February 14 Click on verses for Full Scripture

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Today's Pathway: Romans 6:3-5 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:

Today's text contains one of the most misused and misapplied verses of Scripture. I have attended numerous funerals over the year in a variety of churches and denominations, and in many churches which do not have sound doctrine I have heard something like this: "So-and-so was baptized into Jesus Christ as a baby and thus we know that he is a child of God and has entered into Heaven". The pastor/priest will read these verses in Romans 6 to prove his point. Please understand that this is NOT what these verses are teaching!

First of all, Paul has just finished teaching in the past three chapters that salvation is by grace through faith and that works have nothing to do with it. For him to now say that baptism places someone "in Christ", or in other words "saves him", would completely contradict everything that he has just written. Second, not only would it contradict the previous three chapters, it would contradict the totality of Paul's teaching. Paul repeatedly teaches the principle that salvation is by faith, and that good or religious works have nothing to do with it. Third, it would contradict the teachings of the rest of Scriptures which show that "they that gladly received His Word were baptised" (Acts 2:41), and that baptism was only available to a person who believed with all his heart (Acts 8:37). Finally, it contradicts Paul's own evangelistic practice. In I Corinthians 1:17 Paul writes,

"For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect."

So, what is the theme of this passage and the subsequent verses? As we saw previously, Paul is discussing being dead to sin. He now uses baptism as an illustration of that. Before looking at that aspect of baptism, we need to remember that baptism is the outward showing of the inward relationship that we have with Christ when we accept Him as Savior. In this passage Paul points out three things that baptism shows. First, in verse 3, it shows Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. This is one of the reasons why Biblical baptism must always be by immersion. Jesus was not buried by having dirt sprinkled on Him. He was laid down and placed in a tomb, completely covered. Second, in verse 5, it shows that the believer understands that someday he too will die and be buried (unless the rapture occurs), but there is a resurrection coming when the body will come out of the grave and be reunited with the soul that has gone to be with the Lord. Finally, in verse 6, it shows that the believer has died to his old sinful lifestyle, and just as Jesus rose from the dead, so the believer has "risen" from his deadness in sin and has become a new creature in Christ, and thus is going to live his life differently than he did before his salvation. This fact will be the basis for what Paul teaches in the remainder of this passage.