Baptism brings us into Christ and in Him we have the assured hope of having eternal life in God’s Kingdom, as well as enabling us to share in His new life now. The more we believe and appreciate the certainty of this hope and these awesome present blessings which there are in Him, the more evident it becomes that it brings certain responsibilities upon us. These revolve around living a life which is fitting for someone who has the hope of being given God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4), of actually sharing His Name (Rev. 3:12) through being made perfect in every way.

We explained in Study 10.3 that after baptism we are committed to a life of constantly crucifying the evil desires of our mind (Rom. 6:6). Unless we are willing to try to do this, then baptism is meaningless. It should only take place once a person is prepared to accept the responsibilities of the new life which should follow.

In baptism we die to this old, natural way of life, and are figuratively resurrected with Christ. “If then you were raised with Christ (in baptism), seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died ...Therefore put to death ... fornication, uncleanness ... covetousness” (Col. 3:1-5). After baptism we commit ourselves to a life of seeing things from God’s heavenly perspective, thinking of heavenly (i.e. spiritual) things, exchanging our worldly ambition for an ambition to overcome our natural human tendencies and thereby to enter God’s Kingdom.

The tendency of human nature is to show enthusiasm for obedience to God in fits and starts. God warns against this. God comments upon His own commandments: “which, if a man does, he shall live by them” (Ez. 20:21). If we are aware of God’s commands, and begin to obey them in baptism, we should be committed to live a lifetime of obedience to them.