Baptism

This week's assignment is about baptism. For this, we read in Romans 6:1-13. I know that I have learned many things for this. To begin, we must repent and be repentant before we are baptized. We must acknowledge the sins we have made, and take care of those so that we are cleansed purely when baptized. There is so much symbolism in the process of baptism, some being the idea of "dying" and being resurrected. We are immersed underwater, and brought back up cleansed. For our baptism, we know that it is fully immersed rather than just a sprinkling. The reasoning behind this is that it is like we are being re born. Our sins are washed away and we can begin again in a clean manner. This symbolism cannot be realized if we are just sprinkling water on someone's head. I think this is great and teaches many things on how we can maintain newness of life, that being the idea of living with Christ, and relying on him. When we are baptized we take on His name. We must not make a mockery of His name, nor try to sin under His name. Obviously we will sin, because we aren't perfect, but when this happens we must repent. That is how I think this is how we should maintain a newness.In Mosiah 3:19 we learn that ideally at baptism the natural man is gone away and dies. The idea that we "becometh as a ^jchild, ^ksubmissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

When we looked at Romans 6:14-23 we learn many things. One focus is the idea that we are servants of the Lord and that we can see that by our actions and the principles we follow. It talks about how we aren't ruled by law, but by grace. We should do all things because of grace, because we want to serve the Lord. Our good deeds will demonstrate this. The true source of freedom is found by reading the last verse.It says: "But now being made ^afree from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your ^bfruit unto ^choliness, and the end everlasting life.

This to me, means that we are free from sin through the Gospel and serving the Lord. 

 

Overall I have a lot to think about after reading these. I think its great to review your baptismal covenants often to be reminded of the importance behind them, but also because it will help remind of as to who we should be serving.