One family told me that they celebrate their baptism days by eating dessert first. They eat dessert before supper because “nothing can be sweeter than remembering the day we became a child of God, and knowing that we will one day be called Home!”

What is baptism? Baptism gives us the forgiveness of sins, through water and God’s Word. We can use the picture that, through baptism, our sins are “drowned” and that we are “washed clean” through the power of God’s Word and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Another picture that we can use to explain the blessings of baptism is found in our passage for today. Through baptism we were “buried” with Christ. This means that, when Jesus died on the cross, he took on our sin for us. He gave up his perfection for our sin and unfaithfulness. When Jesus died, our sins were “buried” with him. He became sin for us, and when he came back to life on Easter Sunday, he wrote our name down in the book of Heaven. We “have a new life” in heaven because Jesus died in our place.

From the day we are born, we are not fit for heaven. Every day we rebel to God by our sinful living. Some people think that if we “live a decent life and try not to hurt anyone” God will give us heaven. But not so! Even “trying our best” is not good enough. We cannot earn our way to eternal glory. No one on this earth can do anything to make himself fit for heaven. . . .except. . . . .Jesus! Jesus lived the perfect life that is impossible for us and every other human. Jesus already won that battle when he died on the cross and came back to life.

Although we cannot earn our way to heaven, we still want to live our life for Him who saved us. God wants us to be faithful to him. We do this by reading and obeying God’s Word, the Bible. We show that we are thankful for what God has done by serving him and others. How sweet it is to know that God calls us his own, and to know that we will one day enjoy a new, perfect life in heaven!