I’ve mentioned that the question in Romans 6.1 is not a question about “Why repent if God always forgives?” but rather a mocking application question, “If God aggravates sin in order to bring about the atonement and grace as a result, then why shouldn’t we follow God’s example?”  It is the same question dealt with in Romans 3.1-8.  In Romans 3, as in Romans 9, with the potter and clay analogy, Paul invokes the uniqueness of God:

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?  But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?  And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

Paul’s argument seems to that, because we know God will in fact judge all people, they must be responsible for their actions, even if God is using them to bring about his desired results.

In Romans 5, Paul emphasizes how grace abounded in the wake of the many trespasses, increased by the Law.  So in Romans 6.1, the question is, “Are we to remain in sin that grace may abound.”

While N. T. Wright does not give the same analysis of 6.1, he still has some valuable things to say.  He points out that the question is not about “continuing to sin” so much as “remaining in sin”–the age of sin.

So while Paul could have responded to the question the same way as in Romans 3 and 9, here he brings it up with a different agenda.  He wants to point out where we fit in God’s timing.  His point is that we are now on the other side of the shift.  God is no longer increasing trespasses to provide for the condemnation of sin in the flesh; he has brought about the death of that age and the birth of new life in the death and resurrection of Christ.  That is basically what he says in Romans 6.2.

But this is not automatic.  Even though the death and resurrection of Jesus is an objective event and an objective transition in history, it does not necessarily bring about the salvation of everyone.  Thus Romans 6.3-11:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This passage has been used to say that baptism is supposed to be some kind of burial.  But that cannot be right.  Christ’s burial took place long ago.  His death is past.  The only time we could have been buried “with” him was during those three days after he had died on the cross.  The point is not that we are buried or that we die at some point in our own lives.  Paul could say that but he is not saying it here.  Rather, the point is that when we are “united with him” so that his past history counts to us.

Think about the confession an Israelite was required to make in offering sacrifice to God

And you shall make response before the Lord your God, “A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. Then we cried to the Lord, the God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me.” And you shall set it down before the Lord your God and worship before the Lord your God (Dt 26.5-10).

Now here we have an objective, past, corporate fact—the calling of Abraham, the Exodus from Egypt, and the conquest of Canaan.  But notice how it is all personal.  God rescued me from Egypt and brought me into the Promised Land.  This would be true of an Israelite even though it was generations later.  It would even be true if his family had come in as Gentile immigrants and proselytes.  As circumcised citizens they would have been required to make this same confession.

Corporate realities apply to individuals.  I tell my children that General George Washington led the continental army and won “our” freedom from the British—and that is true even though I have no idea if my ancestors came to colonial America or if they immigrated after the new nation was born.  I can celebrate the Fourth of July regardless, just as an Israelite could celebrate the Passover regardless of whether his forefathers had been in Egypt or if he came from a line of proselytes who were adopted into a tribe much later.  Each Israelite must confess God’s grace: “the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”

“‘By a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt” (Ex 13.14-16).

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’” (Deut 6.20-25).

Read Esther, which ends with all those Gentiles all over the known world becoming Jews.  They all had to follow these laws and say these things.  It happened to other people but they were included in it.  Thus they had the obligation to trust in God and him only.  The First Commandment applied to them complete with the Prologue:  “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.  You shall have no other gods before me.”

So if you join to Israel (which for males was effected by circumcision) then Israel’s history counts for you. And if you join to Christ, then his death and resurrection count for you.  If baptism is the way one is officially identified with Christ, then it officially means who have died, been buried, and been raised with Christ, even though he went through these events long ago.

Baptism is not time travel.  It is simply an identification ceremony.

But is Romans 6 really baptism?  Protestants have until recently been virtually unanimous in saying “yes” to this question, along with the rest of the Church throughout history.  This consensus is almost certainly correct.  Paul is plainly writing a letter that is very much driven by the Great Commission.  It begins and ends with it:

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ (Romans 1.1-6).

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith— to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen (Romans 16.25-27).

If one thinks about the Great Commission it would be surprising if Romans was missing a reference to water baptism.

Remember, despite bizarre stuttering in English translations, Jesus presents baptism as an instrument (not the only one) to discipleship:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and disciple all nations, by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and by teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

There is no need to fear some kind of superstitious transmutation of the water here.  Baptism is simply the ceremony that the Spirit uses to assign people to Jesus.  People are identified to Jesus and taken into his possession, just like an adoption ceremony or a wedding ceremony can relate two people to one another in a specific way.  Just as a Gentile used to have to get circumcised in order to belong to Israel, and then got to eat Passover as if his ancestors were in Egypt, so all who are baptized are regarded as having died to the old age and are now alive in the new age.

Of course, Paul would never play this off against faith (see 1 Corinthians 10.1ff) but for believers, he expects and encourages them to look back on their baptisms as the point of transition in their own lives which unites them to Jesus and the transition he underwent and brought about in his death and resurrection.