What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
There are many wonderful days in our lives. But there is no greater day than the day of our Baptism, and it will never be excelled. Our very best days, even if they could all be combined into one could not together touch the excellence of our baptism day which surpasses what nothing else can begin to touch.
Holy Baptism unites us with Christ in His death and resurrection. To be baptized with water in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is to be unshackled from the slavery to sin and witness the drowning of our own death.
God through His Son makes people His new, mint-condition creation. In baptism God breathes His Spirit into us. He washes our soiled nature clean and creates life in us as miraculous as the handiwork of Eden where God formed Adam into a living being.
Because of water baptism, consider yourself permanently delivered from the clawing reach of the evil one. Sin's quick sand has no hold on you. You are free to live without fretting or phobia. Baptismal water irrigates lives made new in Christ so that we flourish.
The flood tide of baptism has carried away the flotsam wreckage of our sin. The ocean of baptism has drowned Pharaoh's army. The breakers of baptism have carried us to the promised land.
St. Paul makes the point that baptism is a point of no return. It is unthinkable that being delivered from sin and death a Christian should contemplate returning to it. By no means! Paul says.
How absurd for a prisoner set free from his cell and pardoned from the scaffold's hangman would wish to return to it. Do you not know what your Savior has done for you?
Christ died- and He took YOU with Him.
He rose from death, and YOU were given his victory in baptism.
Death which has no dominion over Him cannot therefore conquer you. In baptism you have passed from death to life, from slavery to freedom, from doubt to certainty, from loss to gain, from bereavement to joy, from hell to heaven, and from sin to righteousness. All this was given you in a baptism that can never be taken away because your baptism is into Christ.
For you, Jesus Christ "crossed the Rubicon," the baptism of his suffering and death (Mark 10:38) There was no turning back. Crossing the Rubicon is an expression that comes from the history of ancient Rome. Julius Caesar committed an irrevocable act, led his army across the Rubicon River, and became guilty of breaking the law. It was his point of no return.
Caesar was a mortal man whose greatness and worldly victories could not defeat sin or death even with an army at his back.
The conquest of sin and death required a different man, a perfect man, the man who is God who would pass a point of no return carrying a cross, a man righteous in Himself, who would be charged with guilt for doing so- a man without an army, without worldly greatness, and without cover. This man was Jesus. He assumed our flesh, took the responsibility for our fallen sin, and invaded the territory of our corruption. He crossed his Rubicon from life to death, from righteousness to iniquity, from freedom to slavery, from decency to degradation, from blessedness to anguish. And never looked back.
In infancy Jesus was taken to Egypt, to the land of plagues and slavery, of bondage and death. In his maturity he went to Golgatha and the tree of the cross, the place of disgrace and death.
But it could not hold him. Not Egypt. Not Herod. Not perils or betrayals. Not Pilate. Not Calvary. Not even the tomb.
And now in the resurrection of His body there is again no turning back.
The death he died he died to sin, once for all. It's done! Neither He nor we will ever die again.
The valley of the shadow of death has been traversed, and in Him we have come to the green pastures and still waters where goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives. There is no going back. We walk in the newness of life.
In baptism we have crossed the Rubicon, crossed the Red Sea and traversed the Jordan. Death has forever lost its dominion. We have been given pure and unending life. We who have died to sin can no longer live in it. We are the baptized; the people of the resurrection, dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The day of our baptism is the greatest because it is the new day that will never end.
