- Romans 3:28: “We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
- Romans 5:1: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God.”
- Romans 4:5: “To the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”
- John 3:16: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
- Acts 13:38–39: “Through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed [justified] from everything from which you could not be freed [justified] by the law of Moses.”
You were buried with him and raised with him in baptism
through faith. The burial with Christ in the water and the rising with Christ out of the water, are not what unites you to Christ — that is, the going under the water, the coming up out of the water. That’s not what unites you to Christ. It is
through faith that you are decisively united to Christ. The water is
symbolic of the cleansing of your soul.