This is a devotion posted on the WELS App for January 17. It is a short but masterful writing on what Baptism does for a person.
Titus 3:5 - He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
On November 19, 1854, the legendary Texas general, Sam Houston, was baptized. He was known as a brutish man, a rabble-rouser and a heavy drinker. Apparently, his wife, Margaret, had been praying for 14 years that he would get baptized. As the story goes, after Sam Houston came up from the baptismal waters of a river in Texas, one of his friends said, "Well, General, all your sins have been washed away." Houston replied, "If that be the case, God help the fish downstream...."
We could technically all say the same thing. At our baptisms, a whole lot of filth got washed off of us. Every sin we'd ever committed and every sin we'd commit in the future received a cleansing on that day. That's a lot of sin. But it's gone now. It's washed downstream. This washing by the Holy Spirit has saved you. By your baptism, you've been tied into the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. You died dwith Christ and now also live with Christ.
The two words Paul uses in this verse to describe your baptism are "rebirth" and "renewal." To be "reborn" means to be given new life. At baptism, the "old you" was a slave to sin, but you've been set free now. It's like you get to start your life over now as someone born into God's family.
You've also been "renewed." You see the word new in that word. At baptism, you were given a "new self." This new self wants to please God and live in harmony with him. The old self of sin wants to rebel against God, but in your baptism, that old self is drowned. The new self now rises each day to live with Christ.
So, live every day as the reborn and renewed child of God that you are. You've been washed clean!
