Galatians 3:27
"For as many of you as have been baptized into (your denomination? NO) Christ have put on Christ."
Well
that's the way most people read it, isn't it? Sure. You ask the average
individual, how did you become a member of your Church? and whats the
answer? Well I was baptized into it! My name is on the registry of the
church membership row. But you see that's not what the Scriptures says.
Here it says, "that you have been baptized into Christ."
Now there's not a drop of water in this verse. It's as dry as a bone,
and to follow up with another verse come back to Romans chapter 6, and
you have the same thing. We'll never forget the first time we heard a
guest preacher in one of our previous churches where we were "members",
and this preacher preached from Romans 6 and when he said there wasn't a
drop of water in this 3rd verse we thought he was way out in left
field. And at that time we were probably one of the strongest, but oh we
can see now that he was 100 % right because there is no water in Romans
chapter 6. Here it's basically the same thing as what Paul is saying in
Galatians chapter 3.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into (not into a denomination or church, but rather into) Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" If
you've been placed in Christ then before you can get there you had to
be identified with His death. Before a newness of life can come there
has to be a death of the old, before we can truly be born from above
there has to be a surrender to death of the old. This is the whole
meaning and purpose of the last supper coupled with the death of Jesus
shortly thereafter on the tree or cross. Remember it was not weeks or
days after the meal but only a few hours therefore they go together as
one unite. And how have we always put it? When Christ died, God saw
every one of us on the Cross in the Person of Christ, because He died in
our place, and this is what God saw. He saw us crucified and that's
what He means in Galatians 2 when Paul says -
Galatians 2:20
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me;..." Now
just as surely as God saw us on the Cross in the person of Christ, He
also saw us in the tomb. So here we are in the tomb, we're buried with
Him. Not by water but by virtue of God determining that now since He's
paid the sin debt for all that will receive and believe, and appropriate
it then yes God said, "You're dead, you're crucified, I saw you in
Christ, I saw you buried with Him in His death, in His tomb, and so also
we've been resurrected with Him to a Newness of Life. We are totally
different people as a result of this power of His resurrection, and so
it's a God thing. God in His Omnipotence, in His power, in His
Omniscience, in His ability to work in the area of the invisible, He has
placed us in all of these places.
In
the area of the invisible He has seen everyone of us crucified with
Christ. In the area of the invisible He saw everyone of us in the tomb
with Christ, and in the area of the invisible He has resurrected
everyone of us to a New Life and Endless Life. And as He did in
our first estate He has also placed us within the promised New Covenant
which is also Christ. For in this New Covenant God has promised to be
held responsible for doing the work within us. How often haven't we made
this illustration? If you were to go down to the morgue and accompany a
pathologist in an autopsy, would you ever see the soul of a person?
Would you ever see their spirit? Of course not, it's invisible. Does
that mean that it's not for real? You better believe it's for real or
you wouldn't be here. But the soul and spirit are invisible, and that's
where God works, in the area of the invisible. He works in the area of
our soul and spirit, and human hands can't touch that. You can water baptize this old body a hundred times and it's not going to change the soul and spirit.
Remember this is only an outer tabernacle, but only God can work in the
area of the soul and spirit His inner temple. We wish people could
understand that. Looking at the verse again.
Romans 6:3
"Know ye not, that so many of us is were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized (or identified) into his death?" And then to verse 8:
Romans 6:8
"Now if we be dead with Christ, (in other words if we've been crucified with Him, if we've been buried with Him then) we believe that we shall also live with him:" How
are we going to live with Him? By His resurrection power. Do you see
that? We've been raised in resurrection power. We're a new person, we're
a whole new being, and now we have been placed into Christ. How? By an
action of God's Will and of His divine purpose. Now on your way back to
Galatians stop at I Corinthians chapter 12. These are verses that we use
over and over because they are so foundational and so simplistic. We
don't have to have a seminary degree to understand some of these verses.
They're so simple but most people don't understand them. Why? Because
they've been lead to believe a lie, someone said they could not and
therefore they repeat that over and over until they believe it. Also
keep in mind that Paul tells us in Ephesians now in this Age of Grace
that there is only one baptism and then I Corinthians tells us what baptism that is.
Ephesians 4:4-5
"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism,"
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