Immersed Into Jesus, Released From Adam

Slices soaking in a jar of brine, a quiet picture of a life immersed into Jesus and changed from the inside out.

Devotional Credit: Living in the Garden of Grace, David Kuykendall, pp 11-12
Photo Credit: Unsplash

There is a quiet mystery in the way the New Testament talks about salvation. Instead of beginning with words like justification or forgiveness, it often starts with a simple phrase, in Christ. Today's devotional opens that door wider and shows that being in Jesus is not just one part of the Christian life, it is the foundation of it. Salvation is described again and again as a change of location and a change of identity. We were once in Adam, now we are in Jesus.

The author reminds us that this is not mainly about water baptism. It is about a work the Holy Spirit has already done for every believer. By the Spirit, we were baptized into one body, joined to the risen Jesus as members of His body. When that happened, God did something staggering. He placed us into the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son. What happened to Jesus became true of us in Him.

Just as Adam stood at the head of the old humanity, so Jesus now stands at the head of a new humanity. In Adam, we inherited sin and death. In Jesus, we inherit crucifixion to the old life, burial of what we were in Adam, and resurrection into a new life we did not generate. The author is inviting us to see salvation not merely as God changing His attitude toward us, but as God placing us into a new Head and a new race.

This changes the way we look at ourselves on an ordinary Tuesday. If I am in Jesus, then God already counts me as someone who died with Him, was buried with Him, and was raised with Him. My old connection to Adam as my spiritual head has been severed, and my new connection to Jesus is permanent. The Christian life, then, is not me trying to improve the old Adam life for God. It is learning to live from the life of the One into whom I have already been immersed.

Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture

I want you to know, deeply and quietly, that I have already taken you out of Adam and placed you into My Son. You did not move yourself. By one Spirit I baptized you into one body. I joined you to Jesus who is the Head of that body, so that what is true of Him has become true of you in Him.

When My Son died to sin, you were united with Him in His death. When He was buried, your old life in Adam was counted as buried with Him. When He rose to new life, you were raised together with Him, so that you might walk in newness of life that does not come from your own effort but from His risen life in you. This union is not a picture in a book. It is the reality I see every time I look at you.

You once shared in the story of Adam. In that story, sin and death reigned. You tried to do better with the same old source of life, and you met frustration and defeat. Now I tell you a different story. If anyone is in Jesus, he is a new creation. The old things in Adam have passed away in My reckoning, and new things have come. I have transferred you out of the domain of darkness and placed you into the kingdom of the Son of My love. You do not belong to the old realm any longer.

In My Son, you are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. You are not trying to climb up to a place of favor. You are seated there with Him. When you see only your weakness, I see you crucified with the Messiah, and it is no longer you who live in your own strength. Jesus lives in you. The life you now live in your body, you live by trusting the One who loved you and gave Himself for you.

I am at work in you, both to will and to work for My good pleasure. I do not ask you to energize yourself to match some distant standard. I invite you to count yourself dead to sin and alive to Me in Jesus. As you yield to Me in the moment, I express the life of My Son through you. His patience in place of your irritation. His purity in place of your old patterns. His love where there once was coldness. You are not trying to make Adam behave better. You are learning to trust the living presence of Jesus within you.

So when accusations come, remember there is no condemnation for you who are in Christ Jesus. When the old patterns of thinking rise up, remember that your old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless as a ruling master. Fix your mind on the things above, where Jesus is, because your life is hidden with Him in Me. When He appears, you will appear with Him in glory, and you will see fully what I already know about you in Him today.

Real-Life Analogy

Picture a simple kitchen scene. You place slices of cucumber into a jar of vinegar, salt, and spices. At first, they are just pale slices in a clear liquid. But as time passes, the brine works its way into every part of the cucumber. The taste, the texture, even the color begins to change. It is still the same slice, but a new character has taken over. It has been so united with the brine that you no longer call it a cucumber, you call it a pickle.

Our baptism into Jesus is far more real and far more holy than that jar on the counter. The Holy Spirit has placed us into the risen Jesus, and now the life of Jesus, like that brine, saturates who we are. We are still ourselves, yet now we are counted as those in whom the life of another is present. The change is not you trying harder to act like a different vegetable. The change comes because you are immersed in a new source, and that source is the living Jesus who dwells in you by His Spirit.

So imagine a moment later today. Someone sends a sharp message, and your old Adam reaction starts to rise. Instead of pushing yourself to be nicer from your own resources, you might quietly turn your attention to the Lord and say, Lord, I am relying on You to express Your gentle, risen life through my response right now. You are not checking off a list. You are trusting the indwelling Spirit of Jesus to do in and through you what you cannot produce on your own. That is what it looks like to live as someone who has been immersed into Jesus and released from Adam.

Prayer of Confidence

Father, thank You that my salvation is deeper than I ever imagined. Thank You that You did not simply adjust Your opinion of me, You removed me from Adam and placed me into Your beloved Son. In Jesus, You have already counted me as crucified, buried, and raised to newness of life. I rest in Your finished work rather than chasing after a better version of my old life.

Thank You that I am part of the body of the Messiah, joined to Him as my Head. Thank You that everything that is true of Him as the Head of the new humanity now shapes my story in Him. I agree with You that my old self in Adam was crucified with Jesus, and I agree with You that I am now alive to You in Him.

Today, as I walk through ordinary moments, I rejoice that Your Spirit is the One who works in me to will and to act according to Your good pleasure. I gladly depend on the living presence of Jesus within me. I praise You that You have already blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Him, and I thank You that I never face a single situation alone.

Scripture References for the Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture Section

Romans 5:12-19; Romans 6:3-5; Romans 6:6-11; Romans 8:1; Romans 8:10-11; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:3; Colossians 1:13; Colossians 3:1-4; Philippians 2:13; John 15:4-5