Access to Salvation

Romans 6:3-5

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There’s a good chance if you have a bank account that you have one of these. This card through an A.T.M. gives me access to the money in my checking account. Hypothetically, wherever I go in the world, as long as I can access an A.T.M., I can access my money.

Some have looked at the life and death of Jesus, two thousand years ago, and wondered: how do I access his life and death on my behalf? How do I receive the benefit of it?

Well God hasn’t given us an A.T.M. card to connect to it, but he has given us something. Something mystical that is hard for our human eyes to see and understand. But this is what his word says about baptism:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)

God here teaches us that baptism does something wonderful. It connects us with Jesus. It connects us so intimately to him that his death is our death. And his resurrection is our resurrection to new life. Our sins deserve that we die. In Jesus, we have died. We were nailed to the cross with Jesus and we also laid with him in the tomb. And on Easter morning when he rose, we rose to new life.

You now have a new life in Jesus. Your old sinful life has died it’s been washed away with him and now all that Jesus won by his life and death is yours. Your sins are forgiven. You have peace with God.

May God lead you to treasure your baptism so that you can see that it intimately connects you with Jesus. To him be the glory, Amen.