The Symbolical Confession Of Baptism  

Romans. 6:4-5

 

     Notice the connecting word, "Therefore." It refers to verse 3. Because baptism looks to Christ and his death upon the cross, this is how and why it must be performed.

     Baptism is a burial. "We are buried with him by baptism." It is a picture of death. What do you do with a dead corpse? Sprinkle sand in its face? Pour dirt on its head? Of course not! You bury it. And when a person is baptized, he is buried in water. Immersion is not a mode of baptism. It is baptism. Without immersion, baptism cannot be performed.

     Baptism is unto death. It is the believer's confession of faith in the merit, efficacy and sufficiency of Christ's death for his eternal salvation. Baptism says to all the world, "I trust Christ for all my salvation. Looking to him, his bloody death upon the cursed tree, trusting him alone, I am justified before God."

     In baptism we confess our commitment to Christ. Rising up out of the watery grave, we confess to all the world that as Christ arose from the dead by the glorious power of God the Father, "even so we also should walk in newness of life." We have been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life by the glorious power of God's almighty grace. Henceforth, we declare in baptism, we are determined, by the grace of God, to walk in newness of life. We renounce our former life, ways, hopes, and beliefs. Christ is our Life, our Way, our Hope and our Truth. We are no longer our own. We belong to Christ. We will no longer live under the rule of sin, self and satan. We give ourselves to the rule and dominion of Christ our Lord, to walk with him in newness of life (I Cor. 6:19-20; II Cor. 5:17).

     And the believer confesses his hope of resurrection glory with Christ in the ordinance of baptism (v. 5). As baptism looks back to the cross in faith trusting Christ's finished work of redemption, it looks forward to the second coming in hope of the resurrection, trusting the power of the risen Christ to bring us safe and complete into his heavenly kingdom. This blessed ordinance is our symbolic confession of faith in Christ, redemption by his blood, regeneration by his Spirit and resurrection by his power.

 

Don Fortner