Silas
Beloved of All
Praise God for what He has done in your life today and for your step of obedience in baptism. This is a beautiful and important milestone, and I rejoice with you.
The Scripture shows us that baptism is a picture of a changed life. From the beginning, baptism was connected to repentance, a turning away from the old life and a desire to live a new life. The going down into the water speaks of burial, that the old life is dead and buried, and the coming up speaks of resurrection to new life. For the believer in Jesus, it is even more. It is identifying with Jesus Himself in His death and resurrection, declaring that you now belong to Him and that you have been made new by His grace.
That new life is not something you could create on your own or receive because someone else pushed you into it. Jesus taught that we must be born again, born of God, and that new birth comes through faith in Him. Your baptism is an outward testimony of that inward work God has already done in your heart through Christ, who has established a new covenant of grace and truth and whose blood takes away sin.
The Bible also speaks of one baptism, the baptism into Jesus Christ Himself. It is not baptism into a group or a system, but into the Lord. And beyond the water itself, Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, immersing and filling His people with power to live for Him and to be His witnesses. My prayer for you is that you would continue to be filled with His Spirit, renewed in your mind, putting off the old ways and putting on the new life created in righteousness and holiness in Christ.
Walk forward in that new life day by day, staying close to Jesus through His Word and prayer, trusting Him to conform you more and more to His image. May the Lord strengthen you, keep you, and cause this public declaration you made today to bear much fruit in the days ahead as you follow Him.
The Scripture shows us that baptism is a picture of a changed life. From the beginning, baptism was connected to repentance, a turning away from the old life and a desire to live a new life. The going down into the water speaks of burial, that the old life is dead and buried, and the coming up speaks of resurrection to new life. For the believer in Jesus, it is even more. It is identifying with Jesus Himself in His death and resurrection, declaring that you now belong to Him and that you have been made new by His grace.
That new life is not something you could create on your own or receive because someone else pushed you into it. Jesus taught that we must be born again, born of God, and that new birth comes through faith in Him. Your baptism is an outward testimony of that inward work God has already done in your heart through Christ, who has established a new covenant of grace and truth and whose blood takes away sin.
The Bible also speaks of one baptism, the baptism into Jesus Christ Himself. It is not baptism into a group or a system, but into the Lord. And beyond the water itself, Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit, immersing and filling His people with power to live for Him and to be His witnesses. My prayer for you is that you would continue to be filled with His Spirit, renewed in your mind, putting off the old ways and putting on the new life created in righteousness and holiness in Christ.
Walk forward in that new life day by day, staying close to Jesus through His Word and prayer, trusting Him to conform you more and more to His image. May the Lord strengthen you, keep you, and cause this public declaration you made today to bear much fruit in the days ahead as you follow Him.
