Lesson 13: The Cross Puts Us To Death
Question 6
The Old Testament saint knew that his offering was only accepted because it was a symbol and sign of his faith in the promise spoken by Abraham that the Lord would provide an effectual sacrifice for Himself (Genesis 22:8). The law was a foreshadowing of "the good things to come," that is, Jesus Christ and the blessings that would come from His cross (Hebrews 10:1).
Today we are focusing on the good news that Jesus Christ died for us and that we died in Him. The Old Testament saint, placing his hand on the head of the lamb, was identifying with the sacrifice. He touched it. He identified with it. And all of this is a picture of our own death in our Substitute, Jesus Christ.
For the Christian church, water baptism is symbolic of our identification with Jesus Christ in His death.
Baptism in the name of the triune God (Mt. 28:19) testifies to the believer's faith (Acts 2:38; 8:37-38), symbolizes the washing away of his sins (Acts 22:16), and expresses the believer's identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection and his intention to live a Christ-exalting life (Rom. 6:1-23).
http://basics.christianuniversity.org/lessons/ST101-03.html
I was baptized after my conversion to Christ. When my pastor baptized me, I understood that I was making an outward profession of an inward change of heart. When he lowered me down, I was identifying with Christ in His death, and when he brought me up, I was identifying with Christ in His resurrection. This baptism was an expression of my identity with Jesus Christ, expressing the truth that my sin nature died on the cross with Jesus, and that I was raised a new man in Him.
To summarize, here is what it means to be identified with Christ in His death:
First, it means we participate in all the benefits and accomplishments of His death.
Second, it means His death satisfied all the righteous demands of God the Father: we are personally identified with that accomplishment.
Third, it means His death made full payment for sin so that it is no longer an issue: we are personally identified with that accomplishment.
Fourth, it means that in His death, Jesus took the full brunt of divine wrath once for all: we are personally identified with that accomplishment.
Finally, it means His death struck the final blow to our sin natures, providing entirely adequate salvation from sin and sins: we are personally identified with this accomplishment.
What good news it is indeed that Jesus Christ, by His death and resurrection, brought us not only life but also death - death to the old nature. While Christians still have flesh, the residue of the old nature, causing an ongoing struggle with sin, we no longer have the old nature itself. It died with Christ. Praise God!
Question 6. What are your concluding thoughts/questions about the teaching of this day?
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Pamela writes, "The death of my old nature is an eye-opening adventure... the things that caused me to stumble are more obvious to me than before. Those areas that now would cause me to stumble are fewer, and mostly known to me which helps in the daily battle with sin."