Unit One

Choice 3:Romans 6 Baptism

Before we are baptized we can not be living in sin.  Therefore, we must repent of our sins. Romans 6:4 says, "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."  Here we learn that Christ's death is a symbolism of baptism.  We believe that we are to be baptized by immersion, and not by a sprinkling of water.  Baptism by immersion means that our entire body is under the water all at once.  Then the body is "raised" out of the water.  In verse four when the death of Christ is being compared to baptism, it says, "that like as Christ was raised from the dead."  Because of Christ, we are also raised from our sins after baptism. Verse 7 and 8 says, "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." Because baptism is being compared to the death of the Savior.  I think, when we are baptized, we are making a covenant with God, and that covenant can be renewed each week as we take the sacrament.  Therefore, we are able to maintain the "newness of life."  According to Mosiah 3:19 the part of us that dies at baptism is the natural man.

Verse 16 says, "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?  We know who's servants we are because of who we obey.  If we obey God we are God's servants it is as simple as that.  Verse 22 says, "but now being made fee from sin, ad become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life."  I had a coworker who always liked to remind me what a "sheltered" life I lived.  She thought of it as a negative thing.  But in verse 22 we learn that we are made free from sin through repentance.  I know that sin is a binding thing, and when we repent of it we are made known of the true source of freedom.