This week we continued to add to the foundation of our faith. We took note of baptism and its symbolic application to our lives. We understood that it is more than a mere water experience with some vain hope attached. It is a transformational commitment that begins with true faith.
John the Baptist attached repentance and forgiveness of sins to baptism. After him all the disciples and apostles did the same, letting everyone know they needed to repent then be baptized, forgiven, and washed clean. Therefore baptism is the result of a repentant heart due to the result of God’s truth being accepted. That is the reason we participate in water baptism.
Jesus Himself associated it with His death and resurrection which is symbolic of the type of lifestyle we’re called to live after our initiation into the family of God. By repentance and faith, through baptism, we take up our cross and prepare for our own death and resurrection. The death of the person who lived a life far from God and the resurrection of a new person whose life is dedicated to living within the will of God.
In all, it’s really about us being reborn and delivered from the influence of sin. It’s an act of faith that declares God has the ability to redeem, restore, and make brand new. It is a representation of a humbled heart needing help and wanting change. Then from that state of humility going to God asking for help believing that He is able to forgive, cleanse, and transform. It is a public display that says I am willing to put all of whoever I’ve been in the grave so that God can bring all that He created me to be out alive. With this new life charting down a difficult, and narrow road. Baptism is the outward expression of the inward reality in which we are freed from the influence of a corrupted nature by becoming subject to the influence of the Holy Spirit. It is a daily choice of who we will serve. Water baptism is a life-long commitment to becoming evidence of the transforming power of God.
Scriptures from this week
ACTS 19:1-6
ACTS 2:36-39
ACTS 22:6-16
MATTHEW 3:1-22
ACTS 16:11-35
MATTHEW 20:17-23
LUKE 12:50
ROMANS 6:1-13
I PETER 3:18-22
I CORINTHIANS 10:1-11
JOSHUA CHAPTER 3
JOHN 1:29-34
ACTS 1:1-8
GALATIANS 3:19-29
