THE
BAPTISM IN THE BODY OF CHRIST.
The purpose
to be lived is being baptized into the Body of Christ. We want to base this on
Romans 6:2-11 in order to explain how we were baptized into the Body of Christ,
we read as follows:
Romans
6:1-11 says:
Dead to
Sin, Alive in Christ
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on
sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live
in it any longer?
3 Or don't you know that all of us who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through
baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him like this in
his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
6 For we know that our old self was crucified
with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no
longer be slaves to sin—
7 because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that
we will also live with him.
9 For we know that since Christ was raised from
the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for
all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to
sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus."
Comparing
verses 2-3 of Romans 6 “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any
longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?” with 2 Cor. 4:14: “because we know that the one
who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and
present us with you in his presence”.
For
Christ's love compels us, because we reason this way, that if one died for all,
therefore all died. We that are dead to sin, how can we live any longer
therein? Basically he exposes a paradox here, since we died with Christ to sin,
there is no way we can live again in the practice of sin. Do you not know that
all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in
newness of life. Here it speaks about being baptized into Christ's body. All of
us who have received Jesus as Savior of our lives by faith are baptized with
him in the Body of Christ. Now then we are part of the Body of Christ; we are
member of the body. When Christ died, we died with Him. Baptism is a seal of
our participation in that death and resurrection: a seal that is only valid
when ratified by faith, this baptism is spiritual. According to Col. 2:12.
"Having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your
faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead". When a person is
baptized in water, he actually testifies publicly that he was baptized into the
body of Christ.
The purpose
to be lived in all this, is the fact that Christ lives, He lives in us, and we
live as well. We are one with Christ now, and we are part of him. Jesus is the
Head of the Church and we are the body. Now no one can take us away from Him
anymore, separate us from Him. He has given us eternal life in His death there
on the cross.
The
arch-enemy seduced the human being so he would miss the target, there in the
past; but, once in Christ Jesus, both here on earth and over there in the glory
that will not happen ever again. We are already part of this life here on
earth, from the time on when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior; we are
born again. One day Jesus wanted to show his disciples that it was necessary
that He washed their feet. Peter felt bad, because he thought that he should
wash the feet of the Master, and not Jesus wash his feet. "No," said
Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I
wash you, you have no part with me", Jo. 13:8. Jesus washed the feet and
with this gesture taught them that He, if Jesus does not cleanses us of sin
nature, we have no part with Him. Paul explains this in one of his epistles to
the Corinthian Church. "And that is what some of you were. But you were
washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and by the Spirit of our God" - 1 Cor. 6:11.
The Purpose
to be lived, is to be part of Christ, we must die with him in order to rise with
Him to reign with Him on earth. In one only, Jesus we reign on earth.
Romans 5:17.
