The First "If"

225 - Today's Prime Time Devo comes from 2Ti 2:11-13) This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. 12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. 13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. (2 Tim 2:11-13) The use of the phrase “faithful saying” here tells us that this is important stuff. This is a saying that is jam-packed with truth. Truth that will be assuring for those who receive it! There are four “ifs” that “if” acted on will produce the accompanying results. The first “if” is past tense. It speaks of something that has happened to an individual that produces a specific undeniable result! Here it is: “If we died with Him, We shall also live with Him!” When does an individual “die with Him, so that they also shall live with Him? When did that happen in your life? When did that happen in my life? Ro 6:4-6, links this death and new life to baptism, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 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.” Col 2:12, also makes the connection! “buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Christians have differences about the “when” and “hows” of baptism, but one thing stands out......we all baptize! We all agree that it is important! And this first “if” in 2 Tim, ought to tell us why. “For if we die with Him (as we do in baptism) we shall also live with Him! No wonder the Ethiopian eunuch commanded the chariot to stop after Phillip explained the Gospel to him and asked to be baptized! (Ac 8:36) He wanted some of that “new life!” This portion of Timothy is a faithful saying! And it could be paraphrased with Mr 16:16 "He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.