As Surely as Water, So Certainly His Blood

Read: Romans 6:1-4

• Paul demolishes the idea that the gospel of grace leads to licentious life.
• Here, he does so by pointing to the spiritual reality signified in baptism.
• The reality is our union with Christ. Baptism makes this visible by sign.

MESSAGE: Baptism is an external sign of the invisible reality of our union with Christ through faith.

The Sign that Declares
Note: Paul’s manner of speaking intimately attaches baptism with the spiritual reality it signified. It draws from the bible’s theology of signs.

Point: The spiritual reality of union with Christ is declared by God to our faith through the sign of baptism.

• God is the one primarily speaking in baptism, and we hear by faith.
• “Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, to be unto the party baptized, a sign of fellowship with him, in his death and resurrection; of his being engrafted into him; of remission of sins; and of giving up into God, through Jesus Christ, to live and walk in newness of life” (1689 Ch. 29, Par. 1).

CHALLENGE: Direct your reflections about baptism to the promise of God.

The Faith That Receives
Note: Paul labored to show that faith is the means to receive the blessings of our union with Christ. Baptism is valid only with a receiving faith.

• In baptism, God speaks a visible Word to our faith—declaring us just.
• But faith continues to look back to baptism for sanctification (v. 11).

Point: The spiritual reality of our union with Christ signified in baptism is continually appropriated by faith.

CHALLENGE: Don’t neglect to use your baptism for your sanctification.

CONCLUSION: Baptism also grounds unity… Eph. 4:4-6, “one baptism.”