At COMPASS Church, we practice baptism by immersion, an act that pictures the believer’s union with Christ in his death and resurrection. In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth, he reminds them about the gospel that he preached to them, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.” When a person believes from the heart that Jesus is the Christ, the One the Father promised to send to redeem his people, that Christ died for their sins, and that Christ was raised from the dead, they are saved from God’s judgment against their sin and given a new life in Christ.
When in baptism that believer is plunged under the water, it pictures their union with Christ in his death and burial. When Christ died on the cross for our sins, it’s as if we died with him. In baptism preparation classes, I like to ask the participants what would happen if I held them under the water for five minutes. They warily answer, “I would drown.” Assuring them that I will not do that, I ask what being brought up out of the water represents? It is easy to see how it represents being raised to life. Just as surely as the believer is united with Christ in his death, so too is he united with Christ in his resurrection.
The life that the believer is raised too in Christ is not simply their old life polished up, they are raised to a new life. “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all,” Paul writes, “but the life he lives he lives to God. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The believer’s new life is to be a life lived “to God,” that is, a life lived for God’s purposes and glory. With this act of obedience to Christ, being baptized, the believer’s baptism becomes a way for him to express publicly his commitment to live for God’s glory.
The facility we rent for our Sunday services is being used by another group on Resurrection Sunday, so we have rented the Beach House at Holley By The Sea, which sits on Santa Rosa Sound. If you want to encourage the man being baptized, join us. I anticipate baptizing him after our 10:30 AM worship service.
