Baptism, A Beautiful Picture Of Grace

"Baptism, a Beautiful Picture of Grace"

Introduction:

* Question: Do you have to be baptized to be saved?

Answer: No, only trusting in the atoning death of Jesus Christ on the cross ever saved anybody.

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* Question: Does everyone who gets saved have to be baptized?

Answer: No, you don’t have to, but remember what Jesus said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments." It is the first step of obedience to let the world know that you have decided to follow Christ.

* Question: What is the significance of baptism to the believer?

Answer: It is a picture that only the master Himself could have painted. It is a beautiful picture of grace, and that is what I would like for us to focus on this morning.

Prayer:

Read Text:

Romans 6:1-14:

1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7: For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

9: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

10: For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

You see, baptism is a beautiful picture of the grace of God bestowed upon mankind. It is a picture of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son. It symbolizes just how God’s act of love and grace on the cross has already and will continue to affect your life as a believer. Let’s look at each part of this beautiful picture, one step at a time.

I. The Death of Jesus Christ.

A. Jesus died a physical death.

Mk:15:39, And when the centurion, which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God.

Lk:23:46, And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

Heb:10:12: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.

B. Baptism represents our dying to the old sin nature. We are to think of ourselves as being dead to sin.

Rom. 6:

3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

7: For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8: Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

11: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Gal:2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

II. The Burial of Jesus Christ.

Baptism represents the burial of the old man. Going down under the water in baptism is a picture of Christ when they laid Him in the grave. His dead fleshly body was buried. We are saying that we want to bury our old sinful nature and put our sinful past behind us in order to follow Christ. We are saying that we no longer are servants of sin; instead we are now servants of righteousness through Jesus Christ.