The short story writer – known as Saki – penned a tale called The Lost Sanjak. It was about an Englishman whose life had come crashing down around him, and he wanted a new start, but just didn’t know how. Then, walking home one night, he found the corpse of a Salvation Army captain who had been badly mauled, apparently hit by a speeding carriage.

Spontaneously, he changed clothes with the corpse, and put his papers on it. The corpse would be identified as him, and he could go away, starting a new existence as someone else. At least that was the plan.

Unfortunately, the dead man had not been killed by a hit-and-run carriage, but rather had been murdered. To make matters worse, someone wearing a Salvation Army captain’s uniform had been seen in the area, and was now the prime suspect. In other words, he himself – supposedly the murder victim – was also the suspected murderer!

Saki’s story tells us what most people already know – it’s not so easy getting a new start in life.

The Bible also talks about a new life – a new start, a new beginning – but it is something that, unlike the man in Saki’s story, we cannot do ourselves. This new life comes, instead, only through Jesus – through what He does for us and in us.
As we have seen, one of the key themes of these booklets has been the great news – the amazing news – which is the promise of justification by faith. It is, beyond doubt, the most important Bible teaching, and it says that, no matter our past, no matter our sins, we can stand before God perfect in Jesus Christ – not because of what we have done but, in fact, despite what we have done. The perfection comes because of what Jesus has done for us, in that the perfect life He lived is credited to anyone who claims it through faith. And, thus, no matter how sinful our life has been, we are viewed by God as having the perfection of Jesus Christ. And this is how we, though fallen, can be made right with God.
Hence, the amazing promise:

Romans 8:1

No condemnation? Why? Is it because these people had become sinless, or perfect, or had they somehow been changed enough to where they lived lives that were so good they were no longer condemned by God?

No, the condemnation was taken away because they had reached out and, by faith and in faith, claimed the righteousness of Jesus Christ as their own.

And the great news is that, through the wonderful provision of the gospel, anyone who does that is credited with the righteousness of Jesus.

His righteousness, His holiness, His perfection, becomes theirs, and they stand forgiven and justified before God. And, again, it’s not by our own works, which is impossible, but by faith in Jesus and His works for us.

Romans 3:20-24

All this leads to a simple question. Can we go from being condemned by God to eternal death for our sins, to being forgiven and justified, and not be transformed? Said another way: After all that God in Christ has done to save us – how then shall we live?

It’s like a prisoner who is pardoned, even from the death sentence, and released.

Whatever the paper shuffling involved in a government office miles from his cell, the result will radically affect him. The pardon isn’t just legal paperwork. It becomes the subjective experience in the prisoner’s life. After all, he walks out of the jail – a free man!

If that’s not a radical change, what is?

Though the pardon itself was accomplished outside and away from him, his life has been, indeed, greatly changed by it.

It’s the same with us. When we’re no longer condemned by God’s law, our life changes. And that change, however subjective, however personal, begins with what Christians call – the new birth.

In one of the most famous texts, Jesus – speaking at night to a religious leader in ancient Israel – said, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3 Jesus is very clear here – unless you are born again, that is, unless something new happens to you – you can’t see the kingdom of God. In other words, you can’t have salvation.

Is Jesus teaching something different than salvation by faith alone?

Of course not. Instead, He’s teaching that the inevitable result of being justified – of being saved by faith – is a whole new life in Him, a new life characterised by the phrase born again.

After all, if birth is the beginning of one life, then what is being born again but the beginning of a new one?

And that is what happens to anyone who has given themselves in faith to Jesus, claiming His righteousness as their own.

The condemnation is removed, and they stand pardoned, forgiven, and justified before God. And their lives are changed as a result. Again, how can we pass from death to life, from alienation to reconciliation, from guilt to pardon, and our lives not be changed?

Look at these texts:

Ephesians 1: 7-8

Colossians 2:13

Redeemed by His blood, our trespasses forgiven, delivered from the power of darkness, being made alive together with Him – these things cannot happen to a person, and that person’s life not change.

No wonder Paul writes:

2 Corinthians 5:17

Through what Jesus has done for us, not only our standing with God changes, but our life does as well. We have a whole new existence, a new life in Him. And, according to the Bible, this new life, this new existence, is symbolised by the ritual of baptism.

In the book of Romans, the apostle Paul spent the first five chapters making essentially two points:

Firstly, we are all – Jews and Gentiles – sinners. Secondly, salvation for all – Jew and Gentile – comes only through faith in Jesus Christ and His righteousness, which is the righteousness of God. Romans 3:21-22

Paul, then, in chapter six, writes the following:.

Romans 6:1-4

From Chapter 6 onwards, Paul takes all this and brings it down to the personal, individual level of what it means, both personally and practically, in the life of the person who has accepted what Jesus has done for them. Not only have their sins been pardoned and forgiven, but through the power of God working in them they have, by faith, died to their past sinful life, they think of it as dead, and now have a whole new life – a new birth in Jesus.

Read again what Paul says in those texts. By accepting Jesus, by accepting His life, His perfection, His holiness, we have a new life. And this happens when we die to self and live for Him.

Baptism is the outward expression of this inward choice.

In the New Testament, the English word baptise comes from a Greek work – baptizo – which implies immersion, because it comes from another Greek word – bapto – which means to dip in or under water. The New Testament evidence clearly points to immersion in and under water as opposed to sprinkling. For instance, when John baptised Jesus – He did it, not because He needed to be born again, but to be our example – the Bible says:

Mark 1:9-10

He was baptised in the Jordan and then he came up from the water. These verses make sense only if talking about immersion.

John 3:23

… because there was much water there.

If baptism were mere sprinkling, all one would need would be a cup of water – nothing more.

Note: Sprinkling is not baptism. Sprinkling came to replace baptism in the dark ages. The good news of justification by faith had been gradually replaced with a teaching of justification by ritual or works.

And so to be sure babies were not lost before they were baptised, they sprinkled them. Baptism does not save us – Jesus does. Baptism is the sign of the choice we make when we accept Jesus. It’s important. Jesus says it is a sign of loyalty.

Romans 6 talks about us being 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. …

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6: 4, 6-7

John 3:23

His death is counted as our death. We claim that by faith. We paid for our sins, when Jesus died for us!!

So we have a new way of thinking now. We consider our old sinful way of life as dead. In that sense we have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20), which means what we have just read in the verses above – dead to self, freed from sin, because the old things have passed away. 2 Corinthians 5:17

Baptism, the going under the water, the immersion, symbolises the crucifixion of the old life.

Of course, baptism is not only going under the water. We also have to come up, symbolic of the new life we now have since we have given ourselves to Christ.

Romans 6:4

And be …

Romans 6:11

Newness of life! This is the change that begins in us after we have been justified, and our sins are forgiven. Like the prisoner pardoned, we walk away, free – free from condemnation, and free from the slavery of sin.

Romans 6: 17-18

Notice the idea of being a slave of sin. This is an important point. All through this series we have talked about the great controversy – the battle between good and evil that rages, not only in the world but in our hearts as well. A person who has given himself or herself to Christ, and has been baptised – a symbol of their death to their way of life and a new one in Christ – doesn’t instantaneously and automatically somehow become sinless. It’s just that now they have new motives, new purposes, new desires, aims and goals, even if the battle with self still rages, and even if they sometimes fall. It’s the new mind and heart that God promised.

Ezekiel 36:26

Ezekiel 36:26

It’s just that now, connected to Christ, we can have victories that we didn’t have before. We can be freed from devastating and destructive habits. We can be free from having to fall for Satan’s temptation to sin. We are now fully on Christ’s side. We have switched allegiances.

Again, this doesn’t mean that the great controversy still doesn’t rage inside us; it doesn’t mean that temptations won’t come, and it doesn’t mean we won’t ever fall.

To sin as a born-again Christian, though, is not the same as to live in sin, or to be a slave to sin, as we were before our new life in Christ. A believer in Jesus, therefore, mustn’t lose hope and must never give up if they do sin.

Grace and forgiveness aren’t just for the unsaved, the lost, the worldly. Grace and forgiveness are for born-again-baptised Christians as well. It’s a daily experience.

A new birth, a new life in Christ – even after baptism – doesn’t guarantee that we won’t sin. It just means that, in our new experience with God, we will be sorrowful for our sin, we will repent of our sin, and choose through the promises offered to us not to do it again.

But if we do, we can still find forgiveness and pardon at the cross. We can still claim the righteousness of Jesus for ourselves – we have to, because it’s our only hope. That’s the great news of the gospel – as long as we don’t forsake Jesus, He won’t forsake us.

Indeed, being a born-again Christian, baptised in Christ, means that we can claim the myriad promises of what God will do in us if we let Him.

Like this:

1 Corinthians 10:13

Or this:

1 Corinthians 10:13

And this:

Romans 6:22

But it also means that we can claim the promise of the gospel, of grace, of salvation, if we do sin.

Like this:

1 John 2:1

Or this:

Romans 8:1

Jesus Christ died for us. He offers us complete pardon for anything we have ever done, or will do. He offers us His righteousness instead of our own unrighteousness.

He offers us a new life in Him, one in which we are free from the condemnation of sin and the power of it to dominate our lives.

The decision to accept Jesus as our Saviour – our personal hero – and our choice to follow him obediently in baptism, is a significant event in our own epic story.

It is an event where we publically show to the watching universe whose side we are on in this cosmic battle. And baptism is our declaration that we have claimed God’s promises for ourselves.