Gayle Oler
If you are going to break the hold of sin upon your life, and clear your record of its blot, you are interested in the answer to the question, “How may I be freed from my sin?”
Paul said to the Romans, “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17-18).
We are made free from our sins when we obey that form of doctrine that Paul delivered. But what is that form of doctrine that man is to obey? In the same chapter—Romans 6—we read Paul’s explanation as to what they had obeyed.
Paul says in that chapter, “Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-5).
Clearly, the form given to us was that of baptism in which form we have the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
As proof positive that it is in beautiful baptism that a man is really freed from his sins, Paul declares that we are baptized into the death of Christ, (v. 3), and that the death that Jesus died, He died to sin (v. 10). As we die to sin in baptism, we die with Christ. Paul says in Romans 6:7, “For he that is dead is freed from sin.”
But is that all? Valid baptism is always preceded by honest faith in Christ. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16). Without faith it is impossible to please God. And Jesus said, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
So the man who is a sincere believer in Jesus must repent of his sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of his sins (Acts 2:38). Have you done this that you may be freed from your past sins?
