The Divide Of The Cross

F. No, when we are baptized, symbolizing Christ’s death, we are dying to the world. (Gal 6:14 NIV) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

G. Romans 6:3

H. We go down into the water and our world, in like, goes down with it. We come up in Christ, but our Old World is drowned.

I. Baptism is more than just getting dunked for Jesus. It is something far greater, relating as it does to both the death and the resurrection of our Lord, and having in view two worlds.

J. Before and after. The divide of the Cross.

II. Burial.

A. Peter describes baptism not as the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God.

B. God has spoken to us. He has spoken to us by the Cross. We answer in baptism that we want to die and pledge ourselves to God and His kingdom.

C. The Cross is not only Christ’s personally. It is an all-inclusive cross, a “corporate” cross, a Cross that includes you and me. God has put us all into His Son, and crucified us in Him.

D. What is my answer to God’s verdict on the old creation? I answer by asking for baptism. Die to the old creation.

E. Romans 6:4-

F. Who qualifies for burial? Only the dead! So if I ask for baptism I proclaim myself dead and fit only for the grave.

G. Repentance is part of salvation. We know that this Old World is not the way to go.

H. God’s question is clear and simple. “Christ has died, and I have included you there. Now, what are you going to say to that?” What is my answer? He has sentenced me to death and the grave; by my request for baptism I agree to these facts.

I. So when will I ask for baptism? When I see that God’s way is perfect and that I deserved to die, and that God needs to crucify my old self.

J. God has done the work of crucifixion so that now we are counted among the dead; but we must accept this and submit to it, by sealing that death with “burial.”

K. There are an Old World and a New World, and between the two there is a tomb.

L. In Romans 6:2, Paul is saying, “You should never have been baptized if you meant to live on in the old realm.”

M. Romans 6:5.

N. For by baptism we acknowledge that God has wrought an intimate union between Christ and ourselves in this matter of death and resurrection.

O. Watchman Nee- One day I was seeking to emphasize to a Christian Brother the intimacy of this union. We happened to be drinking tea together, so I took a lump of sugar and stirred it into my tea. A couple of minutes later I asked, “Can you tell me where the sugar is now, and where’s the tea?” “No,” he said, “you have put them together and the one has become lost in the other; they cannot now be separated.” It was a simple illustration, but it helped him to see the intimacy and the finality of our union with Christ in death.

P. The real meaning behind baptism is that in the Cross we were “baptized” into the actual death of Christ, so that His death became ours. Our death and His became then so closely identified that it is impossible to divide between them.