Something I've picked up on here is the idea of death to our old life and rebirth as something new. Baptism is a party of this, but it seems to be about more than that.
Could you please say more about this death?
Can you tell me what dies and how?
Can you please tell me your experience of what died in you and what you experienced during that time?
Thank you.
The Bible speaks of those who "are ever learning but unable to come to a knowledge of the truth." Each time a person encounters the truth of God and treats it like a curious bauble, something that is merely "interesting" rather than life-changing, divine and eternal, they set themselves deeper and deeper into such a response, in time becoming totally unable to recognize divine truth for what it actually is and cut off, as a result, from its transformative, revelatory and eternal importance and power. Just a word of warning.
Anyway, coming to salvation, being saved, is about coming into relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ, the Son. No one can approach God on their own merits and be accepted by Him. We are all of us an unbridgeable distance from God's holy perfection, cut off from fellowship with Him by our sinfulness. None of us measures up because God's standard for doing so is Himself, His perfect holiness. (
Jeremiah 17:9; Romans 3:10; Romans 3:23; Ephesians 2:1-3; Titus 3:3, etc.)
But God, who is rich in mercy, because He loves us with a great, boundless love, made a way through Jesus to satisfy the demands of His justice and holiness for us, and through Jesus come into relationship with Himself. (
John 3:16; John 1:12; Romans 10:9-10; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; 1 Timothy 1:15, 1 Timothy 2:5, etc.)
When, by faith, a person trusts in Christ as their Savior, believing in his atoning work on the cross for them, paying the penalty for their sins, and with his blood cleansing them from the stain of their sin, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ (
Romans 8:9) comes to dwell within that person, making them alive spiritually for the first time. Salvation, then, is a Person, Jesus Christ, not merely a declaration by God of one's liberation from eternal hell. (
1 John 5:11-12) And only in him is salvation located.
Salvation involves, then, an exchange: One's old self-willed, rebellious life for a new God-controlled, Christ-centered and empowered life. In the Person of the Holy Spirit, Christ's life is imparted to the believer, but the believer is also placed
in Christ, united with him, clothed in his perfect righteousness, and by "putting on Christ," the believer is redeemed from the curse and stain of their sin, freed from sin's power, set apart unto God as one of His own, and made a "joint-heir" with Jesus. (
1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 13:14; Romans 8:17; Romans 8:9-11; Titus 3:5-8, etc.)
But, in order for this new, spiritual life to flourish, to develop and mature, the old, self-governed life must "die." Being anathema to each other, the two sorts of life cannot co-exist in some sort of balance or compromise. And so, Jesus said to his disciples,
Matthew 16:24-25
24 ..."If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.
25 "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
John 12:24-25
24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
25 "He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.
It has largely disappeared from modern, western Christian declarations of the Gospel that this is what salvation entails. It's hard to build "ministry empires" and sell books and videos that condemn the sin that the unrepentant lost love so dearly, that preach death to Self and the crucified life of a servant of Christ to those who are radically invested in Self-centered living. But salvation is
from just such a life
unto a life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it is a dying to Self that the life of Christ might grow in, and flow out of, the born-again believer.
A person's simple trusting in Christ as their Savior and their yielding to him as their Lord, spiritually unites them to Christ, even to his death, burial and resurrection, and in so doing places them in a spiritual position in Christ that is free from the power of Sin and Self, raised in newness of life in him. This is what baptism symbolizes, in the NT offering the brand new believer an opportunity to connect their newfound faith to corresponding action, identifying with Christ publicly in his saving work on their behalf. (
Romans 6:1-11; Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14; Colossians 2:8-13; Colossians 3:1-3, etc.)
Too often, Christians try to manufacture for God the life that is
already theirs in Jesus Christ, a life that is "dead unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." (
Romans 6:11) But baptism signifies that a life that is "dead" to the "old man" (
Romans 6:6) is already accomplished for the Christian in Christ. He has put to death the "old man" on his cross some 2000 years ago. How, exactly? I've no idea and the Bible never says - just as it doesn't carefully explicate the exact mechanics of Christ's atonement for my sin. But if I can believe the latter, I must also believe the former.
What, for me, has this "death to Self and the World" looked like? What has my experience been? Well, "death," in the Bible, is fundamentally about
separation: the soul from the body, the unrepentant sinner from God, the wayward child from his parent, the wicked from the righteous, and so on. As I, by faith, reckon myself "dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ" and submit myself to God's will and way throughout every day, the Holy Spirit works to conform me practically to the dead-to-sin person I am spiritually in Christ, separating me from the things of the World and from bondage to the impulses of my flesh, liberating me from my natural self-centeredness and placing me more and more under His control. (
2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 5:22-23; Philippians 2:13; 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13; 1 Peter 5:10, etc.)
This process of separation used to be filled with self-effort, torturous straining to be who God wanted me to be, trying, and working, and laboring to be like Jesus. But as I remain yielded to the Holy Spirit, in faith believing that I have been made dead to sin, separated from my old, unregenerate Self by my union with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, the Spirit subtly and profoundly conforms me to these things, by His limitless power moving me effortlessly into His will and way, changing my desires so that they align with His, making God increasingly the Great Obsession of my life. And in this experience, I encounter deep joy, settled, solid peace, inner stability, incredible fulfillment and rest. I find, too, a clear, steady departure from the World, from its entertainments, philosophies, and values, from its preoccupation with the here-and-now and satisfying Self. In this "death" I have found life, not miserable, unending sacrifice; in dying with Christ, I have discovered the joy, and love, and grace that he is. And as this is so, I find greater and greater desire to yield up all in pursuit of the fullest experience of him that is possible.
Philippians 3:7-10
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; 
