Baptized Into the Death of Jesus Christ
Romans 6:3, 4
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 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 should walk in newness of life.
Know ye not that so many of us as were
baptized into Jesus Christ: Baptism into
Jesus Christ is not baptism in water. Matthew 3:11 compared with I Corinthians
12:13 makes this distinction between these two baptisms very clear; for, John
the Baptist saith; “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: (unto
repentance: or upon actions or attitudes that demonstrate a true heart of
repentance) but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear: (he that cometh after me; that is, Jesus Christ; who was
born about six months after John and who began his public ministry as recorded
in the New Testament after his baptism in the Jordan by John) he shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:” The baptism with the Holy Ghost is declared
and defined in I Corinthians 12: 13, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized
into one body, (that one body is the mystical or spiritual body of Christ; his
church and people, his “members in particular” I Corinthians 12:27; “the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,”
Hebrews 12:23) whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and
have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”
Baptism in water is a public
confession of prior baptism of the Holy Spirit in regeneration; the Apostle
Peter tells us that baptism is “(not the putting away the filth of the flesh,
but the answer of a good conscience toward God,)” I Peter 3:21. The nature of
baptism is that of a burial, the subject of baptism is buried in water; this
burial in water is a testimony that the person baptized was: first,
representatively buried with Jesus Christ in death; for, in the reckoning of
God all Christ’s members died in and with him: (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:6) second,
that he was representatively buried with Christ, (Colossians 2:12) and that:
third, when Christ arose from the tomb all his members arose in him and with
him (Ephesians 2:6) and that the one baptized arose with all the rest.
Therefore it is evident that baptism is for those who have been born of the
Spirit of God, or from above, and their baptism is a confession of salvation
through the free grace of God; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Baptism is not
intended to unite it’s subject to a local assembly, but it is a confession of
union with Jesus Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, and therefore
certain things necessarily ensue.
“Know ye not that so many of us as
were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death:” death issues in certain things, “and unto God the Lord belong the
issues from death.” (Psalm 68:20). The execution of a condemned person, brings
release from the condemning law, for after the law hath sentenced to death, and
the sentence has been carried out, the person who died under the stroke of law
is then dead to, or released from the condemning power of the law, and therefore
the law is dead to him, as far as condemnation is concerned.
Believers, are the “children of the
prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers” (Acts 3:25;
Isaiah 8:18; compared with Hebrews 2:13) and the mystical or spiritual members (in
particular) of the body of Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 12:12-27) and as surely
as Isaac was the child of promise, believers in this day are the children of
Promise “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.”
(Galatians 4:28) The covenant of grace is an eternal covenant; because, it is
from our eternal and immutable God, and was framed before the foundation of the
world; those who were chosen in Christ from old eternity were given interest in
that covenant and in the person and activities of the mediator of the covenant;
it is an “everlasting covenant” (II Samuel 23:5). All the elect have this same
covenant interest in Christ, and are seen espoused to, and in a mystical union
with Christ himself as “THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Jeremiah 23; 6; 33:16),
and in all that he did as the mediator and surety of the covenant. The church
is the spiritual body of Christ, and Christ is the head of that body (Ephesians
1:22, 23; Colossians 1:18). From eternity past, the body has been in secret federal
union with its head Jesus Christ, (because chosen or elected in him and secured
in him from the foundation of the world; Ephesians 1:4, 5; II Thessalonians
2:13, 14; II Timothy 1:9; Jude 1) and has had an interest in all that Christ
did as the head of the church. All that Christ did, the Church did in Christ,
because in union with him. Therefore when Christ died and rose again, all his
spiritual members died and rose in him, representatively, according to the
stipulations or determinations of the covenant of grace, and which determinations are according to or from
the mind, will, and counsel of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Those who are believers; are
believers because they have been brought into the bond of the everlasting
covenant of grace (Ezekiel 20:37) and are made partakers of the entitlements of
that covenant. Saving faith is given by the Holy Ghost in the sanctification of
the Spirit (II Thessalonians 2:13; John 3: 3-6), according to the immutable counsel
of the God the Father (I Peter 1:2), and therefore they are the objects of the
intercessory activities of the one mediator Jesus Christ (Hebrews 7: 25; I
Timothy 1:5). The first cause of one’s participation in the covenant of grace
is the everlasting love of God the Father (Jeremiah 31: 3; I Peter 1:2). The
procuring cause is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, through his blood
shedding and death (Ephesians 1: 7). The efficient of efficacious cause is the
holy calling of, or regeneration by, the Holy Ghost in the birth of the Spirit
(II Timothy 1: 9; John 3:3).
Believers being brought into the
bond of the covenant (Ezekiel 20:37) are made partakers of the benefits of the
covenant; they are brought into communion with Jesus Christ in his death.
Believers are accounted dead with and in Christ, crucified with and in him “ye in me and I in you” (John 14: 20); “I am
crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20); Knowing this that our old man is
crucified with him (Romans 6:6):
therefore believers are “dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4):
“that being dead wherein ye were held; (that is dead to, “the law of sin and
death” Romans 8:2) that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the
oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:6).
Service under the “oldness of the
letter” of the law is motivated by fear, and dread; it is the service of a
slave who dreads the lash of the whip. Fear has torment and perturbation of
mind, but “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because
fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (I John 4:18). This
fear; (the fear and dread of punishment) is the fear of a slave, and is
different from the fear of a son, who when he is matured serves from a
principle of love, or from a wife, who from a principle of love serves in the bond
of marriage. Service rendered from a principle of fear; motivated by the threat
of the law is not acceptable to God, it is a legal fear and brings legal
repentance, the service to which that sort of fear motivates is the service of
a slave and not a son. Legal repentance is that sorrow of the world which
worketh death; (II Corinthians 7:10).
The fear that God requires is the gift of the
Spirit of God; and beyond the nature of natural man, that is, it is not of man
as born in this world; a fallen and ruined creature. For man by his nature is the incessant enemy
of God “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Romans 8:7). Oh no! “But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I
Corinthians 2:14). The lack of the fear of God that is complained of in Romans
3:18 is that fear of an adult son who loves his father; it is a reverential awe
of God, a loving subjection to God’s claims on his spiritual children. The
testimony of the Spirit is “There is no fear of God before their (their; the
unregenerate world) eyes.” (Romans 3:18).
The
believers baptism into union with Christ in death; is his release from the
dominion of indwelling sin, not that indwelling sin is eradicated, for it is
not, but it’s dominion is destroyed, it no longer is the dominant motivating
principle of the life “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not
under the law, but under grace. (Romans 6:14). The believers death under the
sentence of the law in Christ, frees him from the law, as a covenant of works; (Ye
shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall
live in them: I am the Lord.” Leviticus 18:5) because by union with Christ he
has died under the sentence of the law; therefore the law is fulfilled and
satisfied toward him, and can never again condemn him “There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:1). Because of
this the believer is dead to the law and dead to sin (Romans 7:4; I Peter 2:24
respectively).
“The sting of death is sin; and the strength
of sin is the law.” (I Corinthians 15:56); the believer’s death in Christ,
which is by eternal union with Christ: destroys the strength or dominion of
indwelling sin, through the new birth and the powerful inclinations of the new
heart in the inner man, and all of this is by the influence or grace of Spirit
of God. “For sin shall not have dominion
over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14). Now
since believers are “dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4); they
are no longer under the tyrannical reign of sin, though sin is yet in their
members, (Romans 7:23). Nor are believers subject to the curse of the law, for
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse
for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”
(Galatians 3:13). Since believers are dead to the law by the body of Christ;
they are dead to the sentence of death, eternal punishment, condemnation, or
the threat a any such thing by the law; for the law and justice of God is fully
satisfied through the perfect righteousness and shed blood; of Jesus Christ;
who is one with his children and he being named the “everlasting Father,”
(Isaiah 9:6) they, that is the children; have been children from everlasting,
having been loved with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3) and having been
given interest in Christ before the world began (II Timothy 1:9).
Another way that the law is the
strength of sin is by the prohibitions of the law against sin. The prohibitions
of the law, irritate the corruption and total depravity of the heart of natural
man, the law’s prohibitions against sin in our members stirs up, instigates,
and arouses sin, so that sin finds occasion by the law, to act with more
damnable vigor: (sin by the commandment becomes exceedingly sinful; Romans
7:13). “For when we were in the flesh, (that is while we were unregenerate) the
motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth
fruit unto death.” (Romans 7:5) And; “But sin taking occasion by the
commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. (Evil desire, lustful
imaginations, every evil thought according to the evil heart of man {see Matthew
7:11} or “the motions of sins” as above) For without the law sin was dead.”
(Romans 7:8). “Sin was dead”; in the sense of a reigning monarch that is at
ease in his palace. The holy commandments of the law provoke sin in the sinner,
and sin then acts with greater vigor; “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?
God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust,
except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Romans 7:7). The law discovers
and reveals sin, as sin, for “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans
3:20).
The law then; (for those who see
the law) is like a mirror for the sons of men, (James 1:23) we see by the law;
the motions of sins working in our members to bring forth fruit unto death,
(actions, attitudes, and desires that are worthy of death; Romans 7:5). The
prohibitions of the law excite rebellion, and all manner of evil concupiscence
in the sinner; but we know that the law is from God and is therefore just, holy
and good: therefore we are made to see ourselves at odds with that which is
holy and therefore we must be unholy, unjust, and not good, but evil; (Romans 3:10-19). But
natural men, see not the law, for they are blind to the things of the Spirit of
God, (I Corinthians 2:14). So natural men (though very religious, as Saul the
Pharisee) seeking to be justified by the law; by seeking to fulfill the letter
of the law by themselves; are deceived by sin, thinking themselves capable of
keeping the law. “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and
by it slew me.” (Romans 7:11).
“But now we are delivered from the
law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of
spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (Romans 7:6). Believers are
delivered from the law by their death in Christ; (Galatians 2:20) those who
comprise the mystical body of Christ, having fulfilled the law because of their
union with Christ: are in a state acquiescence concerning the law, they
acknowledge their inability to fulfill the law themselves, and that the law is
just, holy, and good. Believers know that they are not under the law as a
covenant of works; therefore the law in no longer a provoking force to the
believer himself, who knows he stands justified by the grace of God, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, (Romans 3:24). Therefore the motions of
sin which are by the law are no longer a provocation, to stir and arouse sin
which is yet in the members of the saints; and consequently the believer rests
from his struggle with inward sin as provoked by the law; the believer hides
from that storm in the Rock Christ Jesus, and whatsoever the believer does in
service to his Lord is motivated by love and not law, therefore it is a labor
of love; which is service in the newness of life. However when the believer
eyes that law as his, to be fulfilled by himself, in any manner to any degree;
then misery ensues, for this service is in the oldness of the letter. Therefore
let those who are believers in Christ Jesus; rest in Christ, only in Christ,
and always in Christ, for “ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.” (I
Corinthians 3:23).
A.J. Ison
