Recently a friend of mine emailed me a collection of video clips from a speech by Michael Nutter, the mayor of Philadelphia. Transcribed below are his words; my comments about the biblical basis for his words follow.When writing to his first-century readers in Rome, the apostle Paul asked them about their knowledge and understanding of baptism. By the phrasing of his questions in Romans 6:1-3, it appears there might have been people who did not realize several important truths about New Testament water baptism. Because such was possible in the first century, it is also possible in the 21st century.
From reading Romans 6:3-7, the following truths about New Testament water baptism are found:
Truth No. 1: Baptism is into Christ Jesus (verse 3). The idea conveyed by “into” is the idea of passing from one location to another. If someone goes into a store, he has gone from outside to inside. The same is true about baptism.
Because the apostle Paul states that baptism is into Christ, it must be the case that before baptism, a person is outside Jesus, and because of baptism, that person is in Christ. This is so important to know because the apostle Paul also states that the location of every spiritual blessing is in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
Truth No. 2: Baptism is into Christ’s death (verse 3). The atoning blood of God’s lamb was shed at Christ’s death. This blood propitiated (or satisfied through an acceptable sacrifice) God’s holy wrath for man’s sin. Without Christ’s death and the shedding of his atoning blood, there would be no New Covenant or the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28). Interestingly, the exact words “for the remission of sins” that Jesus uses in Matthew 26:28 are repeated in Acts 2:38, when Peter says, “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. …”
If a person is going to believe the truth of God’s word, then he or she must believe that whatever the blood of Jesus does for a person, repentance and baptism also do the same thing. In other words, if Jesus’ blood was shed because sins had already been forgiven (before his death in Matthew 26:28), then water baptism would do the same thing. If, however, Jesus’ blood was shed to realize the forgiveness of sins then water baptism does the same thing. Whatever Christ’s death does for a person’s sins, repentance and baptism also do.
Truth No. 3: Baptism is a burial with Christ (verse 4). The same thing that was done to Jesus’ body after his death is what is done to a person’s body when he or she is baptized. What did Joseph of Arimathea do with Jesus’ body after his death? Matthew records that Joseph laid Jesus’ body “in his new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock, and rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb” (Matthew 27:60).
Mark records that when the women came early in the morning on the first day of the week to anoint the body of Jesus, they were asking among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” (Mark 16:1-3). This question clearly indicates that Jesus’ body was completely entombed in or covered by the ground. Just as Jesus’ body was lovingly placed in Joseph’s borrowed tomb and then completely covered, awaiting his resurrection on the third day, so baptism is a burial in which a person’s entire body is momentarily covered completely; it is buried in water.
Truth No. 4: Baptism results in newness of life (verse 4). Just as Jesus’ body was raised from the dead, so one who is baptized is raised to “walk in newness of life”; this is a new state of existence. Before baptism, one is “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1), but “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) that occurs when a person is baptized results in a new life. One is born again (John 3:3), born of the water and of the Spirit (John 3:5). According to Jesus, without this newness of life that is the result of baptism, one cannot enter or see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5).
Truth No. 5: Baptism results in death (separation) from sin (verse 6). In Romans 6, Paul declares that baptism results in freedom from the slavery of sin. In God’s word, this is called “redemption.” Note that the purpose of Jesus’ redemption is not to save his people so that they can sin, but so that they can be freed from sin. Unlike Jesus, a Christian cannot live without sin (1 John 1:8), but a Christian can and ought to sin less and less and less (1 John 2:1).
It was this very point concerning holy living that brought Paul’s questions about water baptism in Romans 6:3. In verse 1, he asks, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” God’s unequivocal answer is: “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” The purpose of God’s grace and Jesus’ priceless redemption is not to excuse sin but to eliminate it. The place where the stoppage of sin begins is in water baptism. You have God’s word on it.
