Sunday School Notes: Romans 6:3-11

³ Or do you not know that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism unto death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, similarly we also might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with the likeness of his death, so also shall we be [united with the likeness] of his resurrection. ⁶ Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified in order that the body of sin may be destroyed, no longer for us to be enslaved to sin. ⁷ For the one who died has been justified from sin. ⁸ And if we have died with Christ, we believe that also we shall be made alive with him, ⁹ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead no longer dies; death no longer is his lord. ¹⁰ For that [death] that he died, he died to sin once for all; but the [life] that he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In this way also you too reckon yourselves on the one hand to be dead to sin, but on the other living to God in Christ Jesus.

We made progress this Sunday: Mike was determined we would get to verse 11, and we did! Not without some controversy, however. Well, it’s bound to happen every so often when you have a Reformed Baptist co-leading a Sunday School with a Presbyterian. The apostle Paul started it by the fact that he chose to use the term “baptize” in verses 3 and 4! In my study of this passage, I tried to understand what Paul is saying in context from a paedobaptist (i.e., one who believes in infant baptism) point of view. How does one who believes that baptism is a sign of God’s covenant promise, but which does not guarantee salvation (or in any way disposes a child to salvation) understand Paul’s use of the term here?

To me, baptism is an outward sign of an inward action. It speaks of the act that God has done in the life of one who has professed faith in Christ. And in this passage, Paul is speaking of our union with Christ, and the benefits that come from being united with Christ. We agreed that it is at least legitimate to understand “baptism” here as shorthand for “conversion”–but that is inconsistent with the paedobaptist explanation of what baptism is (as I briefly outlined above). Especially since Paul speaks of this death-and-resurrection with Christ as something that has happened already in the lives of his readers, not something promised to them.

The arguments presented from the paedobaptist side insisted that Paul is not here discussing baptism, so we shouldn’t try to derive from these few verses the entire Pauline understanding of baptism. This is true; however, since this is the only time in the entire epistle Paul uses the verb baptizô, there must be something about baptism and what it signifies that struck him as appropriate for this discussion.

I welcome further discussion on this point–especially from those that were at the study–in the comments. Yes, I am being one-sided in my presentation, and deliberately so–the comments for these notes have been very quiet and I want to get some good discussion going. So go ahead–comment!

The bigger, and more important, point of the passage–a point with which we could all agree–is that Christ’s death and resurrection has freed us from the bonds of slavery to sin. Where Christ’s death paid the penalty for our sin, so our sin is atoned for, and the wrath of God no longer is against us, Christ’s resurrection set us free from the bonds of sin and death permanently. We are no longer predisposed to sin.

And this goes back to the question in 6:1–why do we not sin so that grace may abound? Because we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection. While Christ walked this earth in flesh, death had mastery over him (in so far as Christ submitted himself to death, see Philippians 2:8). In his resurrection, Christ broke that lordship, and when we unite with Christ in his resurrection (which happens at conversion), we too are free to walk “in newness of life.” The old man, our old self with its sinful cravings, has been crucified. Our flesh, with its sin-ward orientation, has been destroyed.

The answer to the question of 6:1 is simply that we are free to obey God, to honor Christ, and to live by the Spirit, so why would we want to subject ourselves to the dominion of sin again? We are now able to do something that, prior to the Spirit of God changing our hearts, we were unable to do: live for Christ. Now that our natural impulse to fulfill sin’s desires has been crucified, we should no longer want to do those things. Of course, the fact of life is that we do. We make stupid choices–and we’ll come to that in chapter seven.

For now, we need to bask in the simple fact that because of the cross and the empty tomb, we are dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ.

And finally: CONGRATULATIONS to my co-teacher, Mike Bossé, who became a grandfather Monday afternoon!