260. Buried and Risen
Colossians 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
In Baptism we are buried with Christ; through the operation of God we are risen with him. This is a part of the awesome promises of God for us sinners: we died with Him; we are buried with Him; we are risen with Him; we ascended with Him; we reign with Him; and we will come back with Him to judge. It is amazing that we are so identified with Jesus Christ that what He has done we have done. This means we live today with Him and He with us, and we will live and reign with Him forever in eternity. Oh, what faith has given us! Awesome promises!
There is a mystery to the union of the believer with Christ. We cannot understand how it works; we can only believe it.We are buried with Him in baptism: we remember our baptism daily by repentance and faith. When we died and were buried with Christ Sin died and was buried, the old man drowned and died. Sin has corrupted the flesh beyond recognition, and nothing can be done to rehabilitate the flesh and the old man. Therefore, it must be drowned and die. The flesh is crucified and the old man is drowned. Repentance and Faith recognizes this fact as truth. We are indeed dead to sin. Sin has no connection or influence with the new man; it has no mastery or control over the spirit. By the Gospel, and faith in the gospel, we overcome, or rather, Christ has overcome for us.
But dead and buried is not enough: we are also raised with Christthrough faith in what God has done: what God has done is raise Jesus from the dead. The upshot is that we live a crucified and risen life, dead to sin and alive in Christ. By the power of the Spirit we are able to say to Sin, “I don’t do that any more,” and we can say to good works, “That is what I do now.” This is living; this is the life God grants.