Chapter # 6 Paragraph # 1 Study # 3
August 1, 2006
Lincolnton, N.C.
(Download Audio)

<238> Thesis:   We live in the tension that exists between what God declares to be true and what we experience as reality. Introduction:   In our study last week we attempted to lay a foundation for understanding our "baptism" into the death of Christ by looking into the three most fundamental "baptisms" that the New Testament unveils. We saw that "water" baptism links men with men in the minds of men. We saw that the "baptism with the Holy Spirit" that Christ accomplished according to the prophecies of John the Baptizer linked God to believers in the minds of men and God. God became an indwelling presence in men, whose bodies became His temples. And we saw that the "baptism by the Holy Spirit", which had no pre-existence in prophetic utterance, linked believers to Christ in the mind of God and, to some extent, in the minds of those "believers". This is a rather complex reality. Thus, this evening we are going to press on into this business of our being "baptized" into Christ so that we might begin to grasp our "baptism into His death" so that we might experience the freedom of being "dead to sin".