“He that Believeth and is Baptised”

Apart from the fact that we have seen the gradual spread of the Gospel in the chapters we have considered, we also note that the apostles baptised all those who believed. It is clear that they were following in exact detail the commission that Jesus gave to them when he commanded them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Only those who believed and were baptised could be saved (Mark 16:15).

When Peter was asked at the Feast of Pentecost by those who had listened carefully to his address, “What shall we do?” (for they were struck with the horror of what they had done in crucifying the Son of God), he answered, “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:37–38). Peter later, preaching the message of salvation to the Roman centurion Cornelius, pointed out that all the prophets of Israel had witnessed “that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins”. Cornelius responded in faith and therefore was “baptised in the name of the Lord” (Acts 10:43,48).

Baptism - Full Immersion in Water

As we have followed through the teaching of baptism from the days of John the Baptist through to the acts of the apostles, we have observed that those who were baptised “went down into the water” and came up “out of the water” (Acts 8:38–39). This is why John baptised “in the Jordan” (Matthew 3:6) and at Aenon, “because there was much water there” (John 3:23). We read of Jesus “coming up out of the water” after he was baptised (Mark 1:10).

Baptism is a full immersion in water because, as we have seen, it symbolises burial. It is the means God has chosen for us to identify first with the death and then with the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So Paul writes: “We are buried with him [Christ] by baptism into death”. In the act of baptism we demonstrate to God that our “old man”—a figure for our old way of life—has been put to death and we rise up out of the water to walk in newness of life in Christ (Romans 6:3–6).

Baptism into Christ

When a person is baptised he identifies with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3–5). We have noted that there must be a confession of past sins and repentance shown by a commitment to forsake one’s former way of life, before a person is ready to be baptised. In Romans 6 Paul explains in simple and clear terms the significance of baptism and the effect that it should have upon the life of the disciple of Christ.

Jesus was at all times completely obedient to his Father’s will. This obedience finally took him to the cross where he was cruelly crucified by wicked men. Though he was “in all points tempted like as we are”, yet he never succumbed to sin (Hebrews 4:15–16). In his death he gained his final victory over those sinful tendencies that are inherited by all Adam’s descendants and which have caused all, except him, to sin. We are emphatically told that he shared the identical “flesh and blood” nature that we have—“he also himself likewise took part of the same”. This was essential, that “through death he might destroy him that [Greek ton, ‘that which’] had the power of death, that is, the devil” (the diabolos, a synonymous term for the capacity to sin that we all possess—Hebrews 2:14; cp Romans 7:15–21; see Lesson 24).

Because of his sinless life of perfect obedience, even to death on the cross, it was not right that the grave could hold him (Acts 2:23–24; Romans 6:9). God in His justice raised him to life again and granted him immortality in His presence (Acts 2:32–36; Philippians 2:8–10). He now sits at the right hand of God in heaven, there to mediate as High Priest for those who approach God through him (Hebrews 7:25; 2:17–18).

We have seen in Romans 6 that in baptism we identify with Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. First let us consider how we identify with his death.

Paul says: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Romans 6:6–7). Therefore in baptism we demonstrate our desire to identify with our Lord’s death, a death in which he destroyed, once and for all for himself, the diabolos, that sin prone nature that he bore in common with us all. Paul calls it the “old man”. In baptism “our old man is crucified with him” as it were, and we repudiate the ways of sin that have governed our life, confessing that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. We acknowledge that we are worthy of death because of our sins, for we have learned that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

As we rise from the waters of baptism, Paul identifies another parallel—with Jesus’ resurrection. We come forth to a new way of life, serving God as our new Master. Paul describes it this way: “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” (Romans 6:4).

It is in this “newness of life” that the disciple now strives to follow Christ. It is a way of life where Christ is seen living in us as we strive to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21–25). With considerable feeling Paul describes the change that took place in his own life: “I am crucified with Christ: [that is, the ‘old Paul’ was dead now]: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

It was the love of Christ, revealed in his willingness to lay down his life for the sins of the world, that constrained Paul to respond by committing his own life in service to his Lord (2 Corinthians 5:14,15; cp 1 John 3:16). Jesus had said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you” (John 15:13–14). Those who, like Paul, have a true understanding of how Christ has redeemed them from sin and death, will desire to crucify “the old man” and rise to a “newness of life” in Christ by following his commandments. It is by walking according to these commandments that Christ is seen “in us”. It is through his teaching that our new character is developed (Colossians 3:1–14; Galatians 5:19–26; Ephesians 4:17–32; 5:1–21).

Walking in “Newness of Life”

Paul says that in this new life we have a change of master and of service. Whereas previously the believer had served “sin” and satisfied his own desires, now, through baptism, he has been freed from slavery to sin and serves “righteousness” (Romans 6:17–18). Paul describes this new service as producing “fruit unto holiness” and in the end, eternal life: “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:22–23).

Again, this dramatic change is spoken of as “putting off…the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” and “putting on… the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24).

The “new man” is seen in our new way of thinking and acting, which reflects the excellent virtues of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The disciple’s life will focus on loving service to God out of gratitude for His grace in providing Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Titus 2:11–14). He will aspire to manifest in his life the glorious character of God as revealed in the Bible (Exodus 34:6,7). He will find, too, that he now has an abhorrence of the perverse and wicked ways of the world. Like Jesus Christ, he will love righteousness and hate wickedness (Psalm 45:7; Hebrews 1:9). So Paul concludes: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The “New Man” Begotten by the Word of God

This “new man”, Paul says, “is renewed in knowledge after the image of him

that created him” (Colossians 3:10). The new man has come into existence because of a newfound knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. The change that has taken place has come about through careful study and meditation upon the word of God. James says that God has begotten His children through “the word of truth” (James 1:18). Peter says that those who respond in faith and obedience to the Gospel are “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you” (1 Peter 1:23–25; cp Isaiah 40:6–8 from which Peter is quoting).

Man’s nature is such that he will inevitably perish. If, however, a man (or woman) allows the living word of God to grow in his heart and transform his life, God will give him eternal life. Jesus also had pointed out the contrast between the two ways, one leading to life and the other to death, when he said: “It is the spirit that quickeneth [gives life]; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63).

Adapted from “The Exploring the Bible Course” by David Evans