Romans 6:3 - The truth about baptism

Baptism is something of a comfortable word these days. It many churches it means a ceremony where a few drops of water are sprinkled on an infant. In Paul’s day it meant a more violent ceremony, involving immersing. In fact immersion is a better translation than dipping, which is still too gentle. The Greek word was used of ships being sunk, the historian Josephus used it of crowds flooding into Jerusalem. Jesus referred to His death as a baptism (Mk 10:38; Lk 12:30). So the word baptism is a very dramatic word. I am thankful to Leon Morris (Epistle to the Romans) for this information. He says that “we ought not to think in terms of gentleness and inspiration, it means death”. This is why Paul starts talking about baptism here. He is talking about death, about dying to our old way of life, of the old man being put to death. So if you have died to the past, to what you used to be, then seeking or wanting to live like that again just makes no sense at all.

Paul says we were baptized into Christ and into His death. We were thrust into Christ and into His death. If you truly are a Christian then you have been united with Christ’s death, you have been united with His life, you have been united with Christ in every way possible. All this being true, how can you possibly contemplate sin as a viable option?

Let me just finish the comments with a few more words on our practise of baptism. Infant baptism certainly does no justice to the way baptism is used in this chapter (and there are other arguments against infant baptism). I support believer’s baptism and think that baptism by immersion is more faithful to the first century meaning of the word than sprinkling or pouring. However, in charismatic churches, where baptism by immersion is by far the most common “method”, we perhaps do not treat the solemn side of baptism well. It is very much a celebration, and in one sense it certainly should be, but as we have seen it is also a decisive break with our old life. It is also sometimes treated a little casually. On this matter the greater formality with creedal statements etc at infant baptism and confirmation better represent the solemnity of what baptism means. Now I do not believe that baptismal practice of a church is a salvation issue (there are people who are far better Christians than I am who support infant baptism), but baptism is important, and all of us need to better appreciate the richness of what baptism actually means, and its continuing significance for our lives.