“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,
that for just as Christ was raised from the death by the glory
of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”
(Romans 6:3-4).
To know means to understand, to have news about something, to be educated, to have the ability or capacity to do something. However, Paul challenges us in Romans 6 to know, at least, three things.
The first “know” is that we are united with Christ and His death through baptism. Sin separates us from Christ, but through baptism we are united to Him, His death and what this signifies. We are no longer under the kingdom of Adam, and now form part of the kingdom of Christ. During baptism we crucify sin in our hearts, die to the old life, and are buried, immersed alongside Him, to emerge and resurrect to a new life.
This is why baptism should necessarily be done by immersion,
so it can fulfill its meaning and so we can follow Jesus’s example.
The second “know” emphasizes the crucifixtion of our old life together with Christ. We continue to have a sinful nature, but through Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, always depending on Him, we can overcome.
The death of a slave freed him from slavery, and the believer
who dies with Christ through baptism is free from the salvery of sin.
The third “know” has to do with Christ’s resurrection. The Lord does not want to lead us only to death and the grave, but also to resurrection and a new life. Just like Christ will not return to the grave because He has overcome death, the believer also be an overcomer. Death will no longer have authority.
In conclusion, let us apply the knowledge to our life. Knowing and not applying what we know does not provide us with an advantage; on the contrary, it increases our responsibility, because “in the end, we will not be asked what we know, but what we ave done with what we know” (Jean de Gerson).
What would hinder us from applying wat we know? It could be inconsistency between words and actions, indifference, fanaticism, neglect, devaluing knowledge, prejudices, pressure, mockery, and opposition… but nothing excuses or justifies not practicing good knowledge, much less when it involves not only the present, but eternity.
Martin Luther was pressured, ridiculed, and threatened.
Even so, he never yielded his convictions gleaned from the Word of God.
He said, “My conscience is captove to the Word of God.
I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience
is neither right nor safe. Here I stand,
I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.”
God bless you, may you be filled with His knowledge and may He give you the strenght to live it out…