Romans 6:3-4 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 through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

This passage is read or quoted at many baptisms, but sadly, many people fail to live it out. This whole chapter was written to counter the kind of teaching that has popped up periodically throughout the history of the Church, that because the cross of Christ was sufficient for all our sins, it doesn’t matter how we live now. Probably not too many people have formulated their thinking as clearly as I’ve just expressed it, but that’s the way a lot of church members live. Whether they are actually Christians or not is up to the Lord to decide! It does no one any favors to fail to make the message of holiness clear at the time someone is converted. Actually, if they have had a genuine encounter with Christ, they will be very open to this message, and will rejoice that God has made provision for them to live holy lives. However, many preachers are so afraid of legalism that they more or less completely gloss over the message of holiness. That sometimes is because they aren’t living holy lives themselves, but sometimes it is just because they don’t want to seem “harsh,” or something of the sort, and scare people off. Holiness is never instantaneous, though we might wish it could be, but God’s Spirit is indeed the Holy Spirit, and the more we are filled by and yielded to Him, the more holy we will live. We are given positional righteousness and holiness by faith in Christ, (1 Corinthians 1:30) but we are responsible to live that out by our choice, with the help and power of the Holy Spirit.

I have to plead guilty to soft-pedaling the message of holiness out of a fear of legalism. The results have not been good. I need to make it very clear that salvation is by grace through faith, but that it calls for repentance, and “repentance” that doesn’t result in a changed life isn’t really repentance at all. That’s not to say that I’m to fall back on legalism. In some ways legalism is easier that active obedience, because external rules can be easier to follow than active commitment to a living Lord. However, legalism is dead, and salvation is all about that living Lord I just mentioned. I am to walk in fellowship with Christ myself and I am to call others to do the same, and as Paul said, “What fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Father, thank You for this clear Word this morning. Help me be faithful to obey it, so that every new birth in this church may be clean and complete, with people delivered from their old lives to walk in the new life You have for them, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!