if they could see the end from the beginning, and discern the glory of the purpose which they are fulfilling as co-workers with Him.” (The Desire of Ages,
pages 224, 225)
After baptism, we are to be new creatures in Christ Jesus.
We admit that our own desires and ideas are not best, and we look for what God wants, so we can do it. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it like this: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
The challenge comes when we want one thing, but know that God says something else. Satan comes in and makes our idea seem better than God’s. If we stop and ask God to give us strength to do the right thing, He will help us make the better choice. Giving up our idea is being “crucified,” deciding God is right is “faith,” and choosing His way is “living by faith.”
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
When we are baptized, we are saying “Lord, ‘not as I will, but as Thou wilt’” (Matthew 26:39). We surrender our desires, our thoughts, and all that we have to God. We make a public commitment to use all our gifts for His glory. In turn, we become children of God, and partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
You can’t find a better deal than that!
Part 1 | 2
| 3 | 4 | 5
| 6 | 7 | 8
| 9 | 10
| 11
|
