Baptized into Christ - Evangelical Caucus/Devotional

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” (Romans 6:3).

A person who believes Christians are free to continue sinning betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of what a Christian is. Christians are not merely guilty sinners declared righteous by God because Christ has satisfied the demands of God’s righteousness on their behalf. That truth, which theologians call justification, is indeed an essential one. But there is much more to salvation than justification. Believers are also placed into union with Jesus Christ.

Paul introduces this momentous truth by means of the analogy of water baptism. Some wrongly interpret this passage to teach that baptism itself places us into union with Christ. But Paul had just spent three chapters (Rom. 3—5) teaching that salvation is solely by faith in Christ. He would hardly then turn around in chapter 6 and teach that it was by ritual. The apostle, as he did in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, used baptism in a metaphorical sense. (The Greek word translated “baptism” simply means “to immerse,” not necessarily in water.)

Paul also uses other metaphors to describe believers’ union with Christ. In Galatians 3:27 he says believers have put on Christ, while 1 Corinthians 6:17 says Christians are joined to Him. But none is so graphic as that of baptism; the leaving of one environment (air) and entering another (water) symbolizes believers leaving Satan’s realm (Eph. 2:2) and entering that of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does our union with Christ mean in our everyday lives? First, it provides the means of fellowship with both Jesus and the Father (1 John 1:3). It also should motivate us to avoid sinning. In 1 Corinthians 6:15, Paul chided the Corinthians for their lax view of sexual sin: “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be!” Finally, our union with Christ provides hope of future glory (Rev. 3:21).

What a blessed privilege and awesome responsibility is ours, to have our lives inextricably bound with the Son of God (Col. 3:3)!

Read 2 Peter 1:3-4. In light of our union with Christ, do we lack anything necessary for living the Christian life?

Re "baptisms":

It takes more words to prove what I am about to write, but it important to remark that the baptism discussed in Romans 6 is the baptism in and by the Spirit alone in the spirit realm alone, at the point of one's undivided commitment to Jesus as one's Master and Proprietor.

This baptism takes place in the spirit realm only, and has nothing to do with water, an earthly temporal substance.

On the other hand, the only recognized other baptism, immersion, a work signifying admission into Christ's service, is the formal public show of Christ's authority over a person which is the delegation of it to His representative to conduct the rite of induction into a recognized regularly meeting local assembly of citizens of His kingdom by the modality of immersion on the basis of the recruited disciple professing complete unreserved allegiance to Him, and voluntarily agreeing to enter that assembly to carry out His orders with them figuratively as a member of His Body.

The induction is administered once, putativey forever permanent, and conducted on the basis that the person has heretofore experienced new birth in the spiritual realm. This baptism only recognizes the transmission of everlasting life. It can never be the cause of it.

The Romans verse 11 explains what verse 3 means:

"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ unto God" (Rom 6:11 AV).

The reckoning comes from repentance, which comprises a change of mind that is the fundamental feature of having gained a saving confidence in Jesus' ability to impart eternal life, that results afterwards one's change in behavior, part of which is the induction into a life of progressive holiness with its rewards:

"The wages of sin is death^{(of both body and spirit}; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ."

So be it. Selah!

Re "baptisms":

This baptism takes place in the spirit realm only, and has nothing to do with water, an earthly temporal substance.

The induction is administered once, putativey forever permanent, and conducted on the basis that the person has previusly experienced a spiritual baptism into new birth into the spiritual realm.

This water baptism only recognizes symbolically the transmission of everlasting life that is said to have already happened. It can never be the cause of it.

The Romans verse 11 explains what verse 3 means:

"Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ unto God" (Rom 6:11 AV).

The reckoning comes from repentance, which comprises a change of mind that is the inherent feature of having gained a saving confidence in Jesus' ability to impart eternal life, that results afterwards one's change in behavior, part of which is the induction into a life of progressive holiness with its rewards:

"The wages of sin is death^{(of both body and spirit)}; but the gift of God is eternal^unceasing life^{(in soul and spirit} through Jesus Christ."

So be it. Selah!

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