Baptized Into His Death

In all of our getting, we are to get understanding. I believe the Holy Ghost is installing a sense of urgency in the hearts of the Sons to seek out the wisdom of the Father, by rightly dividing the word of truth. Each day the revelation of Jesus Christ is being made clearer to those of us who are committed to His purpose.

I am amazed at the simple, yet so powerful, truths that have been unveiled by the Spirit within the last few months. Even now the Holy Ghost is leading us into a truth that will change the way we have previously comprehended our very salvation.

Romans 6:1-3

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

This is an astounding event. It is also one that we somehow overlooked or downplayed. The believers were baptized into the death of Jesus Christ. We really need to take another look at the operation of the Holy Ghost in the begetting of the Sons of God.

Up to now, this process of salvation has been taught as a matter of symbolism, but I do not think Paul was trying to symbolize this event. For indeed it was an event, a happening, an actual experience. Baptism into the death of Jesus Christ is the reward of the believer. It is the work of God in salvation. It is imperative that we see the actual operation of salvation.

If we could have played back the operation of the quickening power of the Holy Ghost in slow motion when we were at the altar seeking God, we would have seen our baptism into His death as a natural, physical, graveyard death. Death took place in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye we were changed from death to life.

I Corinthians 15:52

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

Jesus died on the cross. It was His death that paid the price for the sins of mankind. Somehow we are now made partakers of that atonement, not in the same manner as the Jews in their atonement rituals of sacrifices offered on the brazen altar. Their fellowship in the atonement process did not afford them any physical experience. Note the following passages:

Hebrews 9:12-14

12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

IT IS THE CONSCIENCE WHO WAS PURGED FROM SIN.

Our conscience or the hidden man of the heart, as he is sometimes referred to, experienced a physical sanctification. This is what makes the blood of Jesus so powerful towards us. The inner man is a partaker of the sprinkling of the blood.

Partake - 1. To take part or have a share: PARTICIPATE. 2. To take or be given part or portion. 3. To take or have part of: SHARE. Webster’s Dictionary

Conscience – The spirit of the mind. Co-perception of both worlds (good and evil, flesh and spirit).

This purging is not symbolic as in the days of Moses. This was a physical cleansing of the inward parts of man. As we go back to Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find the method of purging beautifully explained.

Romans 6:4-8

4 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.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 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:

We were buried with Him. One buries that which is dead. We were baptized into His death, the death of crucifixion. The old man was crucified with Christ, enabling the body of sin to be destroyed. However, the question here is: What part of the human being was baptized into the death of Jesus, who is the old man, and what is the body of sin? All these questions must be answered before we can clearly understand the operation of the faith of God.

It is clear that the inner man is the New Creature. It is He who lives in the temple of clay. Paul asks in Romans 7:24, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He declared deliverance will come by Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). The Lord makes it clear that the “born again” man is spirit. He is not of the flesh, nor is he in the flesh. He is in the Spirit of God. For our life is hid in

Psalm 51:6

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Yes in God, it is in Him that we live, move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Yes, our being, our true personage is in Christ Jesus.

Beloved, this is a reality. We are born of the Spirit of God. We are now the sons of God. We are His children. We are partakers of the divine nature, adopted into the royal family and made citizens of the Kingdom of God.

John 17:11

And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

John 17:22

And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one.

Notice the following terminology. Make them one, as we are one. We have all been made to partake of the selfsame Spirit, but we have this treasure in an earthen vessel. Look at the implication here. “We have.” That is, the born again man has this treasure, the Holy Ghost, in an earthen vessel, a body of clay.

Remember, we were in the flesh, but now we are in the Spirit, meaning that the spirit of man was taken out of the flesh and placed within the Spirit of God.

James 2:26

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Now according to James, the body without the spirit is dead. The spirit of the believer was baptized into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. During that baptism, the body being without the spirit, died. This is the atonement.

II Corinthians 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

The old man, the Adam man, was crucified with Christ. How? By the spirit of the man being baptized into His death. This baptism was a submerging of the human spirit into the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of Christ.

Note that the Spirit of God is eternal and omnipresent. To be baptized in Christ is to be baptized into His past, present and future. Therefore, the baptism in the Spirit placed the believer on the cross at Calvary. Remember, time and distance cannot separate those who are in the Spirit of God. We were at-one-with Christ on the cross. This is true atonement. Being put to death in the flesh in our stead, Christ made us partakers of the crucifixion by His Spirit.

PLANTED IN CHRIST: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

I do not believe that the Body of Christ has understood the implications of being in Christ.

TO BE IN HIM IS TO BE MANIFESTED IN HIS TOTAL EXISTENCE.

For it is the Father who placed us in Christ before the foundations of the world. Note the following scriptures. I chose a few of them to hammer more nails in this revelation of the death of the sons of God. Look at how many times the apostle rehearses this fact to the early church.

Romans 6:4-8

4 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.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 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:

Beloved, we were truly at one with the death of Jesus, when He was put to death on the cross. However, to accept Christ and experience the new birth, one would have to be born of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is eternal and omnipresent. Once again, to be planted in the Holy Ghost is to be planted in His past, present and future.

Omnipresent - An attribute of God alone, by which is meant that God is free from the laws or limitations of space.

Unger’s Bible Dictionary

Omnipresent - The fact of being present or in existence everywhere at once.

Webster’s Dictionary

We are the sons, the members of the Body of Christ. He is the head, we are the Body. The head cannot or will not be severed from the Body, although many run their churches as though Christ is not involved.

Look a little closer at the church. It is the members of Christ. It is His body, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. We are His hands and feet, literally, here on the earth. Yes, the day will come when Christ shall be glorified, and the Body with Him. Because we are of His body, we are also partakers of His suffering and glory.

Galatians 2:20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

The Adam man was crucified with Christ, body, soul and spirit. The old man is DEAD! Nevertheless, the Spirit which raised Christ from the dead has now raised or quickened our mortal bodies back to life. Therefore, the life we now live in the flesh is not by the power of the human spirit as before, but it is by the power of Christ who lives in the human spirit.

Now the new man, our recreated spirit, can testify of the new life force, the light of the life of Christ. He knows that this is the source of his life now. The flesh is alive only by the power of Christ.

The power of Christ now lives in our human spirit.

Colossians 3:1-4

1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

We are dead, yet have life in Christ. It is the flesh that is dead. It is the Adam man that died at the point of salvation and the life we now live is in Christ Jesus. Adam (the old man or that Adamic nature of man) was crucified on the cross with Christ Jesus.

I Peter 3:3-4

3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;

4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

The hidden man is the meek and quiet spirit. He is the man who is hid in God by Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:9-10

9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

The new man is created in the image of Christ. He is a partaker of the divine nature of God and renewed in the knowledge of God.

Renewed: 1. anakainoo "to make new" (ana, "back" or "again," kainos, "new," not recent but different),

The implication here is that the inner man or human spirit is made new and different. It is brought back again from the dead, but is now different than it was before death in Christ.

"To renew," is used in <2 Cor. 4:16>,; of the daily renewal of "the inward man" (in contrast to the physical frame), i. e., of the "renewal" of spiritual power; in <Col. 3:10>,; of "the new man" (in contrast to the old unregenerate nature), which "is being renewed unto knowledge," <Eph. 4:23>,; i.e., the true knowledge in Christ, as opposed to heretical teachings.

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)

(Copyright (C) 1985, Thomas Nelson Publishers)

The renewing is the work of the Holy Ghost and the Word of God in the inner man. He is being made more powerful daily by the acquisition of the knowledge of God. He is discovering daily who he is and what great love the Father has bestowed upon him.

II Timothy 2:11

It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:

Galatians 5:24-25

24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Galatians 6:14-15

14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.

John 6:57-58

57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

58 This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.

Colossians 2:20-22

20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,

21 (Touch not; taste not; handle not;

22 Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

As we continue this study, I am sure we will come back to some of these same scriptures to prove our resurrection in Christ. But for now we need to view the mind of the Father in preparing an atonement that would reconcile the world to Himself.

In this life, suffering in the flesh for the church is to deny itself the pleasures of sin, greed and wantonness. This should be attainable since the old man was crucified with Christ and should be dead to the things of this life. To direct our attention to the things of the world is an opportunity to recreate the lust of the flesh.

We have the power to control the disposition of this body. We have the life of Christ, and it is by His faith that we are to live this life in the flesh. Knowing that one day the Lord will come and deliver us from this body of death.

Once we are born again we are dead to the things of this world.

The truth is the Spirit of God brought this body back to life for one purpose:

TO SERVE THE WILL OF THE FATHER.

The new creature was forced to remain in it to do the work of the Father. Nevertheless, we have power over the desires of the flesh. We can subdue and mortify the members of the flesh. It is our choice. We can chose to yield our members only to righteousness unto life, or to yield them to sin unto death. As many of us who are led by the Spirit, we are the sons of God. Those of us who choose to be led by the dictates of a dead man (the flesh) allow death to work in us. The end of such a one is death, hell and destruction.

Romans 8:14

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.