LIFE OF THE BAPTISED

Readings: 2 Corinthians 5:14-17, Romans 6:1-11, Ephesians 4:17-24, Colossians 2:20-23, Romans 8:12-14, 1 John 3:4-10

Many times in my walk as a Christian I have asked myself “where is the victory over sin?” You see, I have known that I have victory over sin but have not been able to truly experience it. In this article I would like to share some of the things I have learnt and I am currently practicing which I feel will release you and enable you to enjoy the freedom that is truly yours. Paul tells us that it is for freedom that we have been set free and Jesus said “you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” In other words, only as we discover the truth of our identity as Christians will we be able to live in freedom.

The main text is Romans 6:1-11, although reading the whole chapter is strongly encouraged. It was as I was preparing for a message I did not actually preach that these truths I am about to share were made evident and clear to me. I will therefore embark on a verse by verse exposition of the text.

Romans 6:1-11 reads: What shall we say to all this? Are we to remain in sin in order that God’s grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, so we too might habitually live and behave in newness of life. For if we become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be one with Him in sharing His resurrection by a new life lived for God. We know that our old self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that our body which is the instrument of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from the power of sin among men. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Because we know that Christ, being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. For by the death He died, He died to sin ending His relation to it once and for all; and the life He lives, He is living to God in unbroken fellowship with Him. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus. (Taken from the Amplified Bible, emphasis mine)

As one reads this scripture, the question that might come to mind would be what is the grace Paul talks about in verse 1? The answer is found in Romans 5:20 where Paul says “where sin abounded, grace abounded even more.” The question he asks in Romans 6:1 is a continuation from Romans 5. Are we to continue to sin so that God’s grace may abound? To Paul this was ridiculous as he explains later, but this was the mindset that some people had and some today also have. If God’s grace abounds where sin abounds, then in order to increase grace we should continue to sin. But this should not be.

You see, grace is God’s unmerited favor towards us. It is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, meaning we receive from God that which we do not deserve and we are not in any way qualified to receive yet God gives it to us. Many times we abuse God’s grace, but His grace is there to provide an opportunity for us to step out of sin and step into righteousness. Titus 2:11,12 says For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age (NIV). Therefore, one aspect of God’s grace is to remove us from sin and bring us to godliness.

Now, Romans 6:2 tells us that sin is forbidden for a Christian. It is a taboo for a Christian to live a life of sin. Actually God does not allow it as the KJV says “God forbid”. Verse 3 gives us the explanation of why sin is forbidden to a Christian. It says that all of us who were baptized into Jesus were baptized into His death. What does this mean?

To begin with, it is crucial for us to understand that in talking about baptism, Paul was using language that the Romans were familiar with. He is using baptism as an analogy or word picture to explain what he has just said in verse 2. Where do I get this from? Romans 6:19, Paul says he is speaking in familiar human terms. He was speaking in terms that were easy to understand for the Romans.

Here are the technicalities of what he means. Jesus went on the cross because of my sin, He who had no sin was made sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Technically we deserved to die because the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), but He took our place, what I believe they call substitutionary atonement. According to Paul, however, we were crucified with Him. In verse 6 he says our old self was crucified together with Christ. It is the old self that needed crucifixion, the marred image of God, for we still bear that image. Since it was our sin that put Him on the cross, our sinful nature was put on the cross with Him. In so doing God dealt with the disease and not the symptom. And so we joined Him on the cross.

It might be difficult to understand and grasp but that is what happened. Many times I have found that it is easy for us to believe that we are born with the sin nature but it is difficult to grasp that Jesus was our substitute. Just as sin entered into the world through one man and death through sin and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned… so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.(Romans 5:12,18,19)

What Paul is telling us by using the word baptism is that we were joined with Christ. If we were baptized into or joined with Christ, then whatever He went through, we went through with Him spiritually. On the cross He died then He was buried or baptized (immersed) into the grave and we were together with Him. Then He resurrected and we, being joined to Him, resurrected with Him.

We were buried with Him so that as He was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, we too might live a new life. This is a statement of the victory the Christian has and Paul repeats this in his other epistles although not in the exact same wording. Consider 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again… Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old is gone, the new has come! (NIV) Other versions say if anyone is joined to Christ, if anyone is in grafted in Christ. All this emphasizes the same thing that Paul shows in Romans 6.

Jesus died so that we might live a new life to God, a life free from sin. Our old sinful nature was nailed to the cross and it died so that sin might lose its power over us. In order for me to have victory over sin, the sinful nature that is at work in me has to be done away with. Because it is a part of me as I am born with it, only death will do away with it. And so I die with Christ, for when a man dies, he is free from sin as verse 7 says. I think we can all agree that a dead body is not thinking about sin and so it will not and cannot sin. Death, then, solves the problem of sin and we died with Christ.

But, Christ went further than just dying, He resurrected and in His resurrection He now lives a new life. A life not given to sin because the body of sin has been done away with and remains in the grave. 1 Corinthians 15:45 says “the first Adam became a living being or soul; the last Adam, meaning Jesus, became a life giving spirit, restoring the dead to life.” And so in Christ we have a new life as is emphasized in the famous 2 Corinthians 5:17. This new life, as I have already said, is a life that is not given to sin.

In Ephesians 1:19,20 part of Paul’s prayer is that we might come to know the power that raised Christ from the dead. He tells us in another place that the same power is at work in us who believe. This power that is at work in us is the same power that raised Christ from the dead, giving Him a new life which He lives to God. Understanding this would enable us to exercise power and authority over sin. We would not respond to any temptation to sin because of our identification with not only Jesus’ death but also His resurrection.

As a sinner, one is obligated to sin because one is not a sinner because he/she sins. Rather he/she sins because of the sin principle at work in him/her. But, if you were baptized into Christ then you are obliged to act in righteousness. And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants (slaves) of righteousness ( of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose and action). (Romans 6:18, Amp)

The life of the baptized is a new life, a life that is dead to sin but alive to God (see Galatians 2:20). It is a life that is no longer given to sin. If you have been baptized into Christ, you cannot continue to live in sin. John the apostle also emphasizes on this in 1 John 3:4-10, No one who abides in Him, who lives and remains in communion with and in obedience to Him- deliberately, knowingly and habitually commits (practices) sin… No one born of God deliberately, knowingly and habitually practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him, His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born of God. Note that John emphasizes that the Christian cannot go on sinning just as Paul says that it is forbidden for the Christian to sin.

The key to a life of victory over sin lies in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and our identification with it. Once we are born again or acknowledge that only Christ can cleanse us of all sin we should know that not only does He remove past sin, but He also gives us victory over sin. Our baptism into Christ occurs when we believe in our hearts and acknowledge with our mouths that He is Lord and was raised from the dead.

But why is then that many Christians do not walk in victory over sin? The answer lies in Romans 6:11. Paul says we are to consider ourselves dead to sin, in other words we are to think of ourselves as dead to sin. We need to walk in this consciousness that we are dead to sin. It is not psychology or positive thinking, it is about the value we place on ourselves as Christians, it is how we reckon ourselves. Take Joseph for example, when he refused to go to bed with Potiphar’s wife he said “How can I do such a thing, it is not in me to do such a thing.” Something told him that he was different and that committing such a sin would be to degrade himself, he reckoned himself to be above such a sin. It all comes from an understanding of what has happened in reality, which is your union with Christ. How can you, who have been united to Christ continue in sin, you who bear the divine seed, the divine image?

Victory over sin has to with your mind, your perception of yourself. To continue in sin is contrary to my nature. That is why Paul tells us to have a renewed mind in Romans 12:2. The issue of victory over sin began even in Genesis. Consider what God told Cain “…sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:6, NIV) Today, He is calling us to master it because, in Christ, He has given us power and authority over it. You can no longer say you cannot help it because you can. Exercise your God-given power over sin.

A traffic policeman has to position himself on the road and exercise his authority, if he does not position himself no one will submit to his authority. You can control traffic in your life as long as you are positioned in Christ. You can stop sin from mastering you and instead manifest the righteousness of God.

Romans 8:12-14 says we are debtors but not to the flesh to fulfill its desires. We are debtors because a ransom was paid for us, a price was paid for our freedom and we are indebted to the one who paid that price. We are indebted to live for Him. We have an obligation to God and not to the flesh, that is why it is only reasonable for us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.

Paul says two key things in Romans 6:3&11“Do you not know?” and “reckon yourself.” Victory over sin issue is about a knowing and a reckoning. Knowing what Jesus did by His death and resurrection and considering or reckoning who you are in light of your knowing.

In all of this, the crucial question is, have you been baptized into Christ? This is not the baptism that is just a sign of a spiritual experience. Not the baptism we have in the church, this is a union with Christ, a joining with Him on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection. The answer is crucial as it determines the type of life you live. You can either be in bondage to sin or free from it and its power.
If you have not been baptized into Christ, all you have to do is to look to Him for salvation, to believe in His death and resurrection as the only means by which you can obtain victory over sin. And if you are born again and you are struggling with sin, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God, that is the key.

May God richly bless you and enable you to walk in newness of life as you reckon yourself dead to sin but alive to God.