Water baptism is about death —

your death, a public declaration of your death

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It is a public confession of faith: I have died to my old life and my old ways. It is a symbolic burial, by which the new Christian publicly declares they have died, and are now beginning a new life, in Christ. By asking for burial, you declare that you believe someone or something has died. There is no need for a burial without a death.

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Why was Jesus baptized in water? He was, and is, our pattern. And, in a sense, He was, at that point, dying to His past life. From that point, His first allegiance would no longer be to earthly relatives. (“Who is My mother, or My brothers?” Mark 3:31-35.) He was beginning His public ministry. Jesus was declaring that He was dead to any selfishness and existed solely to do the will of the Father God. ”                                                                                                                           

 

This is why I decided to get baptized in water, after I knew Jesus. It was the way that God prescribed for me to show the world and let it know that I have decided to follow Jesus, that the old me is dead and buried. So it is no longer I that live, but Christ  lives in me.

 

Water  Baptism  Study 

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Jesus commanded to make disciples of all nations. HOW?                                                                                                                              

1] By marking them with baptism in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.                                                                       

2] By teaching them to obey the word. 

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What is Baptism?

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‘Baptizo’ a Greek word means to be “totally immersed.” OR ‘to put in to’. E.g. completely sunk – submarine.                                         

Note: Pouring or Sprinkling is not baptism.

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How is this done?

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• John 3:23 – ‘Much water’ required.                                                 

• Matt  3:16  – ‘Came up’ immediately from water.                                    

• Acts 8 :38  –‘Went down ‘ in to the water.                                      

• Acts 8: 39 – ‘They came up’ out of the water.

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When a person repents from his sin and believes Jesus died for him, before many witnesses, he (or she) is to be taken to water, put right under it and brought up again.      

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Why would Jesus command that His believers do such a strange thing?

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Understanding what water baptism is all about is the key to a victorious and liberated Christian life. The act of going under the water and rising up from it again is a picture demonstrating what has happened to the believer.

 

FOUR STAGES OF CHRIST’S WORK PICTURED. 

[ 1 Cor.15:3-4  and  Col 2:12]  

                         

       Baptism represents:   

1] Death     2] Burial    3] Resurrection    4] Ascension.

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1. He Died …. I Died In Him “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (Rom 6: 3, 6, 7).

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2. He Was Buried … I Was Buried with Him . “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death…” (Rom 6: 3, 4).

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WATER BAPTISM IS …

Your Funeral Service! A burial service is not to kill a man off. It is only performed when the man is dead already. And so, because you have “died” in Christ, you bury your old life in water baptism. 

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3. He Was Raised … I Have A New Life In Him “In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection” (Rom 6:4, 5).

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4. He Ascended … I Ascended In Him “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus..” (Eph. 2:6). See also (Colossians 3:1.)

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WATER BAPTISM IS …

Your Resurrection To New Life! You rise out of the water demonstrating and declaring y ou are a new creation in Christ! [2 Cor. 5:17]

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“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”

(Rom 6:8-11)         

              

So, Baptism is a public pledge or a public statement or a public testimony of a new life.

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Q. What is the declaration to all other people?

Answer.  Declaration Of 2 kingdoms and Of 2 races.

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THE TWO KINGDOMS

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“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” (Col 1:13).

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Every man and woman born into the world is born into the Kingdom of Darkness; born slaves of the dictator Satan. There is no way out of this kingdom except by DEATH, and there is no way into the Kingdom of God except by BIRTH. And so Jesus became both our death and new birth – and this we declare in water baptism!

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STATEMENT:

“ We Are A New Creation In Christ Jesus Belonging To The Kingdom Of God And Not To The Kingdom Of Darkness.”

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THE TWO RACES

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As there are two kingdoms, so within each kingdom is a different race of people. The Adamic Race populates the Kingdom of Darkness, and the New Creation populates the Kingdom of God.

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1. The First Adam - “For as in Adam all die …” (1 Cor 15:22). See also (Romans 5:12). Adam was the father of us all, the entire human race. Adam’s sin alienated us all from God. Because of his sin, we all inherited his rebellious and diseased nature and became subject to death. Adam’s off-spring are called “the Adamic Race”. 

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There was no way God could change the fallen Adamic Race. He had to put an end to that race and begin a whole new race of humanity

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2. The Last Adam - “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless. Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).               

 

Jesus was the Last Adam. He came as the lastborn of the Adamic Race and the firstborn of a new race. As He hung upon the Cross, He hung there as the last Adam – the last born of the Adamic Race. When He died on the Cross, the Adamic Race and the Adamic sinful nature died. God put to death the fallen creation in Him. The Adamic Race died in Christ.

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3. The Second Man -“..So in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Cor 15:22). Jesus came as God’s new Man, through which a new race would be created. Jesus was raised from the dead – not as the last Adam – but as the Second Man, the Head of the New Creation.

 

“So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living soul’ ; the last Adam, (Christ) a life-giving spirit … The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.” “As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we hear the likeness of the man from heaven” (1 Cor 15:45-49).

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4. The New Creation - “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17). So, In water baptism we declare to all our friends and acquaintances that we are no longer part of Adam’s race and the Kingdom of Darkness. We are a New Creation in Christ, belonging to the Kingdom of God!

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STATEMENT:

I Have Been Crucified With Christ. It Is No Longer I Who Live But Christ Lives In Me. The Life Which I Now Live In The Flesh, I Live By Faith In The Son Of God, Who Loved Me And Gave Himself For Me” 

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MY COMMITMENT

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Through this study I now realize that my old life with its sin and judgment has been put to death in Jesus’ death, and now because of Jesus’ resurrection I have a whole new life to live. Because this is what water baptism pictures, I make this commitment to be baptized in water and to share this truth with others.