God’s Work, Not Ours: Understanding Baptism

Jeffrey Perry   -  

Within many Christian conversations, baptism is presented as an step of obedience, or a symbolic gesture to declare one’s commitment to Christ. In other conversations, it may be explained as an outward show of an inward change. However, these common perception misses a profound truth of baptism found in scripture: we do not primarily follow Jesus in baptism; we follow Him in death.

Baptism, in Romans 6, is not merely an act we perform for God but a visible sign that God graciously gives to us, signifying our union with the death and resurrection of Christ.

 

Baptism: It’s for us

In Romans 6:3-4, the Apostle Paul writes, “Know ye not that as 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 just as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Paul’s statement complete roots baptism in the reality of Christ’s death and resurrection.

The apostle explains that baptism is not about our pledge of allegiance to God or the first steps of our sanctification. Instead, it is a sign and seal of our union with Christ’s redemptive work. It is God’s gift to us, symbolizing that we have been co-crucified and co-resurrected with His Son. We participate in His death so that we might also share in His resurrection (Romans 6:5).

To help convey the understanding that Paul gives, Michael Horton explains that baptism and the Lord’s Supper are “visible words.” They are God’s tangible promises conveyed through physical means. Baptism, then, is not merely just ‘something that we are supposed to do’ but a means, a gift, by which God communicates His grace to us.

In baptism, we are tangibly reminded that our old nature was crucified with Christ so that “henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6). This speaks to the heart of Christian identity and freedom. Baptism signifies that we are no longer defined by our sinful nature; rather, our identity is now anchored in Christ’s finished work. This point underscores to us that it is God who acts for us and gives us a seal of what He has accomplished for us. This understanding is crucial because it shifts the focus from our actions to God’s redemptive work.

 

Baptism Explains Our Union with Christ

Union with Christ, a recurring theme for Paul, and it is central to understanding baptism. In Galatians 2:20, Paul proclaims, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” Our baptism is a tangible means of understanding our union with Christ, and this understanding of our identity transforms the way that we understand the life we now live. (Galatians 2:20).

This union is not contingent upon our actions or decisions; it is a gracious work of God for us that we have apprehended by faith. Baptism shows us, through an action that is done to us, that just as we are placed into the water, so we have been placed into Christ.

 

Baptism Gives Us a Clear Conscience

When Peter speaks of baptism, he frames it as a means of salvation, not in the physical act of washing but in what it represents. In 1 Peter 3:21, he clarifies, “The like figure to this, even baptism, doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

Peter underscores that baptism saves us from the burden of a guilty conscience. In a world riddled with guilt and shame, our baptism offers assurance. It is a visible, tangible sign of our union with Christ, signifying that we are no longer condemned but justified. Through baptism, God communicates to us that we are cleansed from the guilt of sin and are now in right standing with Him. Our consciences are cleared because we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. (Hebrews 10:22)

 

Baptism Gives Us Assurance

Our legal frame often calls us to equates worth and identity with performance, but our baptism stands as a defense from this tendency. It communicates that our acceptance before God is grounded not in our achievements but in Christ’s atoning work. This visible gospel reassures us of God’s promises in Christ.

Romans 6:11 calls us who are believers to “consider ourselves alive.” This is not a command to strive for spiritual death and resurrection but to consider or count it as a reality. In the context of Romans 6, it is by baptism that we can do this because it is a sign that we have already been united with Christ in His death and resurrection.

In light of scripture, we understand that baptism is not something we do for God. It is God’s gracious, tangible gift. A gift that is given to us to signify and seal our union with Christ in His death and resurrection.

Our baptism is not some mere act of compliance; it the reception of a gift from God. A gift that shows us that, we are saved from the guilt of sin, and have the righteousness of Christ.