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.
What kind of faith unites you with Christ? Some mental accent of I believe in Jesus? Nothing like that is in the NT.
Would a faith that says sprinkling is ok unite? Or would you go with , since you're already saved (FM) doesn't matter what you do?
That word buried ( Col.2:12) (immersed) would eliminate any form of sprinkling or pouring. Practiced everywhere without the authority of scripture.
The act of obedience you are responding to ( baptism) IS an act of faith and through faith. You are obeying what has been commanded and you are doing it for the reason God says in His word.. A dead man( dead in sin) is buried and rises alive in Christ ( symbolic of the resurrection ) (Romans 6)..You have faith that what you are doing and it will do what God said it will do. Remit sin ( Acts 2:38) Wash away sin ( Acts 22:16) Save you ( Mark 16:16) Unites you with Christ( Rom. 6) Puts you in Christ and on Christ( Gal.3:2-27.. Note one would be "outside" of Christ before this act of obedience ) How horrible it would be to be buried alive physically. Spiritually, the eternal consequence would be far worse. You bury dead people. Spiritually dead as well as physically dead.
The water is definitely symbolic. Water is the element God chose to symbolize, what's above, plus how one is able to reach the blood of the cross (John 19:34). Baptism is God's operation of washing us in the blood of the Lamb and cleansing us of our sins. One comes into contact with the shed blood of Christ (the place where forgiveness is found) "You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses ( Col.2:12-13) This text explains much..Israel was born into the family of God by physical birth and the operation circumcision. Now, all can be born into the family of God (Spiritual, NT) by the new birth, water and spirit (John 3:5) by the operation of God. Jesus operates on the heart during baptism. He circumcises the heart. (Col. 2)
Saul (Acts 22:16) was not washed in the blood of the lamb until his sin were "washed" away in the act of baptism. At that point, not when he "believed", was he saved and forgiven. If he was saved and forgiven prior to his baptism, why did he have sins to wash away?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.For if we have been UNITED with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be UNITED with him in a resurrection like his.We know that our old selfs was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Rom. 6: 3-6
Gotta roll.. kids are here. Will address your comment later this evening
Hey sorry for the disappearing act. Family emergency happened while the kids were here. All home now and out of hospital.
According to Paul, the uniting takes place with Christ in the act of baptism.
Sola scriptura does not exist in Scripture, either.
I do believe in the all sufficiency of the scripture. The Bible makes the claim that it is all sufficient (sola scriptura) in fact does exist in scripture.. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Written commentary about what is inspired is helpful in ones growth and knowledge but why substitute man written-creeds, in place of God-inspired Scripture? After Luther, about 60 creeds were written.Creeds only divide. God's word is the only unifier. I understand Catholics appeal to their tradition and give it the same authority as the Scripture. An appeal to human tradition and uninspired "revelations" from God to uninspired humans is not "the engrafted word that is able to save your soul."(James 1:21)
- 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.”
These passages are used by those who say faith alone saves. They are missing the word "only."
I can discuss each of these verses if you like, tell me if you want and I can hit it again.. getting late and it's been a rough past few days... but
Nothing alone saves.
The Bible says many things save: Love, Grace, Mercy, Faith, Repentance, Confession, Baptism, Remaining Faithful, etc.
Not one alone will save anyone.
Your favorite Apostle, Peter says this,"Baptism, which corresponds to this( water saving Noah), now saves you, ... 1Peter 3:21
Peter says baptism saves you. You say baptism doesn't.
Peter does not say that baptism "only" saves you. It doesn't. Neither does faith only. If that's all that needed done, I would take several of my family members and force them under. That goes back briefly to another discussion of one being a proper candidate.
The only time "faith alone" appears in the NT it says it doesn't justify you
"You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."(James 2:24 ) No.. this is not teaching baptism is work anymore than repentance is a work. No one "works" and earns anything deserving of salvation.
