Baptism is the culminating act of conversion from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. With the burial of your body of sin in the watery grave of baptism, you are no longer a slave of sin (Romans 6:6). You arise to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4) because you have been united with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5). Now you are a new creation, old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
There is a noteworthy Greek word the inspired New Testament penmen consistently used to emphasize the severity and finality of your death to sin. It is the word meketi. This adverb is commonly translated into English as “no longer”, but “never again” is equally accurate. Its usage in the New Testament gives a useful insight into how different you are as a new man in Christ.
- NEVER AGAIN do you live for yourself: “and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
- NEVER AGAIN do you live your days in the flesh concerned about human desires: “that he no longer should live the rest of histime in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God” (1 Peter 4:2).
- NEVER AGAIN do you live in the futility of your mind as the heathen do: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17).
- NEVER AGAIN are you to be enslaved to sin: “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” (Romans 6:6).
- NEVER AGAIN are you to be tossed about by every wind of doctrine and by the trickery of men: “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting” (Ephesians 4:14).
- NEVER AGAIN do you steal: “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need” (Ephesians 4:28).
In Scripture, “born again” and “never again” are inseparable.
