V.
THE DOCTRINE OF BAPTISM IN HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS.
Second Article.
WE have now examined all the instances of baptism foimcl in the Acts of the Apostles, and we have seen them to be in perfect harmony with the doctrine we deduced from the words of our Lord. Let us turn next to the writings of the apostles and ascertain whether we have correctly placed ourselves in then point of view. Their references are all of a homiletic or hortatory character, and will therefore be full of instruction regarding the bearing of the sacrament upon the Christian life.
In the sixth chapter of Romans we have an argument against anti-nomianism based upon the nature of the ordinance of baptism. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. We who died to sin, how shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (verses 1-3). The tense of the verb “died” (aorist) shows that a specific act in our past history is referred to. When did this death to sin take place? Dr. Charles Hodge says, “The act which in its nature was a dying to sin, was our accepting Christ as our Saviour.” But to evade the conclusion which we would naturally draw from the mention of baptism in the next verse he says, “The object of the apostle does not require that a formal argumentative answer should be supposed to commence in this verse. ” But we submit that there is a clear grammatical and logical connection with the context following. The “or” ( ij ), with which verse 3 begins, continues the argument, as in the first verse of the next chapter (R. V.). It introduces an explanation in proof of the assertion preceding (Alford). We may paraphrase the apostle’s words as follows: “Can it be that you are ignorant of the meaning of your own baptism? Every catechumen knows that ‘all we who were baptized into union with Christ Jesus were baptized into union with Him in His death.’ Now see what follows from this. We were buried with Christ. We are risen with Christ and share His life. Must you
