Romans 4:13 For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14 For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb:
20 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21 And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
That caution from the liberal theologians ("no ifs") is easily dismissed, when the caution is not made a principle for interpreting the Bible. When people start with man-made inventions, instead of "Scripture interpreting Scripture," they fall into the Slough of Despond.
Those who stand with their jaws wide open, extolling righteousness without faith, are really claiming that the Bible is packed with contradictions and errors. Their attacks on justification by faith, their name-calling, comes about because they have blinded themselves to the Word of God by placing themselves above it.
Strangely, many people put human authority above the Holy Spirit's teaching. They seem to fear that some of their heroes might be wrong. In the name of Luther, they speak about the errors of Luther (showing a vast ignorance of his work) but they cannot abide Uncle Fritz being wrong about anything.
Baptism - the Word
Paul's expression about baptism expresses the power of the Word. If baptism were just a custom, then many more words would be used to make sure everyone knows baptism is only symbolic and merely a custom.
Through baptism, God has taken the believer into His Kingdom and into the life of following Christ. That means taking up the cross and also receiving the righteousness of Christ through the cross - through faith.
Baptism into His death means that He is in us and we are in Him, just as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. For non-believers, such a concept is odd or mysterious or nonsense. But in true Judaism, one follows the other.
My Old Testament class found problems with all the kosher laws and the other customs imposed on them by Moses. I pointed out that there is a motto - "We have kept kosher, and kosher has kept us." Nothing is more identifying than the kosher laws, even though they are not always followed, or they are followed only for special events. A truly kosher kitchen would have two refrigerators, two dishwashers, and so forth. But the concept, which could be dropped during persecution, remained a distinctive of one group of people.
Sacrament is a short-cut word, but the concept has a lot of meaning. The current generation is sacrament-starved but rich in entertainment of the lamest sort. We watched a painfully bad movie called The Rev, which argued for entertainment in the worship service. The bad guy minister liked pipe organs and the bad members hated recorded back-up music on boom boxes. The horror of it all. Of course, the Elvis-like minister was the hero and he prevailed. The actor/director often said "The Gospel" but there was no Gospel message in the movie, as far as I could tell.
Sacrament means combining the visual with the Word. Baptism is a one-time event, but the Word makes it a lifetime sacrament. Therefore, since baptism is the sign of faith in Christ, everything relates to that baptism.
Baptized into His death is a way of citing Isaiah 53, the central message of the Gospel in the Old Testament. Imagine what that was like for people who commonly memorized the Word of God. Manuscripts were too expensive to leave lying around. Who could afford a hand-written copy of the Old Testament? So the substitute was knowing the Word, memorizing the Word.
Isaiah 53 is prominent throughout the New Testament, so we know that it was central to preaching.
Isaiah 53 King James Version (KJV)
53 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lordrevealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
So baptism into His death meant a lot when Paul wrote this.
Structure of Romans
After developing and teaching justification by faith in Romans 1-5, Paul taught sanctification based on justification in Romans 6ff.
That is where many people are confused, because false teachers begin with doing rather than believing. And they make a big deal about the right doing, but downplay faith, even judging faith by one's actions.
One Mennonite family said, "He is no Mennonite. He never comes to church." That is a good example. Perhaps they meant, "If he really believed, he would be in church." But the action was first, and that develops into a way of thinking where only the action matters.
Biblical faith unites the two, as Paul taught. Baptized in His death means our words and deeds reflect what Christ did for us.
Romans 6:4 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.
The "walk" language was and still is symbolic of how we conduct ourselves. Because we are buried with Him by baptism, dying in the Old Adam, so we are raised up with Him into eternal life and therefore in a new way of living.
When I read Luther's sermons, there is a lot of Gospel motivation, which is foremost in this passage. The Gospel itself generates the fruits of the Spirit. So reflecting on the Gospel moves us to follow in the way of Christ, not based on fear of punishment, but simply out of love.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
11. On the other hand, we are outwardly oppressed with the cross and sufferings, and with the persecution and torments of the world and the devil, as with the weight of a heavy stone upon us, subduing our old sinful nature and checking us against antagonizing the Spirit and committing other sins. “For if we have become united [planted together] with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that hath died is justified from sin.”
12. This is another distinctly apostolic discourse. Being baptized into Christ’s death and buried with him, to which Paul had just referred, he here calls being united, or planted together, with Christ in the likeness of his death. Christ’s death and resurrection and our baptism are intimately united with, and related to, one another. Baptism is not to be regarded a mere empty sign, as Anabaptists erroneously hold. In it is embodied the power of both Christ’s death and resurrection. Hence Paul says, “we are planted together with him,” engrafted into him as a member of his body, so that he is a power in us and his death works in us. Through baptism he dedicates us to himself and imparts to us the power of his death and resurrection, to the end that both death and life may follow in us. Hence our sins are crucified through his death, taken away, that they may finally die in us and no longer live.
As Luther says, this is more than following or even partnership with Christ. We grow together with Him, because we merge into Him the way a graft becomes part of the plant and shares its characteristics.
This shows once again, using the language of gardening and farming, that the power of the Christian life comes from the Savior rather than from us. Those who want to praise themselves are really denigrating the power of Jesus in the believers.
As one wit observed, Paul seldom resisted the temptation to praise his own work, but he was also quick to give credit to the power of Christ in him. He had placed so much emphasis on his works-righteousness in his days as a Pharisee that he gloried in what Jesus did in Him, the former persecutor and unbeliever. He was so blind and hardened that he could see that this came through God's grace.
The old Pharisee comes through at times so we can see a glimpse of ourselves as well.
6 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. 7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Death and life are explained two different ways. By modern man - "I want to leave a body of work." (actor) or this - "I want to preserve this house for the next generation." (preservationist) "I want to leave behind a legacy." (politician) Death would be not accomplishing that noble purpose, which is self-centered.
For a Christian believer, death is a transition to eternal life, a power so great that it energizes every day. And life is that eternal life that Christ has given us through faith.
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