The lesson asked the question--
but there's more than the answer they give.
What is about baptism that makes it such a significant event --
if it is entered into in the Biblical sense?
Let's take a look at Romans six -- the texts referred to in the lesson.
The question raised there is: "Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
Paul answers the question: "We died to sin, how can we live in it any longer?" "We were baptized into Christ's death"
"we are buried with him by baptism into death"
"planted together in the likeness of his death,"
"our old man is crucified with him, "
"we be dead with Christ"
Because we died to sin, we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.
Paul is pretty emphatic about this -- repeating it in many different words.
We like to focus on the "new life" in Christ, but what do all these sentences about "dying" mean?
Without the "dying" there really is not "new life in Christ"?
The new birth is a rare experience in this age of the world. This is the reason why there are so many perplexities in the churches. Many, so many, who assume the name of Christ are unsanctified and unholy. They have been baptized, but they were buried alive. Self did not die, and therefore they did not rise to newness of life in Christ (MS 148, 1897). {6BC 1075.7}
How do we become dead to sin?
It is essential, if we would be "alive unto God" (Rom. 6:11), that we must be freed not only from the guilt of past sins, but also from the bondage of sin that we may "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life" (Luke 1:74-75). This can be accomplished only as we definitely, willingly, and practically reckon ourselves dead to sin, with Christ upon the cross.
This dying to sin, I believe is something we find at the foot of the cross. When we see Him dying because of our actual sins, how can we live any longer in them? We die with Christ to those sins. And then we can rise with Him, reckoning ourselves died to the old carnal ways and alive in Christ.