(with Colossians 3:1)
Buried with Him in Baptism.
In our baptism we are made partakers both of the death and resurrection of Christ.
I. People in general, thinking as they do more or less slightly about baptism, forget very much the way in which Holy Scripture speaks about it. They think it a right thing to have their children baptised, but they are not veryanxious about it. They do it, but they are not sure that they see much good in it. Now compare with this the way in which the Bible speaks. Hear, for instance, what St. Paul says to the Romans, "Know ye not, that all we which were baptised into Jesus Christ were baptised into His death," etc. He tells us that in our baptism we died with Christ, that we were made partakers of His death, that we were buried with Him, that we became united in the likeness of His death. We are brought so wonderfully near to Christ by being baptised and made members of His body, that what is literally true of Him is, in a figure, true of us also; that we actually partake, by the Holy Spirit of God, of Him, and so we have a real share in everything that is His in His sufferings, in His death, in His resurrection. Yes, and in being already citizens of heaven and sitting with Him in heavenly places.
II. God has seen fit to call on us for lives of service. He has allowed us to live on, some of us to grow old, others to look forward, so far as man can look forward, to years of life, and all sorts of toil and labour in His Church upon the earth. We must, therefore, all our lives long, repeat and enlarge, and draw out into Christian habit and the long use of holy living, the rising with Christ which in summary we partook of when we were baptised; working hard and faithfully in our several callings, doing all the good we possibly can to our neighbours, helping on the kingdom of God in all ways, showing good examples, praying for one another, seeking more and more those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, lifting up our minds to high and heavenly things.
G. Moberly, Parochial Sermons,p. 122.
Reference: Colossians 2:12. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 87.