A Word about Baptism

       This week in my New Testament class we have been reading Romans. There is a lot of good stuff in there, including some talk about baptism. I think it's interesting that it talks about baptism by immersion as symbolizing death and rebirth, something that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints teaches, which is why we believe in baptism by immersion.

        Before baptism can occur, man must be dead to sin. In other words, man must discontinue his acts of sin and repent before he can be baptized unto life. When Christ was baptized he was baptized by immersion. His baptism symbolized death, with his body being buried in the water. When he came out of the water it symbolized his triumph over death, both symbolizing resurrection and Christ’s triumph over sin. Likewise, when we are baptized it should be by immersion, symbolizing the death of our old man or our putting to rest our sins.  When we come out of the water it symbolizes our new man, our new life with Christ. If we are baptized by sprinkling, it doesn’t really capture the symbolism of the death of our sins. We need to be fully washed free of them, not lightly sprinkled in cleanness.

       In order to remain new and clean, and maintain the “newness of life” we need to use our members in righteousness. We need to root out our evil tendencies, becoming dead to sin, and not allowing the lust of our bodies to control us. We need to not yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness. But use them in righteousness. At baptism, the natural man should die, because it is the natural man that is an enemy to God. When we yield to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, we are becoming the new man that is born after our baptism. We become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon {us}, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19).

       We know whose servant we are by seeing what our fruits are. If we are the servants of God, we have fruit unto holiness. However, when we are servants of the devil our fruits are evil, bringing shame and death. We see that “to whom we yield ourselves servants to obey, his servants we are to whom we obey; whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness”(Romans 6:16). The true source of freedom is found in becoming servants to God.