Topic: Freedom from Sin through Baptism
Reading: Romans 6:1-7
Introduction and Overview
Every Christian knows that Jesus came to take away their sins. It is one of the fundamental pieces of knowledge that comforts everyone who comes to Christ. And it is stated in the first chapter of John saying, “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
But not too many people understand how this happens or what the process is by which this works.
The key to receiving this freedom from sin is first, to have faith in Jesus Christ, and then to be baptised into His death and resurrection. We receive freedom and release from sins through the process of water baptism.
Baptism is one of the least understood practises in the church today. You can understand this lack of understanding by looking at all the different opinions about what baptism is and does. Some believe in infant baptism, some see it as an initiation into a church, some do it as a baptism of repentance only, which was the process John the Baptist taught, and some just do it because Jesus did it.
But baptism in water is much more than that. It is through baptism that we receive and enter into the death of Jesus Christ, and also His resurrection. We die with Him as we go down into the water, and we are raised as new creations when we are lifted out of the water. And it is important that we believe these things because death is the payment for sin. And it was by His resurrection that we are justified in the eyes of God, and these things are all accepted by faith.
Key points from reading:
- You are no longer a sinner because you have died to sin.
- Baptism is your death and resurrection through faith and accepting the sacrifice of Christ as your own.
- Our old self has been put to death with Christ so that our sinful bodies would be destroyed and we would be no longer in slavery to sin.
- And because we have now died with Christ by faith, we are freed from sin. We are no longer sinners.
Discussion:
- Scripture: Romans 6:1-2
- It is by the grace of God that we have been set free and have received the free gift of righteousness by faith.
- But now that we have received this gift, we need to take the next step, which is the removal of sin. The Grace of God gives us righteousness by faith, but it is in baptism that we receive the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that frees us from sin.
- When we accept the death and resurrection of Christ as our own, we enter into His death and His new life in the resurrection and we die to sin. We are no longer under sin as the scripture in verse 2 says, ““How can we who died to sin still live in it?”
- Scripture: Romans 6:3-4
- Verse 3 explains this process in unambiguous terms. When you are baptised into Christ, you are baptised into His death. You die with Christ through baptism. His death becomes your death, which you receive by faith. And because you are now dead in the eyes of God, He removes all of your sins, past, present, and future, and you stand before God, sin free in Christ. When your sins are taken away, you are no longer a sinner.
- This is one of the most difficult concepts for most Christians to accept and believe. They say, “How can I not be a sinner?” But in these verses God has said exactly that. Jesus died for your sin, you die with Him through baptism, and being dead your sins are all gone.
- But that isn’t the end of it. Death is not the end. This death we share and receive in Christ is just the beginning of the new life we receive in the resurrection of Christ. Since Jesus died and was raised, through baptism we too die and are raised as new creations in Jesus Christ. Like Christ, we too now walk in a new life, freed from sin, freed from the law (which we will look at in detail when we get to Romans chapter 7), and we have become new creations in Christ.
- Scripture: Romans 6:5
- Just as Jesus died and was raised into a new life, we too are raised from the baptismal waters into a new life.
- We are united with Christ through baptism, and we receive this by faith. When we truly and wholeheartedly believe that in baptism we have died and been raised with Christ, then that is what God sees in us. Not the old sinful self, but the new life in Christ.
- Scripture: Romans 6:6-7
- Our old self has been put to death with Christ for the purpose of the destruction of the old, sinful life we lived. He died so that we could be re-created and born again as children of God rather than children of sin.
- And because we have joined Christ in death, we will also join Him in life. This new life is a spiritual life built upon grace and faith. It is at baptism that the real work begins as we learn and grow, and we need to understand what our baptism means to do that. We need to remember at all times that we have died with Christ, and we now live with Christ in the spirit.
- And as verse 7 reiterates once more, “He who has died is freed from sin.” You and I are freed from sin because we entered into the death of Jesus and have been allowed by the grace of God to take His death as our own. And now you are freed from sin, if you have been baptised into Jesus Christ.
Key Takeaways:
- You receive and enter into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through water baptism. Baptism is your death and resurrection as a new creation in Christ. You have been born again by the grace of God through this process.
- Because you have died with Christ, all of your sins have now been taken away because death is the payment required for sin. Jesus paid the price for you and I and when we accept and believe we have died with Him in baptism, our sins are taken away.
- You are no longer a sinner. And you have to believe that you are no longer a sinner.
Prayer Points
- Ask the Lord to open these things up to you and give you the understanding of the enormity of Hos Grace, and the power of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- Pray that you can always, every moment of the day, remember that you are no longer a sinner as your sins have been taken away.
- Thank God for the grace He has extended to you for this blessing and for taking away your sins as there is no other way you can receive this than by His grace and faith in the working of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus.