“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Romans 6:1-4
Baptism by immersion in water represents and enacts what it means to be Christian. You have been called to be one with Jesus Christ. To die to what you were, before Jesus came into your life; and to come alive to the whole and complete person God planned for you to be, because Jesus is now in your life (Galatians 2.20). This is not something you can do by yourself; but Jesus Christ makes it possible. He died for you. He rose from death for you. He makes you a new you (Galatians 2.26-27)!
In baptism, having been plunged deep, you were lifted up from the depths of the water, longing and praying that the Holy Spirit come upon you (Acts 19.2-6). You embarked upon a journey to be shaped into the person God always purposed you to be (2 Corinthians 3.16-18). You have been liberated from being less than who you truly are. You have entered into a new freedom, through surrendering to the presence and purpose of God in your life. This is what your baptism by immersion is all about.
Heavenly Father, thank you for all that baptism, by immersion in water, communicates and conveys. I thank you that, because of Jesus, I can turn away from all that is dark and destructive in my past with confidence, that I might be born again to new life in Jesus Christ. As I died with Jesus Christ in entering the waters of baptism, I thank you that I can live a new life with Jesus as my Saviour and Lord, raised up to eternal life in Him, in the company of the saints of God and by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
