In the act of water baptism, the burial and resurrection of Christ is reenacted, showing what literally takes place in the spiritual realm for those who believe in the Lord. They don’t experience the cross of Christ, but instead his death for them on their behalf! They are “buried with him through baptism into his death,” as the Apostle Paul said. As Christ died once and for all to sin, or addiction, or yielding to temptation, those who believe in him and are one with Him share in his death, or unresponsiveness, to sin.
Christ died.
They died with him.
Christ rose to a new life.
They rose with Him to a new life.
The practical experience of this happens in two ways:
1. Believers “consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in union with Christ.”
2. They live from the inside out and not the outside in; they follow the spirit instead of the body.
All of the habits, cravings, addictions, or whatever a person desires to change, are variations on the body ruling the person. They are dominated by the outer world of sensations. But the new life is a life of self-control based upon the spirit’s rightful rule over the body and soul. This happens by union with Christ, by trusting His Spirit who lives in each believer. The old way of life passes away, the way of living to gratify selfish sensual physical desires. All things become new.
There is a new perspective on life, a spiritual and eternal perspective, God centered and not self centered. But this new experience, whether in a New Year, new day, or new moment, is a choice. Red pill or blue pill. Plugged or unplugged. Self or God.
There is no other way to begin again than to be born again.
(mikelandrews.wordpress.com)
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