Oct 14 – FAITH AND BAPTISM!

“He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).
What we need to receive baptism is faith. Why should you receive baptism? Though there are thousands of religions in the world, there is an exclusive greatness for Christianity.
Jesus Christ descended to earth for our sake. He gave His life, was buried and resurrected for our sake. This is what we confess with faith while receiving baptism.
In that one minute, while we stand in the water to receive baptism, we say ‘Jesus Christ died for me’ and look up to the Cross with reverence. The next minute, we immerse in water and this symbolizes that Jesus Christ got buried for our sake. At that time, we unite ourselves with the death of Christ.
Then, while we come out of the water, we confess that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. So, we boldly render witness that Jesus Christ died, was buried and resurrected for our sake.
Dear children of God, with faith, you go into a funeral service through baptism. Thereby you bury the characteristics of the primitive Adam. If the past nature of anger, irritation and lusts are to be removed from us, those things must be buried. How many days one could prolong in sins without burying the sinful man of the past and perish? Baptism is the process in which that man of sin is buried.
Paul the Apostle says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Romans 6:4, 5).
The Scripture says that only a person who believes and gets baptized will be saved. So, what you require is faith. Faith is needed for one to witness ‘Jesus Christ died, was buried and resurrected for me. You need faith to receive baptism as a mark of getting buried with Him and to live with the power of His resurrection.
The Scripture says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). Dear children of God, you be a new creation in Christ.
To meditate: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27).