Life After Death
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Romans 6:3 NASB
Baptized– For a moment, put away your familiar associations with the joy of baptism. Set aside the usual celebration when someone expresses faith through immersion ritual. Ask yourself, “Isn’t it odd that Paul uses the expression ‘baptized into death’?” That’s not how we think of baptism. Why does Paul place so much emphasis on connecting death with this liturgical rite of new life?
Perhaps you’ve never thought about this question. Perhaps this odd relationship just slipped by you because you thought you knew what baptism was all about. Now is the time to re-examine your understanding. Certainly Paul expected his readers to understand this connection. Look at his question. It demands the answer, “Of course we know.” But what is it that they know?
The first question we must answer is how followers of Yeshua understood baptism in the first century. Of course, baptism was a standard practice in Judaism, demonstrating a renewal of life or some significant personal transition in one’s spiritual journey as well as ritual cleanings. Baptism was common and could be frequent. But baptism wasn’t merely a Jewish practice. Cultures from Egypt to Greece practiced baptism (water ablutions) as acts of purification. So both Jewish and Gentile readers of Paul’s letter would have been culturally familiar with the practice.
Obviously then, it is not the practice of baptism that makes Paul’s statement unusual. Leon Morris points out, “if his readers do not understand what it means to die to sin, they do not understand what baptism means.”[1] In other words, Paul takes a difficult concept (dying to sin) and explains it with a familiar concept (baptism). But Paul shows his readers that this familiar concept now stands on its head. Rather than a demonstration of new life, it is now a demonstration of death. The scandal in Paul’s words is not the event of baptism but rather the association of baptism with death! Morris points out that the Greek term (which we transliterate “baptism”) is also a verb about violent acts like drowning. Yeshua uses the same connection in Mark 10:38 and Luke 12:50. In other words, the baptism that Paul wants his readers to consider is the immersion that leads to drowning, to death, to termination of an old way of living, something they would never have imagined prior to Paul’s argument. People who have died are no longer under the influences and behaviors of their past lives. They’re dead! The world no longer bothers them.
“The act of baptism was an act of incorporation into Christ.”[2] This means that a life still governed by antinomianism (lawlessness), as life would have been prior to incorporation into the body of the followers of the Messiah, is now impossible. One who has died cannot continue to live as though nothing has happened. As Morris observes, “Being united in living out the life is not an option but a necessary part of being saved in Christ.”[3] Baptized into his death is nothing less than abandoning all past pagan behavior as if it belonged to a dead man. It is burying that old code of conduct in the grave. And since Paul calls this old code of conduct “sin,” a word that means violation of acceptable custom and norm within the adopted community, this can only mean that baptism into his death is nothing less than adopting the new code of conduct appropriate for those who have been raised to new life. In other words, the baptism of death means the adoption of the norm of the Messianic way of living, the only norm that Paul acknowledges as governing the life of followers of the Way. Baptism is my act of submission to the Torah of YHWH interpreted by the Messiah, the way of living made possible because my guilt has been removed.
Ah, this leaves us with one very big question. Who was Paul writing to? Who did he think knew enough about all this to unquestionably understand his subtle argument? Was he writing to newly converted Gentiles or was he writing to culturally-aware Jews? Who would have responded to this upside-down view of baptism and recognized it as a demonstration of life within the body-norm?
What do you think?
Topical Index: baptism, sin, death, Romans 6:3
We are baptised INTO Messiah. Period. Not Torah, not Judiasm, not even the Way. If your baptism is an “act of submission to the Torah of YHWH” you are a disciple of the Torah and not a disciple of Yeshua. Morris states that “the baptism that Paul wants his readers to consider is the immersion that leads to drowning, to death”, but we aren’t baptised to BECOME dead, but rather to acknowledge that in YHWH’s eyes we already ARE dead and we request to be buried just like any good corpse should be disposed. We identify with Yeshua in His death and in doing so we agree that we are no longer in and of this world system just like Him. We no longer have skin in the game of life, a place in this world order or a hope in accomplishing merit through the law or our good works. We not only deserve to die, but we recognise that we have died and that not only is IT finished, but so am I. Only then are we raised up out of the watery grave in Him and into His new life of resurrection and a life led by the Spirit rather than the flesh. And to your question if this how the early believers would have seen and understood water baptism I would state emphatically YES or they would have not have willingly forsaken all, become maryters and changed the world for anything or anyOne less. They already had Torah, a community and a commission. They needed a life-giving Spirit to empower them, but they had to acknowledge their inability (death) in order to gain that power (life). Baptism was that vehicle. In that era, culture and in many places and cultures of the world still today, baptism is a huge sign of coming out of one way of life into another. It, not mere words, can and does get you killed, because those who are willing to publicly prove to everyone – friend, family and foe alike that not only their allegiances have changed, but their family has too. We are grafted in, we are united to Him, we are One in Him.
Having said that, I am becoming more and more convinced that it is a life led by the Spirit and not a life led by Torah obedience that gives life. I also acknowledge that The Spirit never goes contrary to the Law, however He is not limited by it either.
“Baptism is my act of submission to the Torah of YHWH interpreted by the Messiah(emphasis mine), the way of living made possible because my guilt has been removed.”
It occurs to us (Gary and I are reading together) that you and Skip are saying the same thing with different words, Michael.
This TW is a good example of how Skip prompts discussion for us. We shared with one another, as we read, that I was raised RCC, “baptized” as an infant. Gary, raised in the Quaker Friends denomination, was taught that the only valid baptism was the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that through confession of faith, not by speaking “in tongues” but a private thing between the individual (oops?) and the Father. We were both baptized by immersion as adults in non-denominational congregations, with differences in terms of technique and location.
Something I remembered as we talked was that my son was baptized by immersion as a teen and then chose to be immersed again several years later, somewhere else by someone else, when he gained more understanding and conviction about identifying with Messiah through the act of baptism. “If I’m not walking ‘dead to this world’ and I realize it, would it help me to be immersed again? It helped my son,” I thought out loud.
Our flesh rises up every day and “I die daily” as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, a passage to blend into this word from Romans… we have so much to learn! Thank you, Skip, for steering us to dive deeper (no pun intended).
Thanks Skip. I have a believing friend who likes to say “Don’t worry, you can’t offend a dead man” whenever something happens that people think might have offended him. He goes through life with far less anger, resentment and fear than the average bear.
Interesting. I get dying to old lawless ways. Paul talks more about that in Romans and lays out how difficult/confusing this can be.
I also get that baptism means new life-a cleansing if you will which ties right back into dying to old sinful ways.
But baptism into His death? Wouldn’t this be connected to the fact that He died and then was ressurected into new life? As we will be one day having been connected to Him? Wasn’t being ressurected new to everyone both Jews and newer believers?
Skip what I find true about this discussion is our baptism into death. Later verses reveal that the death Paul was referring to is unto sin. The life unto God. Irrespective of what route we follow to find life the route must result in our death in sin,
if it doesn’t no baptism can save no ritual will bring about the correct change in us. Read this with 1 Cor 15 and 1 Tim 2…. All about being purified to be a servant that saves, a life that draws through our examples of salvation. An ongoing prayer to God the help redeem our soul or lifestyle to be what He wants from us.
So many people are buried alive in baptism. Sad, but probably true for all of us to some extent, at least. Dying to self: how hard it is to learn!
What is Torah? A picture of how righteousness looks on the ground: on this planet, anyway. Who is Yeshua? The embodiment of what complete righteousness, or obedience, is. I agree with Leslee: Yeshua IS Torah: you can’t have one without the other. Why? Because righteousness is not just about right BEHAVIOR or even right thoughts, but about rightly-relating. What does it take to do that? Love: connection. None of us can actually touch another; something (or Someone) from beyond us must supply the current. Yeshua is our great Intercessor, but, as Skip keeps pounding into us, we need to look beyond the Roman view of law/punishment to the fact that, on the ground, righteousness (right-relations) is about being connected. Now, what is an intercessor in THAT context? the connection!
“Baptized into the death of Yeshua” is where we die to self, but resurrection? that is where the runway of self (which has been cleared by the humility of that death) is now ready for the fullness of the right relationship God has with reality to pour unhindered through us. Not only does He provide the connection with Himself, He hooks us up with our own self – our true identity – as well as with others; not from our standpoint, but from HIS. We get, through the action of our great High Priest, HIS love connection with all (His “righteousness”) to connect with! Halleluah! Now, that’s a trade worth dying for! From then on, its all about Him, and not about me. What a relief!
I need some help…with all this discussion I’m confused why Yeshua was baptized.. personal transition in one’s spiritual journey?
In short Yeshua was baptized so that the prophetic reasons could become a reality…
On a more personal note salvation is only possible through the prophecy of salvation equals anointment. To be an example of how this is achieved the forerunner provide the exact steps to be followed. We need to eat of this flesh or example and drink of the blood or sacrifice needed to become part of the same death and resurrection of birth from above…
Tom, Thanks for inspiring me to go look it up. Yeshua’s water baptism is mentioned in all four gospels (Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1). It is after this water baptism that he goes to the wilderness. Only Matthew shares John’s reluctance, his own awareness that he needs to be baptized by Yeshua and Yeshua’s words, “Allow it now, for it is becoming to us to fulfill all righteousness.” Was this water baptism Yeshua’s public declaration that he himself believed in the resurrection? And then he took the strength of that belief with himself into the wilderness. Did it aid him in resisting the adversary’s offers?
Tom,
Why was it necessary for Jesus, who was perfect, to be baptized? I don’t have a full tidy answer but here are several thoughts.
Part of the consecration ritual for priests involved the washing of the priests, as such, if Jesus was to become our High Priest, He needed to be washed to be in line with the Law.
This washing was done by another priest. John was a Levite, son of the one-time High Priest, Zechariah.
This was part of John’s prophesied roll to prepare the way of the Lord.
According to Malichi 3:3, it was also the Messiah’s job to purify the sons of Levi. Jesus plainly esteemed John while showing contempt for the illegitimate King Herod appointees. John was, more likely in God’s eye’s, the legitimate High Priest for that year.
The Passover lamb was also inspected and washed as part of the sacrifice ritual.
Thank you, Dan; I usually always learn something from you. I, too, believe John was in the rightful line for high priest, but that office had long since been hijacked by schemes, corruption and even murder.
I also believe that Yeshua was our Example, and as such I believe He did what He did for us, not necessarily Himself. He bore our sins, after all, on that cross. Perhaps His baptism was also a vicarious washing of OUR sins, too; for, as Dan pointed out, the High Priest bore the sins of all Israel when he went into the Tabernacle.
“…to fulfill all righteousness”. Did Yeshua hint Malachi 3:3 to John when he said that? Wow, Dan and Laurita, thank you! We have connected these dots, also, and I wondered about adding some of what you have to what I posted. We’ve become so careful about sharing what we think, where we are in our search to understand. We’ve learned, as it seems you have Dan, there aren’t tidy answers no matter how much some people we’ve known want them. The answers are these amazing silver and golden threads woven throughout the Tanakh, here a hint, there a dot. That’s one of the “whys” we love how Skip takes us down these paths! And here we are in a “breakout session” 🙂
Tom, it could be all of this and more. I hope these things we’re pondering aren’t too much. The gospels tell us that Elizabeth, “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke 1:5) and Miriam (Mary) were relatives (Luke 1:36), which made Yeshua and Yochanan (John) what? Some say, cousins. In Exodus 6:23, Aaron the high priest married a daughter of Judah’s tribe, so that might be the simple ancient connection that relates them (Matt 1:3-4). As Dan pointed out, John may well be the only one entitled to be high priest. And wouldn’t it be for life if Torah were being followed? Maybe more people than Herod wanted John dead.
And so, here’s my ah-ha! as I read Dan and Laurita and Seeker’s comments:
-If John was the rightful high priest
-and he baptized Yeshua (who is somehow related to Aaron’s line as well as he is of the tribe of Judah (who learned about redemption from Tamar and walked it out in his defense of Benjamin and his father, Jacob, to Joseph-in-disguise)… all things Skip has gotten us thinking about lately…)
-is that baptism somehow involved in re-establishing the king-priest Melchi-tzedeq’s line?
And after Yeshua’s water baptism,
-the dove descended upon him (baptism/anointing of the Spirit – Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1)
-and this baptism/anointing with the Holy Spirit, combined with the voice from Heaven, is this what allows Yeshua to pass on the baptism of the Holy Spirit to his followers?
Is all of this the fullness of Yeshua becoming the priest in the order of Melchi-tzedeq?
I’ve shared how I keep my beliefs in erasable ink on a whiteboard. I’m holding that eraser and looking forward to furthering the discussion.
Further to our understanding of why Yeshua was baptized, I have just noticed this. It is strange how sometimes an answer stares at us in the face and we glance over it.
Joh 1:29 on the morrow John sees Jesus coming unto him, and says, ‘Lo, the Lamb of God, who is taking away the sin of the world;
30 this is he concerning whom I said, After me does come a man, who has come before me, because he was before me:
31 and I knew him not, BUT THAT HE MIGHT BE MANIFESTED TO ISRAEL, BECAUSE OF THIS I came with the water baptizing.
32 And John bore witness, saying, I beheld the Spirit descending as a dove from heaven, and it abode upon him.
33 And I knew him not; but he who sent me to baptise with water, he said to me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit.
So, we learn here that the baptism was to manifest or REVEAL Yeshua to Israel but Leslee also described this dove descending upon him as a “baptism/anointing of the Spirit” and reverenced Matt 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 as well. She did not cite the following verse but I assume she is connecting it with
Act 10:38 Jesus who was of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
The holy spirit did not merely come upon Yeshua in the form of a dove, but it “anointed” Him. Thus, at His baptism by John, He formally undertook His calling as the Anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ.
Repenting as High Priest on behalf of the nation, Manifestation to Israel, Anointing by God, – all these are aspects of Yeshua’s baptism.
What is also amazing to me was Who was there at the anointing: it was truly a council of Dignitaries there at the humble riverside. We see Yeshua confirmed with the Spirit of power in the form of a dove and simultaneously hearing the voice of His Father confirming Him, too. It has all the necessary elements of a formal coronation for not only a high priest, as you point out, Dan, but also a king. This has to be a hard scene for those who say that God merely transmuted from one form into another, for here we see simultaneous function: The Father is fathering, the Son is receiving His Father’s love and will (mission) and the Holy Spirit is activating the deal: all in a single exchange. This was obviously a meeting (union) of the whole Board: love doing its thing – in the purest picture of exactly what that looks like – ever given to this world. And, it was all for us. Love is crazy!
Laurita, I was quoting Skip from today’s post, so I guess we are agreeing with him. The Torah of YHWH had certainly been mangled by the first century. Yeshua interpreted it walking his talk all the way through death into resurrection, and dare I say “beyond”? I have to read “Cross Word Puzzles” in bite-size pieces, so I am continuing to process the fullness of what the cross means in the fullness of Scripture.
Harmony is happiness for me, Leslee! Thank you for pointing that out.
I agree Yeshua is Torah, and Torah is life, and life is Torah and Torah is Yeshua; who is truth and grace incarnate in me and all who believe and receive!
Hey Skip – Do you have some literature that supports this? I understand the purpose of a mikvah which is to clean oneself before approaching the Temple or God, but I haven’t found anything supporting the concept that baptism could represent a significant personal transition in spiritual journey or renewal of life. Those two ideas seem to be very “Christian” and not really Judaic. Of course I could be wrong, so I’m looking for some direction. Thanks.
Isn’t baptism into water a declaration or a visual? By being baptized I am making a statement of the life in God I have chosen to follow. It isn’t something magic where I go from being a sinner to a saint. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind I think after being baptized as a teenager, all excited about this new life in Christ, until a few days later here was actively sinning. I was disappointed that the baptism in water didn’t work for me and I from there on out stuck in a repeated cycle of sinning and asking forgiveness. I like the idea of being baptized every day. Sort of on the lines of dying daily. An ongoing habit of reckoning myself to be dead to sin and alive to God ? It seems to me that I go through cycles of thinking I really get it and then falling back into not understanding any of it !
Any feedback would be good. It’s a feeling of hoping at some point I will get over a hump and never have to deal with that hump again but I think that is wishful thinking. Feeling somewhat discouraged today that I never seem to get it for very long ! I guess in some ways to be honest I find myself between verses 24 and 25 of Romans chapter 7 ….. painful vulnerability.
Larry, I find myself swirling around in the whirlpool of Romans 7:21-24, constantly reaching out a hand to be grasped by “God – through Jesus Christ [my] Master!” Paul felt he died “day by day” (MKJV). Did the thorn in his flesh, which Yah refused to heal, help keep him strong? Keep him humbled? Throughout his life, he referred to his own sin deserving of death. (1Co 15:9 “For I am the least of the apostles and am not sufficient to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.”) Did Peter die each day when he heard the rooster’s crowing, remembering his betrayal, strengthening his walk? Strengthening him when he was executed? Our painful vulnerability mirrors theirs, IMHO. May we, I pray, learn to rejoice in it!
Leslee, thank you for those words. Impression I got from them was that maybe I am feeling badly because I am not “doing”
better. What’s that ends up boiling down to is pride. Performance. Trying to attain righteousness by following the law. Interesting how pride can hide itself! Still seeking to please that father of mine who could never be pleased! So easy to transfer my desire to please my earthly father who has been gone for years over to God. Thanks for the reality check. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus day !
My pain is that I am aware I come short of the glory of God but what gives me hope is that verse from Rom. 8:20, “For the creation was subjected to vanity, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, IN HOPE…” Instead of being baptized every day (although I did get baptized twice because I felt the first time I really didnot understand what baptism was for and so the 2nd time it was a conscious choice), I take communion often and have experienced justification (Rom. 8:30) but I still struggle with the sin that so easily entangles me (Heb. 12:1) and hinders me from being an overcomer. Taking communion is a very powerful experience for me. I listen often to Neville Johnson, an Australian minister, and he once said he took communion every day!
Today, I feel that a page has turned (I’d like to say chapter, but I’ll stick with a page 🙂 ). I’ve taken a step back onto the path. These last two TW’s have caused me to pause and reflect. Dying to the old ways of thinking and behaving. Dying to self. We are fed daily as Skip explains so wonderfully in his Beatitudes series. I highly recommend if you haven’t listened to this series. I am thankful for the mercy of YHVH.
Our new life in Christ, like eternal life itself,
requires death.
The death of our old self is a willful daily struggle,
which God amply trumps with His Spirit’s presence
within us. But even with that presence, our fleshly needs
and wants still hang on. Paul helped our understanding with
his admittance of dying daily. That’s our process, too.
Baptism is our choice to provide an outward sign to mankind
that we’ve experienced a true CHANGE OF HEART within our
being. That change, we discover, has to be lived out daily. In truth,
it’s a real spiritual battle. And so those of us who choose to follow
Yeshua in all His ways find out it literally takes us all our days.
My, my, my, we are challenging some sacred cows with this one.”Baptism is my act of submission to the Torah of YHWH interpreted by the Messiah, the way of living made possible because my guilt has been removed” . I fear not all would be able, willing or ready to make this a “truth” for themselves. Although I just suggested to an Orthodox, Sepharidic Jew (with a family that went back 750 years in Iraq before they where forced to leave); that I see the New Testament as Rabbinic commentary on appropriate application of the Torah; it is the Midrash of Yeshua. (If it has been revealed to one that Yeshua is the Messiah of Isreal, this holds, otherwise many must wait and see for themselves). Shalom, Shalom, Shalom! Keep your peace in the Kingdom of Yehovah…