Spirit Filled Christians

(NET) — 1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus

were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that

just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.

6 We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

(NET) — 8 By the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ 10 But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

Exodus 15:8–10 NET

By the blast of your nostrils the waters were piled up, the flowing water stood upright like a heap, and the deep waters were solidified in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will chase, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire will be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ But you blew with your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

From the bank of the Red Sea we should have noticed

Exod 15:8-10

you witness the hand of Mighty God at work

blast of His nostrils ===> water pile up! wind!

fluid water stood solid like a heap - bottom to top

enemy has desire to take us back ===>captivity

but Mighty God reverted water status to liquid form and sank Pharoah’s army ==> whirlpool.

the same H2O that saved us created doom for our enemies

3. We also were baptized unto his death

raised with Him in a resurrected life in X

body of sin no longer dominates us there4 no longer enslaved to sin

we died with X, we rise with Him

we should consider ourselves “dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus

Baptism

A minister was seeking to explain the significance of baptism to a new convert. He was gesturing as he talked and noticed that as he was using his hand its shadow fell on the ground. So he said to the convert, “Do you see the shadow of my hand on the sand? Now this is just a shadow. The hand is the real thing. And when you came to Jesus, when you believed in Jesus, that was the real baptism. You were joined to him, and what happened to him also happened to you. Jesus was alive, then he died and was buried, and then he rose from the dead. That is what happened to you when you believed in him.” He pointed to the shadow on the sand and said, “When you go down in the water and are raised up again, that is a picture of what has already happened.” Water baptism is a picture, a symbol to teach us what happened to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus.49

Baptism is like a wedding ring: they both symbolize transactions. A wedding ring symbolizes marriage, just as baptism symbolizes salvation. Wearing a wedding ring does not make you married any more than being baptized makes you saved. To extend the parallel, if a person, especially a woman, does not wear a wedding ring you can almost always assume that the person is not married.

So it was in New Testament times. If a person was not baptized, you could probably assume that he or she was not a believer. On this we must be clear: baptism is a symbol of salvation and only a symbol. But, like a wedding ring, it is such an effective symbol that it should never be taken for granted.50

Michael P. Green. (2000). 1500 illustrations for biblical preaching (pp. 26–27). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

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