November 26, 2022 WE HAVE BEEN BURIED AND RAISED
Colossians 2:12-15 “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”
We may not often think about the fact that we have died, and have been raised from the dead. If we have been born again, the old us, who we use to be, has died. A water baptism is a picture of just that; the water represents a grave, and then the one being baptized is raised up as a new person. This miracle of our old self dying and then being raised a new person is possible only by the ‘working of God.’ We were dead in our transgressions, without hope; we had a ‘certificate of debt’ against us that kept us imprisoned. But thanks be to God, He canceled out the certificate of debt, and nailed it to the cross! If there is any good news to be heard-that is it. We have been made ‘alive together with Him’ and all of our sins forgiven. Because we may be so familiar with the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and His resurrection and know about baptism, we may lose the impact of what we it means to be raised up with Him. Let us always be conscience of our resurrection to life in Christ and let us live out of the new person that we are. Our being raised from the dead is not to be just an event that happed at some point in the past; the very essence of being made alive together with Jesus is that we live life in a way that reflects His life. Jesus was not anxious, nor impatient, was not argumentative, was not depressed, not fearful, and the list could go on. You may be thinking that “That may be true, but I am human; I’m not Jesus.” This may sound like a stretch, but the amazing truth is that we can live as Jesus lived! Hold on-Jesus never sinned, but we have sinned; yet, because Jesus broke the power of sin and has made us new creations, we can walk according to the Spirit and not sin. If we choose to walk according to the flesh, we do sin. I’m saying, just do not assume that you do not have power over the flesh, but assume you do have power over the flesh and that you do not have to yield to sin. Remember, we have been made alive together with Christ, and He lives in us. If and when we yield to the flesh and sin, let us quickly confess it and turn from it, and continue to walk in the Spirit.
Romans 6:1-4 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
Blessings,
Buddy
RSS Feed