Buried with Him through baptism into death

Baptism is a conscious covenant with God that from that day onwards we will walk with a good conscience. Dead to the law by the body of Christ, we are baptized into the death of Christ, whereby our self-life shall be destroyed. Jesus was buried through His baptism in the Jordan into death and it was completed on the cross. We shall also be baptized into death, as Paul writes: “So then death is working in us.” 2 Cor. 4:12.

Temptations. If the body of sin is taken away, then necessarily temptations must also change their character. “All temptations come from outside,” they say. But if the old life has gone, what connection do temptations have with the inner life? None whatsoever! But how then can they be tempted? And how can they know that temptations exist? What grounds do they have to say that they come from outside, when in no way do they have any connection with them inwardly? Or are they nevertheless coming from within without having a point of connection there? Does James say that everyone is tempted when he is drawn and enticed from outside? No. He says, “But everyone is tempted, drawn and enticed by his own desire.” James 1:14. He says that everybody does this. Satan can show what is outward to a person, but it is the person’s own desire that puts him in connection with the outward.

See what Jesus says in Mark 7:15 and 21-23: “There is nothing that enters a man from outside that can defile him.” “From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, shamelessness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”