Water Baptism
Jesus commanded all those who believed in Him to be baptized in water. "Then
Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit… '" Matthew 28:18,19 See also Acts 2:38-41.
To be "baptized" means to be "totally immersed." When a person repents from
his sin and believes Jesus died for him, before many witnesses, he (or she) is to be taken
to water, put right under it and brought up again. Why would Jesus command that his
believers do such a strange thing?
A. UNDERSTANDING WATER BAPTISM
Understanding what water baptism is all about is the key to a victorious and
liberated Christian life.
The act of going under the water and rising up from it again is a picture
demonstrating what has happened to the Christian believer.
B. FOUR STAGES OF CHRIST'S WORK PICTURED
1. He Died … .. I Died In Him.
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin
might be
rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has
died has
been freed from sin" Romans 6:6-7
2. He Was Buried … .. I Was Buried With Him.
"Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his
death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death … " Romans 6:3-
4
3. He Was Raised … .. I Have A New Life In Him
"… in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the
Father, we
too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly
also be
united with him in his resurrection" Romans 6:4-5
4. He Ascended … .. I Ascended In Him
"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms
in Christ
Jesus … " Ephesians 2:6 See also Colossians 3:1
C. WATER BAPTISM IS …
1. Your Fune ral Service!
A burial service is not to kill a man off. It is only performed when the man is
dead already.
And so, because you have "died" in Christ, you bury your old life in water baptism.
2. Your Resurrection To New Life!
You rise out of the water demonstrating and declaring you are a new creation in
Christ!
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that
since
Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over
him.
"The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to
God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus" Romans 6:8-11
D. THE TWO KINGDOMS
"For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the
kingdom of
the Son he loves" Colossians 1:12
Every man and woman born into the world is born into the Kingdom of Darkness;
born slaves of the
dictator Satan. There is no way out of this kingdom except by DEATH, and there is no
way into the Kingdom
of God except by BIRTH. And so Jesus became both our death and new birth - and this
we declare in water
baptism!
E. THE TWO RACES
As there are two kingdoms, so within each kingdom is a different race of
people. The Adamic Race
populates the Kingdom of Darkness, and the New Creation populates the Kingdom of
God.
1. The First Adam
"For as in Adam all die… " 1 Corinthians 15:22 See also Romans 5:12. Adam
was the father of us
all, the entire human race. Adam's sin alienated us all from God. Because of his sin, we
all inherited his
rebellious and diseased nature and became subject to death. Adam's offspring are called
"the Adamic Race".
2. The Last Adam
"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the
ungodly"
Romans 5:6 There was no way God could change the fallen Adamic Race. He had to put
an end to that race
and begin a whole new race of humanity. Jesus was the Last Adam. He came as the
lastborn of the Adamic
Race and the firstborn of a new race. As He hung upon the Cross, He hung there as the
Last Adam - the
lastborn of the Adamic Race. When He died on the Cross, the Adamic Race and the
Adamic sinful nature died.
God put to death the fallen creation in Him. The Adamic Race died in Christ.
3. The Second Man
"… so in Christ all will be made alive" 1 Corinthians 15:22 Jesus came as God's
new Man,
through which a new race would be created. Jesus was raised from the dead - not as the
Last Adam
but as the Second Man, the Head of the New Creation. "So it is written. 'The first man
Adam
became a living soul'; the last Adam, (Christ) a life-giving spirit… The first man was of
the dust of
the earth, the second man from heaven. "As was the earthly man, so are those who are of
the earth;
and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have
borne the
likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven"
1Cornthians 15:45-49
4. The New Creation
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new
has
come!" 2Corinthians 5:17 See also Ephesians 2:10
In water baptism we declare to all our friends and acquaintances that we are no
longer part of Adam's
race and the Kingdom of Darkness. We are a New Creation in Christ, belonging to the
Kingdom of God!