Sermon Tone Analysis

Romans 6:1-14

Baptist Foundations – Believer’s Baptism

 

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means!

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions.

Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.[1]

Insistence upon believers’ baptism does not make us Baptists.

Neither does our insistence upon immersion as the mode for baptism make us Baptists.

However, because we are Baptists we practise baptism as taught in the New Testament.

Immersion was clearly the ancient mode of baptism.

Scholars, regardless of their denominational affiliation, are united on this point.

Moreover, the vast majority of scholars will agree and readily assert that the New Testament restricted the rite of baptism to those of mature age who knowingly chose to identify with the Christ.

What is baptism, then?

And, how did we arrive at this present point?

Baptism is a necessary qualification for church membership among most communions.

Even paedobaptist churches recognise this truth, since they require baptism of infants as a necessary precursor to membership in their churches.

There are few exceptions to this general rule.

For instance, the Salvation Army does not consider itself to be a church; therefore, they practise neither baptism nor communion.

If one wishes to be baptised, Salvationists will send that one to another communion, encouraging him or her to return after baptism.

Quakers, likewise, do not demand baptism for membership.

Some Brethren groups, especially those of a hyperdispensational bent, also refuse to practise baptism, believing the ordinance to have been restricted to a previous dispensation.

However, every other Christian communion expects that only those who are baptised may be members; those who are unbaptised are refused membership.

From this evidence, it is apparent that the definition of baptism we adopt is essential if we will honour the teaching of Christ the Lord.

Mode, candidate and purpose of the rite are of utmost importance, if we will honour the Lord Christ.

In order to determine what is pleasing to the Lord, I recommend that we consult His Word.

I suppose that I could refer to any of a number of texts, but I will focus this day on the words of the Apostle to the Gentiles as recorded in the letter to the Roman church.

Baptism’s Confession — In the passage under consideration, Paul speaks of baptism.

Many commentators, especially if they are of paedobaptist persuasion, insist that the Apostle does not speak of water baptism in this instance.

Honesty compels even noted advocates of infant baptism to acknowledge that Paul does indeed speak of baptism in water in this passage, however.

John Stott is a noted scholar and commentator on the New Testament Scriptures.

As an Anglican, and hence would not normally be expected to present a view which was either baptistic or sympathetic to Baptist doctrine.

In his excellent commentary on Romans, this noted Anglican scholar states concerning the passage under consideration.

Those who ask whether Christian people are free to sin betray their complete ignorance of what their baptism meant.

In order to grasp Paul’s argument, three clarifications need to be made about baptism.

First, Baptism means water baptism unless in the context it is stated to the contrary.

It is true that the New Testament speaks of other kinds of baptism, for example a baptism ‘with fire’ and a baptism ‘with the Spirit…’  It is safe to say that whenever the terms ‘baptism’ and ‘being baptised’ occur, without mention of the element in which the baptism takes place, the reference is to water baptism…

Secondly, baptism signifies our union with Christ, especially with Christ crucified and risen…  [T]o be baptised into Christ means to enter into relationship with him, much as the Israelites were ‘baptised into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,’ that is, into allegiance to him as their leader.

Thirdly, baptism doe not by itself secure what it signifies…  [W]e must give the apostle credit for consistency of thought.

‘The baptised’s faith is, of course, taken for granted … not forgotten, nor denied.’

So union with Christ by faith, which is invisibly effected by the Holy Spirit, is visibly signified and sealed by baptism.

The essential point Paul is making is that being a Christian involves a personal, vital identification with Jesus Christ, and that this union with him is dramatically set forth in our baptism.[2]

The argument the Apostle presents is pointed.

Christian people are not free to sin as they once did because of their relationship to Holy God.

It is not that Christians cannot sin, but it is that they cannot sin casually or with impunity.

Sin is serious business.

The evidence that the Christian cannot sin in a casual manner is predicated upon the baptism of those who are Christians.

Consequently, take careful note of the fact that the Apostle assumes that all Christians are baptised.

In other words, there would be no such thing as an unbaptised Christian in apostolic theology.

An unbaptised Christian would have been a significant anomaly.

Listen again to the text.

/What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means!

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life/.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus

[*Romans 6:1-11*]

In baptism, the one baptised makes a confession.

It is as though they were acting out the drama of salvation in three tenses—past, present and future.

In the text, Paul speaks of our identification with Christ in His death, of our burial with Him and of our resurrection to walk in newness of life.

Consider what the Apostle has just said concerning the foundation of our faith.

He has taught that in baptism an individual openly confesses his or her faith that Jesus died, was buried and raised to life.

Similarly, the baptismal candidate states that he has accepted the sacrifice of Christ as His substitute and likewise looks to the risen Saviour as the one who now justifies him.

We who are baptised have been united with Christ in His death and we shall also be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

Paul then speaks of our present condition.

He says that in baptism we openly confess that we accept the biblical argument that our old self was crucified with Christ in order that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Just so, having died with Christ, we confess our faith that we will also live with Him.

In baptism, each of us as Christians confessed our faith which teaches that through believing in the Son of God we admit that our old self was dead, but that because we accepted the sacrifice of Jesus the Son of God and believe that He has risen to set us free, we also believe that we are no longer condemned.

Listen to this argument presented in the Ephesian encyclical.

You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them [*Ephesians 2:1-10*].

Our condition was marked by death and a propensity to sin.

We were, in fact, slaves to sin.

Having believed Christ the Lord, we were set free, and this was an evidence of His mercy and grace.

Listen to another portion of this same Ephesian letter.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth [*Ephesians 1:3-10*].