So, we have established that we died with Christ, and that is very exciting news. We were crucified to our old life and old nature and old desires. The death of your old nature is not a future event, it’s happened. Don’t tell me “I need to die to this”, tell me “I am dead to this”. Say what the Word of God says: “I died and my life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3.3).
Now, the problem is most Christians (definitely most, more than half) have very little if any idea that they died on the cross with Christ. The reason we baptize people is to REMIND them that they died! That’s why we get people and put them inside the water – you were immersed into the death of Christ. And then you were buried with Him!
Romans 6.3 says we were baptized (immersed) into His death. It then says we were BURIED with Him through that immersion. We were buried with Christ. You died with Christ, but Paul finds it important to also let us know that we were buried with Him.
Why is this so important? So you know that when you became a Christian, your old nature did not just die, it was put in the grave. For you to go back to that nature, to live from that nature, you are grave robbing. You are descrating the grave and going back to something that is not just dead, but dead and buried.
When we baptize (immerse) people in water, it is a picture of them being baptized (immersed) in the death of Christ. So, we don’t leave them in the water, we bring them out of the water as a picture that they are resurrected in Christ too (Ephesians 2). But you also are supposed to remember that part of you is left in the watery grave – part of you is gone for good. The power of sin over your life, your spiritual death, your oneness with the curse of the law is gone for good. DEAD and BURIED! You are no longer under law, you are no longer the old man, you are a new creation. The old nature is dead and buried. Don’t go trying to make it a zombie, leave it in the grave!
The early church would only baptise in running water so that they could tell people the water has washed their old nature away – you have died with Christ, but you were buried with Him.
Imagine, you are fighting your sinful urges and they are dead! You are fighting the impulse to be selfish and cruel and bitter and lazy and rude – it’s already DEAD. DEAD AND BURIED!
What is really happening when you are tempted to – for example – not forgive someone and nurse a grudge. It’s the sin of bitterness and criticism, yes, but the root sin – the root of all sin for a born-again, resurrected, new creation, washed in the blood Christian – is unbelief in your death and burial in Christ.
You don’t feel dead, so you doubt it. You don’t rationalize that you are dead, so you doubt it. You don’t experience that kind of death and entrance into newness of life, so you doubt it. The devil whispers that you are still a sinner, so you doubt it.
What you need to do is stop fighting the branch of the thing and stop trying over and over to forgive someone! What you need to do is go to the root and stop doubting that you are dead to that. You are not a bitter person, you find it easy to forgive, you are dead to that grudge, dead to that need to get even, dead to that desire for revenge. You have been crucified with Christ – so stop fighting a battle you have already won in Him!
God’s Word is true. When you believe it, it works. Every time. And it says you are dead to the old nature. So believe that. You are a new creation. Believe that. You are resurrected above that sin. Believe that.
Don’t tell me – my old life is not dead, in fact it is very much alive, it will not stay in the grave. NO IT IS DEAD AND THEREFORE IT CANNOT GET UP! THE OLD IS GONE!!! God has given you a brand-new nature. Your old nature is buried in the grave.
I know Christians who are so confused by this. They want to serve God and want to do selfish, mean, salacious, cruel things as well. So they ask and pray for God to crucify them, but that kind of prayer is fuel for unbelief. You are failing to appreciate and believe what Christ has already done.
You do not need to be crucified. You do not need to be buried. You need to live in the power and life of the crucifixion that has already happened. You need to believe you are dead, buried and resurrected! You do that and you start to see how free you are from that dead old binding up mean nature, you will move into a whole new realm of living for God in a place of rest.
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