Romans 6 ---->Baptism

Romans 6:1-13

- What must be done with sin before baptism can occur?
We must not let sin reign our hearts as it says in verse 12 but rather that we should be instruments of of righteousness that we may yield our hearts to God. This means that we must come clean of our sins, we must come to baptism with an energy  and devotion to Christ. As it would say in the Book of Mormon, it is a change of heart.

- What events from Christ's life are symbolized in baptism?
The death of Christ is symbolized as we are submerged into the water and as we rise back up it symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. The death of the sinner and the rising of a new, clean man.

- Consider this symbolism, why couldn't someone be baptized by sprinkling?
Being fully submerged is cleaning of the whole body whereas by sprinkling one is just receiving a portion of his/her body this cleansing.

- What do these verses teach us about how we can maintain the "newness of life"?
I find it interesting that verse 6 it explains boldly that our old man of sin has died with Christ so we should not return to being a servant of sin. We can be alive in Christ! Baptism is the first step.

- According to Mosiah 3:19, what part of us would ideally die at baptism?
Ideally the natural man, which is an enemy to God, would die. This means putting our pride, our selfishness on the side and submitting to his will.

Romans 6:14-23
In this scripture block it is clear to an understanding of who we are servants to. We are servants to that of which we yield to which means "to give up or surrender". When we are listening to the promptings of the Spirit and act upon promptings we are showing that our master is our Heavenly Father and we are his servant. It goes the other way as well when acting out of pleasure or lust. We become servants of the devil. 

The true source of freedom comes from being free from sin because we are then promised eternal life instead of death.