TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Romans 6:1-14
Do you remember the day you were baptized? I do. It’s one of those days I will never forget. I had grown up in the church and had seen many people baptized. I always knew that I wanted to become a Christian, but I wanted to wait until I was old enough to understand the responsibility I was accepting. We were having a weeklong Gospel meeting at our congregation, and I told my parents that I wanted to be baptized. At thirteen years old, I was baptized into Christ. I will never forget that day because it marks the day that I made the most important decision in my life.
In Romans 6, Paul is writing to a group of Christians who have already been baptized. His goal in this section is to encourage Christians to stop sinning. In verse two, Paul asks a rhetorical question, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The obvious answer is, “You can’t.” In this chapter, Paul argues that baptism is very important because it marks the point when a person decides that he is going to stop sinning. Paul describes this decision as a death to sin. He says, “We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order than the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Romans 6:6).
When Jesus died on the cross, He died to sin (Romans 6:10). When Christians are baptized into Christ’s death, we die to sin (Romans 6:11). Paul’s argument is that if Christians truly understand what baptism means, then a Christian cannot cheerfully continue in sin. Sin should have no dominion over us (Romans 6:14). This doesn’t mean that Christians won’t sin. There is a difference between committing a sin and “letting sin reign in your mortal body” (Romans 6:12).
Today, I will…remember the significance of my baptism. I will remember that I have died to sin and I will rid my life of sins that reign over me.