The Divine Exchange - part four

Romans 6:1-11

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The Exchanged life begins with Baptism. It is the clearest Biblical picture of what happens to a believer when he or she identifies themselves with Jesus in His death and resurrection.

Baptism is the first command Jesus gave to us after we have turned from following our own ways to following Him.

Mark 16:15-17

And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.

Acts 2:38

Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 8:12

But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike.

I could fill another page of biblical references to the fact that baptism was not considered optional to following Jesus in the first century.

But why was it so important? I believe that the passage we started with tells us. It is because of the absolute necessity of identification with Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection.

Many say it was a public declaration of faith. It most certainly was that. When someone was baptized they stepped into a new relationship with Jesus, the church and the world.

Colossians 2:12-13

having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

The act of baptism is more than a symbolic gesture. The Bible indicates that what is signifies happens when we do it. We are buried with Him in baptism. The identification with His death causes it to happen. We die when we follow His first command to be baptized.

I am always amazed at how the symbolic understanding of what are rightly called sacraments has destroyed their meaning.

The word sacrament is not one which the catholic church has full claim to. It was not an invented word by those three or four hundred years after Jesus' death. It is the Latin word sacramentum which was used to translate the Greek word mysterion.

Ephesians 5:31-32

FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery (mysterion, sacramentum) is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

The word sacrament was used for biblical acts of covenant commitment from the first century. It simply means an outward act that actually imparts an inward grace to bring about a spiritual change.

The word "sacramentum" came from the initiation rites of the Roman Army. When a soldier took oath when he joined the army he became the property of Caesar. He was branded behind his ear and was considered "sacred." The whole rite was called a "sacramentum." - the act of initiation that the soldier went through made him a soldier. Before he went through it he was a civilian. When he finished it he was a soldier for life. It was not just a claim on his life but a claim on Rome as well. Both entered into the covenant. Both were bound by the conditions of the covenant. The only way they could be freed from it was by death. The act of sacrementum caused it to happen.

Lots of people have asked me what is the point of marriage? "It is just a piece of paper," they say. But marriage is not something done by the state though they have taken over the administration of it from a legal perspective.

The act of marriage is meant to be an intentional making of a public covenant to live together in a life long union of mutual care, provision, protection and presence. In the act of marriage something happens spiritually. It is not just symbolic (and therefore in modern thought meaningless). The act does spiritually what it does externally. That is the meaning of sacrament.

When we are baptized something actually occurs that could not have happened without being baptized. Our identification with Christ's death, burial and resurrection causes us to die and be raised to His new life.

Baptism is the door to the Exchanged Life.

It is not the end but as we live each moment of our lives considering ourselves "to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus" the life of Jesus will naturally flow into our lives and our self life will be constantly put to death. This is the Exchanged Life. His life taking the place of our lives. The Life of Heaven putting the life of earth to death. Our lives being filled with the new life of God and as a natural consequence the old life no longer being able to exist.