It seems to me that there are similiarites between circumision in the OT and baptism in the NT.
“We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised (baptised) or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision (baptism), a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised (not baptised)” 4:9-11.
Possibly because of my church background I take this to mean that a person is baptised as a sign that they have accepted what Jesus has done on their behalf. That is, I see baptism as a testimony to what has already happened in a person’s life. The symbolism of baptism can be quite dramatic – of going down into the water (death 6:4) and coming up out of the water (resurrection 6:5).
[Baptism can be a tricky subject and I understand that others may not see it like this.]
I love the way our past life is described in past tense. “we died to sin”; “were buried with Him” ; “was crucified with Him” ; “were slaves to sin” all in the past. But now, in the present tense, we “are not under law but under grace” v.14.
PS The crazy thing about having word verification is the number of times I get it wrong like tonight!
i cant explain it here, for it would take to long, but a good bok that deals with some of these issues in chapter 6 is “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. I dont agree with everything he says, but it is a good read none the less
dI don’t know if I can get a copy of that book or not. I live in a small town without a Christian bookshop and our little library at church doesn’t have a copy. I’ve asked my daughter to check her church library for me.
if you are not uncomfortable e mailing me your address, susan, i have the book and will probably not read it again. of course, that’s if you have no local options available. you can find my e address on my profile.
this chapter begs the question for me: what is sin? is it an external thing? meaning actions that we do or do not engage in? (as many would maintain) or is it rather an internal thing? (which i believe paul and jesus would say)
because the answer to that question has more of an impact on our “not continuing in sin” than any other, i think. it can be easy to come under condemnation or be deluded into a false security if we do not have the correct answer.
did i just say that? sorry. that was really absolute for a PoMo like me. but then again, SOME things ARE absolute. so maybe this is one.
Thanks for the offer, Jon. I’ll check out the local options and see how I go.
I tend to think of sin as more of an internal thing which is why I think Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees who were great at the eternals but harboured bad attitudes.
Luther felt that if the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves, than the greatest sin was to fail to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to fail to love our neighbour as ourselves. I don’t know if that is true but it is interesting to think about.
5 thoughts on “Romans 6”
It seems to me that there are similiarites between circumision in the OT and baptism in the NT.
“We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised (baptised) or before? It was not after, but before! And he received the sign of circumcision (baptism), a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised (not baptised)” 4:9-11.
Possibly because of my church background I take this to mean that a person is baptised as a sign that they have accepted what Jesus has done on their behalf. That is, I see baptism as a testimony to what has already happened in a person’s life. The symbolism of baptism can be quite dramatic – of going down into the water (death 6:4) and coming up out of the water (resurrection 6:5).
[Baptism can be a tricky subject and I understand that others may not see it like this.]
I love the way our past life is described in past tense. “we died to sin”; “were buried with Him” ; “was crucified with Him” ; “were slaves to sin” all in the past. But now, in the present tense, we “are not under law but under grace” v.14.
PS The crazy thing about having word verification is the number of times I get it wrong like tonight!
i cant explain it here, for it would take to long, but a good bok that deals with some of these issues in chapter 6 is “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. I dont agree with everything he says, but it is a good read none the less
dI don’t know if I can get a copy of that book or not. I live in a small town without a Christian bookshop and our little library at church doesn’t have a copy. I’ve asked my daughter to check her church library for me.
if you are not uncomfortable e mailing me your address, susan, i have the book and will probably not read it again. of course, that’s if you have no local options available. you can find my e address on my profile.
this chapter begs the question for me: what is sin? is it an external thing? meaning actions that we do or do not engage in? (as many would maintain) or is it rather an internal thing? (which i believe paul and jesus would say)
because the answer to that question has more of an impact on our “not continuing in sin” than any other, i think. it can be easy to come under condemnation or be deluded into a false security if we do not have the correct answer.
did i just say that? sorry. that was really absolute for a PoMo like me. but then again, SOME things ARE absolute. so maybe this is one.
what are your thoughts?
gfkecdlp (wow. that was creative.)
Thanks for the offer, Jon. I’ll check out the local options and see how I go.
I tend to think of sin as more of an internal thing which is why I think Jesus was so upset with the Pharisees who were great at the eternals but harboured bad attitudes.
Luther felt that if the greatest commandment was to love God with all our heart, with all our mind, with all our soul and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as ourselves, than the greatest sin was to fail to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to fail to love our neighbour as ourselves. I don’t know if that is true but it is interesting to think about.
PS What’s a PoMo?
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