Do you REALLY know what baptism is all about?

(Colossians 2:11-14)

It’s a great question and from conversations I’ve seen or had with people, the answer is probably…No. And yet it is vastly more important than most people realise.

There are many explanations of what baptism is for and a number of ways it is performed, but there is only one truth.

This scripture I am looking at today gives us a great insight into what is achieved by baptism if it is performed and taught correctly. And if you do not know what the truth is, or even if you do, this article will give you a perspective of which you may not be aware.

Baptism is death

Whoa! What do you mean baptism is death?

Exactly what I said. Baptism is the death of those who enter it correctly and understand the full implications of what it is REALLY all about.

But before I go any further, let’s look at the scripture in question.

11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12 and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:11-14)

In the first verse (Vs 11) we see that in Christ we have put off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ.

How does a person put off the flesh? They die. When a person dies the spirit is separated from the body and so it puts off the flesh.

In verse 12 we see how this happens. We die and are buried with Christ through baptism.

Baptism is a death. It is how we die to this world by being baptised into the death of Jesus Christ, as it says in the following verse:

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death (Romans 6:3-4)

You have been baptised into the death of Jesus Christ. And more than that, you have put on His death and taken it as if it is your own.

27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:27)

So it is quite clear from these (and there are other scriptures that testify to this) that when we are baptised into Christ, we die. We put on the death of Jesus Christ as if it were our own death and we die with Him.

Resurrected with Christ

But it doesn’t stop at death. We are also raised with Christ in baptism as well.

As we go down into the baptismal waters we die with Christ. Then as we are lifted up out of the baptismal waters we are resurrected with Him, as we see in verse 12 above.

The other important fact pointed out by verse 12 is that this death and resurrection are based upon faith. We believe that Jesus died and God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And we believe that through the grace of God we have been given the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as our own. He took our place in death so that we could die and be raised through His sacrifice. And all we have to do is be baptised and believe it.

The resurrection aspect of baptism is critical too.

Anyone and everyone can die. But only Christ defeated death to be raised back to life eternal.

When we take His life as our own by faith and through the grace of God, we are new creations. We are born again, born from above, born as children of God, no longer subject to death and sin, but new creations set free from the slavery and bondage of this world.

Which brings us to the next part of what baptism is REALLY all about.

Freedom from sin

Most Christians know that Jesus Christ came to set them free from sin. Unfortunately most still believe that they are sinners too, which is a puzzle.

How can you still be a sinner when Christ has taken away your sins? Are you greater than God? Because this is what the next verse (Vs 13) tells us: that we are set free from sin.

We also see the foolishness of those who know they are set free from sin and yet still believe they are sinners in the words of Paul in Romans.

How can we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2)

We were dead in our sins and trespasses, but Christ came to take away our sins. He has set us free from our trespasses.

And we gain this freedom through baptism. That is why baptism is so important.

Baptism is a death and when we believe we have died with Christ, we are set free from sin.

Why does this work? Because the wages of sin is death. You earn death because you sin throughout your life. And when you die, your debt of sin is paid off.

But when we believe we have died with Christ, this debt is paid early. That is how Jesus takes away our sin, as the Bible says He will in John 1:29.

Why does He take away our sins? Sounds like a stupid question because who wants to be in sin? But the reason why is because God gave up on man because of sin. God said that He would have nothing to do with man because of sin, which you can read in Romans chapter 1.

Also, man cannot make himself perfect. An imperfect thing cannot remove it’s own imperfections to become perfect. So if we were to be helped by God to become perfect, He had to remove our sins.

And the process He used is by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which we receive through baptism. It is faith in our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through which sin is removed and God is prepared to help us.

Freedom from law

But the power in baptism doesn’t end with freedom from sin.

When Christ set us free from sin through His death, He had to overcome and set us free from the law as well. Sin is the breaking of the law and so if we are to remain sin-free after baptism, the law had to go as well so that we could no longer break it.

Again, this is achieved through baptism, because baptism is a death.

Because we believe we have died with Christ, we are dead. We are new creations, not of this world, but creations in the spiritual kingdom of God.

And being new creations in the Spirit, the law no longer applies or has any power over us.

Do you not know, brethren–for I am speaking to those who know the law–that the law is binding on a person only during his life? (Romans 7:1)

Let me repeat what this scripture is saying: The law is binding on a person during his life.

When a person dies they are no longer under the law. They have been released from the law through death and are no longer in bondage to it.

This is what the next verse (Vs 14) in the Colossians scripture tells us.

”…having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (Colossians 2:14)

In the death of Jesus, God has cancelled the law, since law is the only thing that can have a “legal demand.” The law was cancelled and we see in the words that follow that when Jesus was nailed up, the law was nailed with Him.

But Jesus could and did pass through death into life. The law, however, could NOT pass through death which is why it is still nailed and remains on this side of death. It did not and cannot pass through into the new life where the Lord went after death. It could not and does not hold any bond over the new creations in Christ Jesus.

The law is gone for those in Christ.

So we see that the importance of baptism cannot be understated. Baptism is one of the most critical things we can and will ever do as Christians. It’s by baptism that we put off this body of death to become new creations in Jesus Christ. It is by baptism that our sins are taken away and it is by baptism that we are set free from the law to walk in the new life with Christ.

Now do you REALLY know what baptism is all about? And there is even more that I will not cover now but you can find by searching for baptism on this website or by reading some of the articles listed below.

You might also like:

The Great Commission Part 2
The Baptism Of Jesus
Behold The Lamb Of God
You Must Be Born Again
I Am The Door
You Are Clean
Jesus Is The Way
Why Jesus Died
Baptising The Ethiopian
Baptism And Receiving The Holy Spirit
All Have Sinned
Christians And The Law
You Are Not A Sinner
You Are Not Under Law
The Law Ends At Death
How Freedom From Law Works
Righteousness By Faith
Baptism Defined
The Secret Of Freedom From Law
Why Are You A Christian
Reunification In Jesus Christ