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The Way of Baptism, Part 8
dying
to self
by Lisa Panasuk and Andrew & Matthew
Hohnberger with YD
Staff
Part 1
| 2 | 3 | 4
| 5 | 6 | 7
| 8 | 9 | 10
| 11
By now, you know that being baptized is a symbol of death. Romans 6 talks a lot about this. In verse 4 Paul says, “We are buried with Him by baptism into death.”
But too often we discover that it isn’t easy to keep self from coming alive again.
What does it mean to die to self?
Some of the things God asks us to do make sense to us. Many of those things are things we want to do—they are things that we might do, even if God hadn’t asked us to do them. Doing these things is not dying to self.
Dying to self means doing something (or not doing something) that is contrary to what we want to do. It means doing things because God says to, even when we don’t know all the reasons why. Dying to self means we will sometimes even do things that we don’t think need to be done.
Such a thing usually seems very hard or even crazy at the time. It’s usually then that we ask the next question:
Why should self die?
When God asks us to do something, it’s because He has our best good in His heart. Not only that, but God is the only one who really can know what is the best thing to do.
Even if we could ask the smartest person in the world, we would not have nearly as good advice as if we go to God. Not only does He know everything that has happened—He knows everything that will happen. And He has pledged Himself to always pick the very best for us, if we allow Him.
Psalm 145:8, 9 says, “The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works.” And when Christ was here, He reminded us again of how much God loves us. He said, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?” (Matthew 7:11).
What do I gain when I die to self?
When we decide to yield our will to God, we don’t need to fear that we might miss out on something good. We have a guarantee that God’s way will always be the best possible way for us. He even rewards our faithfulness in this world. Christ said that there’s no one who has given everything for Him, “who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting” (Luke 18:29, 30).
In this life, God rewards us with His peace, hope, and joy—things that this world cannot give us. And in the end we “shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him” (James 1:12).
Part 1 | 2
| 3 | 4 | 5
| 6 | 7 |
8 | 9 | 10
| 11
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