Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. John 15:3
Water baptism is such a blessed celebration in our churches because it visibly demonstrates the great inner transformation that happens to us. When we understand that we have been buried with Christ in his baptism of death, and we go down in that water, we are, in effect, saying to the world, thanks be to Jesus Christ, that old nature, that old creation , that old life with all of its mistakes and failures, that old life with everything that went on, has been separated from me forever and ever and ever.
It’s gone and I believe it, and I accept it. It is buried. It is buried forever. Then our coming out of the water depicts our exit from the old life and our entrance in the ever new, eternal life God has given. Dr. Carl H. Stevens.
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Romans 7:2-3
“When you accepted Jesus Christ, what happened to the old man? He died, so you are free. The old man is crucified with Christ, so the body of sin doesn’t have to serve the old sin nature. Thank God that we do not just have to divorce the old sin nature.”
“Unfortunately, many people look at this as a divorce. No! It is not! The first husband is dead. The old sin nature is dead. The first husband died. That marriage was definitely in trouble , but we did not have to get a divorce. The first husband died, yeah, we act as if he were still alive. We let him call us up everyday and harass us. ”
Dr. Carl H. Stevens.
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:11
“Every believer still possesses an old sin nature, but the Lord Jesus Christ made a provision for the believer to nullify the influence of the old sin nature. A believer nullifies his old sin nature by making declarations from the word of God. He confesses several times a day that he is dead indeed to the old sin nature, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ.” C.H.S.
“What you do with this life is nourish it. And how do we do this? By continually bringing ourselves to the cross and reaffirming what happened there once and for all. We can never think too much about what Christ did for us.” C.H.S.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14
Thankfully, God forgets. He will not remember our sins. Has blotted them out like a thick cloud. As far as the east is from the West, so far has he removed our sins from us. He has cast them into the depth of the sea. Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18, Psalm 103:12
The Psalmist teaches we can forget, “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house” (Psalm 45:10).
“One of the great things about visiting people in hospitals or nursing homes is that it gives us an opportunity to enter into the needs of their hearts. We share with them the Lord’s portion and completely
forget ourselves.
When I minister the Lord’s portion,
I forget all about myself.
The Lord ministers His portion to me, then I share the Lord’s portion,
and I completely forget about myself.”
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Titus 2:11-12
love ya
