Life From The Dead

Life From The Dead I. The theme of salvation is God’s will and power to miraculously make alive that which has not life. A. God made man out of non-living dust and breathed life into him. GEN 2:7. 1. Because God in power made Adam from that which had no power to do so of its own accord, Adam was the son of God. LUK 3:38. 2. Because God in power acted in the virgin Mary who had no power of her own as a virgin to produce life, Jesus is called the Son of God. LUK 1:35. B. Why think it incredible that He can do such? ACT 26:8. C. Spiritual regeneration is another operation of this power. EPH 2:1; JOH 1:12-13. II. Baptism symbolizes the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 1PE 3:20-21; ROM 6:1-6. A. Christ's burial was just that: a burial. It was “...in the heart of the earth” (MAT 12:40). 1. He descended into the lower parts of the earth (EPH 4:9) in His humilities: a. He was conceived in a virgin’s womb to be birthed from that. c/w PSA 139:15. b. He was sealed in a tomb to be birthed from that, for the grave is mother earth’s womb for resurrection purposes. c/w JOB 1:21; 14:12-15. c. His resurrection was his begetting from the earth by the Father (ACT 13:33), even His regeneration: generated from the womb of the earth, the firstbegotten of earth to the world above. HEB 1:5-6. 2. He was in deep. ROM 10:7. 3. He was as the corn of wheat that falls into the ground. JOH 12:23-24. 4. Such descriptions speak of the full descent of the Son of God including burial, and so immersion: “...planted together in the likeness of his death...” (ROM 6:5) Who “...made his grave with the wicked...” (ISA 53:9). B. There is no actual death of Christ in baptism. ROM 6:9-10. C. The symbol is called according to what it symbolizes. 1CO 11:24-27. D. The O.T. church had circumcision which anticipated only His being cut off (ISA 53:8 c/w COL 2:11) but the N.T. church has immersing baptism which speaks of His cutting off by death and also His burial and resurrection, a superior image. E. Sprinkling or pouring water on someone is not a burial and reverses the order of a mobile confessor into a static element. It also fails to depict resurrection from a tomb, the very center of the Christian gospel anticipated by Noah’s temporary “entombment” in the ark and Jonah’s temporary burial in water. III. Consider the work of Christ to save sinners and its relevance to proper baptism. A. Christ’s death was necessary for payment of sinners’ debt. GAL 3:13; HEB 9:22-23. B. But His sacrifice would have saved none if He had not risen from the grave. 1CO 15:17 c/w ROM 4:25. 1. Victory over sin and Satan demanded not only payment but infallible proof of the payment’s satisfaction of justice. COL 2:15; ACT 1:3. 2. The body and blood of a living, sinless man was required in heaven. JOH 20:17; ACT 2:29, 34; EPH 4:8; 1PE 3:18; HEB 12:24. 3. His bodily resurrection was necessary for His bodily ascension. ACT 1:11. 4. His resurrection from a tomb to fulfil Jonah’s sign (MAT 12:40) and the prophecy of ISA 53:9 required His death and burial. C. It took the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to save sinners. Therefore, the ordinance by which a sinner identifies with His saving work must portray it fully. Leaving Life From The Dead 3-1-25 Page 1 of 2  the burial aspect out of the symbolism of baptism breaks the fullness of the gospel. D. How critical is the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ to the gospel and salvation! IV. Jesus Christ’s resurrection is the power over death. It is life from the dead. A. Jesus Christ’s resurrection is applied to the elect legally, representatively. EPH 2:6; 1CO 15:22-23. B. Jesus Christ’s resurrection is applied to the elect vitally, inwardly. EPH 1:19-20; 2:1. C. Jesus Christ’s resurrection is applied practically by living out its principle. ROM 6:8-13; EPH 4:21-24. 1. Faith is dead without the practical application. JAM 2:26. 2. The ordinance of baptism is only the formal beginning of the practical application. COL 2:12. 3. Moments of conviction unto repentance may be practical demonstrations of life from the dead. Let not living saints remain in fellowship with dead sinners and their works. EPH 5:11-14. V. The submissive applicant for baptism knows that his sinless Savior Himself deemed it requisite. MAT 3:13-15. A. How much more should saved sinners deem it requisite! B. Everything Jesus Christ did was in submission to the will of the Father, even His death. PHIL 2:5-8. C. Jesus Christ volitionally submitted Himself to death: it was not forced upon an unwitting or unwilling recipient. JOH 10:18. 1. Jesus Christ trusted God that His burial would be temporary. MAT 12:40; ACT 2:27. 2. Thus, a candidate for baptism ought to be a knowledgeable penitent who in faith willingly submits to the call. ACT 2:38-41 c/w 8:36-37. a. This promotes a regenerate church membership by restricting it to those only who give evidences of regeneration: faith, repentance, submission. b. This therefore promotes spiritual fellowship and spiritual unity in the body. PHIL 2:1; EPH 4:3. 3. The candidate, like Christ, trusts that in submission to God his burial (in water) will be temporary without bodily corruption, a fitting model of the saving faith and work of Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. It is a view of faith in the state of the dead. 4. None of this fits with sprinkling or pouring, especially of an unbelieving infant who does not voluntarily submit to an ordinance. D. Compliance with the commandments to repent, believe and be baptized therefore requires a submitted will, obedience from the heart (ROM 6:17). Otherwise, baptism is little more than a bath, the form of godliness without its power. 2TI 3:5. 1 It is the emblem of the death and burial of the old man to arise to new living. ROM 6:4. 2. It is a surrender to Christ, abandoning self and sin to His government as a member of His nation in this world: the church. ACT 2:41, 47 c/w 1CO 12:13. 3. It is in gratitude to Christ Who took away one’s sin by His death, burial and resurrection. ROM 7:24-25. 4. It is a promise to Christ to be faithful to Him always. HEB 10:22-25. 5. It is a testimony that Christ will in faith raise him incorruptible. 1CO 15:51-58. Life From The Dead 3-1-25 Page 2 of 2