Romans – A Treatise
Chapter Six
BAPTISM
Scripture Reading: verses 1-5
WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN? SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN, THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND? GOD FORBID. HOW SHALL WE, THAT ARE DEAD TO SIN, LIVE ANY LONGER THEREIN? KNOW YE NOT, THAT SO MANY OF US AS WERE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST WERE BAPTIZED INTO HIS DEATH? THEREFORE WE ARE BURIED WITH HIM BY BAPTISM INTO DEATH: THAT LIKE AS CHRIST WAS RAISED UP FROM THE DEAD BY THE GLORY OF THE FATHER, EVEN SO WE ALSO SHOULD WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. FOR IF WE HAVE BEEN PLANTED TOGETHER IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH, WE SHALL BE ALSO IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION.
We need to travel rather slowly, because several divine truths are involved in these verses. First, keep the passage in its context, remembering that we are still viewing and listening to a courtroom scene. The case of the criminal is before the court. God is the Judge; the Lord Jesus Christ has taken the place of the sinner, died in his stead, is risen again – He now appears in the courtroom. As attorney for the defense, Paul takes us step by step as he argues the case. In the close of chapter 5 he asserted the sovereign claim the dominating principle of sin has on the criminal, and which must culminate in eternal death unless some greater power comes in to annul death and liberate the condemned.
In these verses in chapter 6, the apostle works toward that issue. He is going carefully, a step at a time. His contention is that the power of the grace of God is superior to the power of sin and death. But the question is immediately raised: how shall this affect the criminal? Is the power of the grace of God so all-enveloping it will extend to the criminal a license to do as he pleases, to continue in his life of sin, expecting to be pardoned at the end of his career for anything he might do along the way? This is an important issue and must be settled once and for all before this universal court.
So Paul says: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” In other words, the Judge on the bench, who is none other than the God of all loving-kindness, has, as a free gift to the condemned criminal before Him, a complete pardon for his offences. This can be done righteously, because of the faith of Another, the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid the penalty of sin by His death on Calvary. There is no question about the pardon. It is freely given on the principle of grace. Shall the condemned criminal, who has been set free from the charge against him, go out into the world and do as he pleases and indulge in sin, knowing that God’s Grace super-abounds sin? The apostle says, “God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
Here is the situation before us. God, the Judge, holds in His hand the long catalog of guilt, the long list of offences with which man, the criminal, is charged. By the shed blood of the Lord Jesus as the substitutionary offering on Calvary’s Cross, God has blotted out that list of transgressions, casting them into the depth of the sea. He has removed our transgressions as far as the east is from the west. There is no question as to the complete clearance from guilt. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted unto him for righteousness.” The righteousness of God in Christ is imputed to the sinner – he is freed of the charge; justified by God’s grace; justified by faith in the faith of Jesus; justified by the blood of Christ. His sins – past, present and future – have been dealt with by the judgment of God upon the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary, when Jehovah laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That work is complete and finished. His sins were all future when Christ died, He atoned for our sins. God is satisfied. When we accept it by faith in the faith of Jesus Christ, justification is accorded to us as a free gift.
While all that is settled, another great issue still remains. The pardoned criminal now stands cleared from guilt because Another has died for him. The law no longer has a claim on him; he is free of all charges. But he is still a man, a son of Adam’s race with a corrupt heart. In other words, the actions of the criminal have been taken care of, and he has a clean slate. Shall he then be turned out into the world without restraint? If so, then the corrupt nature of his heart will again express itself and that inherent impulse to sin will be put into action. The sinner himself is now the real problem, not his offences. What then shall the court do with the sinner? Paul is contending the only thing to do with him is to declare him dead, and give him life after a new order in the risen Lord, under a new power, even resurrection life.
It is along this line that baptism is introduced. Paul is not asking merely that the sinner should be baptized, as if the water would do anything for him, but he is reminding us that baptism by immersion in water is the very expression of the truth demanded by this court. In order for the sinner to be justified, he must be reckoned dead and so Paul reminds us:
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
In other words, Paul is here indicating that, according to the old Adam nature, the criminal must be put to death; the dead must be buried, and put out of sight. So the analogy in baptism is that we stand in association with the Lord Jesus Christ; we are dead with Him, therefore we must be buried with Him and raised again with Him.
By immersion in water, we are expressing that as sons of Adam’s race, we are so corrupt that God can do nothing with us as men after the flesh. By submitting to baptism we are expressing that we agree with God about this great moral issue, and thus submit ourselves as dead with Christ. So is baptism necessary? Absolutely! As we go down into the water of baptism we show that we deserve to be put out of sight, out of the land of the living into the realm of death as a fitting end to our corrupt nature. But through His matchless grace, God permits us to be raised again. We come up out of the water of baptism so that we might walk in newness of life in association with the Lord Jesus Christ – we are born again. Baptism is an expression of the fact that we are dead and risen with Christ, recognized in His risen life, acceptable before God in His life, and motivated by a new principle – the righteousness of God. The symbol of planting seed in the ground in the place of death, springing forth in a new fruit-bearing life, is used in this passage to convey the same grand truth. What a challenge this presents to every Christian heart.
