Baptism – getting beyond the controversy Part II

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In the second of four blogs on Baptism - getting beyond the controversy we continue with Part II: In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes about being ‘baptised into Christ Jesus’. The passage in Romans 6 is often used to explain the imagery of water baptism but what did Paul really have in mind? 
Click here to read Part I

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Getting beyond the controversy does not mean that baptism is not controversial! Look at this exchange between Jesus and his opponents, the religious leaders:

‘Tell me,’ Jesus said, ‘the baptism of John – was it from heaven or from men?’ Luke 20 v 4

They refused. They couldn’t say ‘heaven’ otherwise they should have been baptised. But they couldn’t say ‘men’ as they feared the crowd.

And Luke comments earlier in his gospel that ‘the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the will of God for themselves, not having been baptised by John’.

As a reminder here are three ‘baptisms’ we are considering are:

1. Romans 6 v 3 ‘Or do you know know that as many as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?’

Romans 6 v 3: ‘Or do you know know that as many as were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?’

The question posed by Paul is relevant today.

It’s really two questions:

• Do you know you were baptised into Christ?

• Do you, who were baptised into Christ, know you were baptised into His death

I have been a member of three ‘evangelical/charismatic churches’ and I haven’t heard one sermon, and certainly no consistent teaching, on ‘baptism into Christ Jesus’ and ‘baptism into His death’. Not one!

Isn’t that controversial?

As a taster of a fuller explanation, it appears that many theological colleges that prepare ministers and preachers for various denominations, especially Protestant colleges and seminaries, limit their understanding of the crucifixion of Christ to the ‘substitutionary’ nature of Christ’s sacrifice: He died for us and in our place.

That, of course, is wonderfully true. Hymns and songs are written in their thousands and sung with fire and passion to celebrate this truth:

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Saviour’s blood?
Died He for me who caused His pain
For me who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou my God should die for me?

Or…

Who brings our chaos back into order
Who makes the orphan a son and daughter
The King of Glory, the King of Glory

This is amazing grace
This is unfailing love
That You would take my place
That You would bear my cross
You lay down Your life
That I would be set free
Jesus, I sing for
All that You’ve done for me

This is Amazing Grace

But where are the sermons, where are the hymns and songs that are gripped with joy over the ‘inclusive’ sacrifice of Christ; that his sacrifice on the cross included us? If it is not taught in theological colleges, it’s therefore locked away in the New Testament like a well-preserved vintage wine. Maybe it’s time to pop the cork?

I think so.

I’ve heard many sermons on baptism explaining that it symbolises a believer’s conversion: leaving their old life behind, ‘dying to sin’ (v2), being buried under the water, like Jesus in the tomb, and then raised up to a new life in Christ as Jesus was resurrected.  But many limit themselves to verse 2 – and pick up on the phrase ‘died to sin’ – referring to the person’s decision to leave ‘sin’ behind and put their faith in Christ. Wonderful though that is, and important, this is not what Paul is referring to when he writes of being ‘baptised into Christ Jesus’.

It is not the act of water baptism that produces this spiritual transformation. Not even those who practice infant baptism say that by baptising a baby you ‘make them a Christian’. We don’t bury people to make them die! But when they have died, we must bury them! That’s the explosive message of the gospel! The good news! A new life, baptised into Christ Jesus!

To quote the first six verses of Romans chapter 6:

‘Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him’

To understand how we can have ‘died with Christ’, been ‘crucified with Christ’, when we haven’t even been born when He was crucified, we need to understand the biblical concept of being ‘in’ someone.

The bible speaks of Levi, being ‘in Abraham’ paying tithes to Melchizedek. Abraham had paid the king of Jerusalem, Melchizedek, a tenth of his wealth. Levi was Abraham’s great-grandson and not born when Abraham paid the money. But by being ‘in’ Abraham’s loins (Hebrews 7 v 10) from a biblical perspective he paid the tithes. The Israelites following Moses through the desert were ‘baptised into Moses in the cloud and the sea’ 1 Cor 10 v 1. We are born ‘in Adam’. The biblical understanding is one of inheritance. Once we are ‘in’ someone we inherit all that they are and all they have done. In ‘Adam’ therefore we inherit a sinful nature which explains why we fail to keep any commandments (not just the Ten, but any rules we would like to impose on others; at some point we will probably fail even these!)

But now, says Paul, we have been baptised into Christ and so we are ‘in Christ’. Once we see this and believe it and place our faith in it, we begin to find out just how true it is!

In technical language, this is the ‘inclusive’ sacrifice of Christ. God included you and me in the death of Christ. In His burial. And in His resurrection. When we understand this, our life is put on a completely new footing. No longer is the Christian life one of attempting to be more like Jesus, or even trusting the Holy Spirit to improve us steadily or sanctify us. Rather it is a huge relief, and we are left permanently in a state of utter thankfulness. As if often said about grace: ‘We don’t deserve it, and we didn’t earn it’. It is given freely. As Jesus said ‘freely have you received, freely give.’ That ‘old man’, that ‘in-Adam’ man has been crucified with Christ.

‘I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me’ Galatians 2 v 20

Or as Paul says elsewhere: ‘we are new creations in Christ Jesus, the old has gone, see, the new has come!’

The word baptism, as we have seen, means to plunge into, to make thoroughly wet with whatever an object is being baptised into. If it was a piece of cloth being baptised into a vat full of a particular dye, it would emerge soaked in that new colour. Someone has to baptise the cloth; it can’t baptise itself!

In water baptism, usually, there is one person, sometimes two, who baptises the person; so the question arises ‘who is it who baptises us into Christ Jesus?

It is God who baptises us into Christ Jesus.

‘It is of God that you are in Christ Jesus’  1 Cor 1 v 30

We become thoroughly soaked with Christ…that’s Christianity. Just as you cannot separate the dye from the cloth once the cloth has been dipped, baptizo, nor can you separate Christ from the new believer of the believer from Christ.

Water baptisms are a great occasion. We are symbolically burying someone who has died. But, true to form, we are also celebrating the resurrection in Christ of a person who knows they have died and raised as Paul puts it to ‘walk in newness of life’; Christ’s life penetrating every part of this new life, like the cloth dipped, or baptizo, baptised with a vivid new dye.

To finish, remember the man who was in the hotel and was baptised standing under a sudden storm on his hotel balcony? The longer version of this story of that he had been struggling with Christianity and had decided to read the New Testament, probably the hotel room Gideon bible, I can’t remember. Over the course of a few days, he began to understand and believe what he was reading. Then he read about baptism and realised he needed to be baptised.

In his case God did both baptisms; the one in water as he was drenched in the shower and spiritually.

Please click here to read Baptism - getting beyond the controversy Part III