By being baptized, we were buried with Christ and joined him in death. But Christ has been raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, and like Christ we too can live a new life.
But now we have died to what used to control us, and we have been set free from the law. We serve in the new way of the Holy Spirit, not in the old way of the written law.
The water of the flood is a picture of the way that baptism now saves you too. It doesn’t save you by washing the dirt off your body. Instead, it’s your way of promising God that you’ll keep a clear conscience by the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.
It’s true that Christ was nailed to the cross in weakness, but now he’s alive by God’s power. In the same way, we share his weakness, but by God’s power we’ll be alive with Christ as we deal with you.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then the one who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
So let me tell you—and I’m speaking for the Lord as I warn you: You must not live the way the Gentiles do any longer. They’re not able to think things through correctly.
I’m using an example from everyday human life to help you understand. You used to offer yourselves as slaves to dirty habits, and you did more and more things that were wrong. Now offer yourselves as slaves to the right way of living. Then you will become holy.