Water Baptism

We have been learning about water baptism in my girl's class at church. Last week we learned why we have baptism in the church (because Jesus commanded us to be baptized). Our memory verse is Matthew 28:19 - Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

This week we learned about the purposed of water baptism. 1. It's an illustration of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection, 2. It's an illustration to others of what happens to a person when they ask Jesus to come into their life and forgive their sin. Their old, sinful self is dead and buried, and they are made new and clean. That's why they call it being born again! :) 3. It's an act of obedience to God.

We read some verses from Romans 6 tonight and I thought I'd share them. :) I'm so thankful for the changing power of God! I thank Him for the work of salvation. I'm thankful for the day that I laid down a life of sin and became a new creation in Him!! If you have a minute, read this passage. I hope you will be excited and encouraged by it like I was!

Romans 6 (NIV version)
Sin’s Power Is Broken
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.

5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.

12 Do not let sin control the way you live;[a] do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.


I hope you are living a life of freedom through Jesus, but if you're not and you want to. Click the "Are you ready for heaven" link at the right.

I wish you freedom, joy and peace in Him! Be blessed!
-Dina


Romans 6 (Amplified version - I just love this version, it's wordy, but I love how it makes it so clear)

1WHAT 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?

2Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

3Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

4We were buried therefore with Him by the 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.

5For if we have 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].

6We know that our old (unrenewed) 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.

7For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].

8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

9Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

10For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

11Even 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.

12Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

13 Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

14For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy].

15What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God's favor and mercy? Certainly not!

16Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

17But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.

18And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

19I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

20For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

21But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.

22But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

23For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.