More Than a New Year – January 5, 2024

Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 6:3,4

More Than a New Year

Daily Devotion – January 5, 2024

Devotion based on Romans 6:3,4

See series: Devotions

How was your New Year’s celebration? Did you spend time with friends and family? Did you stay up until midnight? Did you sleep in on New Year’s Day?

Here’s another question: How has your New Year’s celebration impacted your life in the new year? I imagine not much. It may have been fun, but now you’re back to life as usual.

In today’s Bible reading, the apostle Paul tells us about an event that is more than a one-day celebration, an event that changes the rest of a person’s life. The event is a person’s baptism.

Christian baptism, you see, is not simply a ceremony. Paul tells us that when a person is baptized, they are spiritually covered in all the benefits of Jesus’ death on the cross. Their sins are forgiven. And because their sins are forgiven, they can look forward to an eternal life in heaven one day.

But there’s more. The apostle tells us that baptism also empowers a person to live a new kind of life, a life that no longer wants to do its own thing but rather wants to do God’s thing.

That’s much more exciting than any New Year’s resolution. It is God’s promise to empower those who have been baptized to live a new, God-pleasing life. How could those who have received such a gift have anything but a happy new year?

Prayer:
Thank you, Lord, for reminding me today of the remarkable blessings of baptism. Amen.