Daily Bread - Oct 9 2006

Colossians 2:12 - "Being buried with him by baptism in whom also you are raised up through the activity of the faith of God which raised Him from the dead."

This refers to baptism into the death and identity of Christ and not water baptism. Paul makes it clear that the act of baptism is associated with the burial of Christ (Gal 3:27; Romans 6:4). Therefore, we may regard baptism as descriptive of one's total immersion into the identity of Christ both in crucifixion, death, buria,l and resurrection - a miracle that takes place by the activity of God's faith (Galatians 2:20; 6:14).

The Greek word 'baptismos' is found four times in the New Testament and should be rendered 'baptism' every time. Although 'baptismos' only occurs 4 times in the New Testament, its root word 'baptizo' occurs 80 times. The first time that the word 'baptizo' occurs in the Septuagint is in 2 Kings 5:14 and is translated by the Hebrew word 'tabal.' It is used in 2 Kings 5:14 in the story of Naaman to describe what he was to do in order to be made clean of his leprosy (dip seven times in the Jordan).

Blessings,

Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org