Why Does Baptism Kill What Many Think Is “Faith”?

Our hearts are so sick that we even turn faith itself into a method of self-salvation.

All of us, every day, want to be righteous, and to know and feel it.

In chapters 1-3 of this letter to the Romans, Paul unpacked what that means from the Law:

You want to have the truth: but we trust our own reason, rather than God’s revelation.

You want to have a good reputation: but we trust our own judgment, rather than God’s kindness.

You want to be safe and secure: but we trust our own control, rather than God Almighty.

You want to be a good person: but we trust our own works, rather than God’s gift of righteousness.

That is what God’s Law exposes: We trust the wrong things. In particular we trust ourselves.

So, God will not convince you with evidence first, because then you’re trusting your own reason, not his Word.

God doesn’t require you to have faith before you come to church, because this is the place where he gives you faith.

Jesus has done everything—but faith is not the part you play, because even faith itself is something Jesus creates in your heart by his Spirit.

This is why it’s wrong to say things like: “A single tear of repentance is all it takes to be saved.” or “The Gospel has only one command—believe!”

All these ideas twist faith so that in some way—however small it seems—you are trusting yourself.

This is why God gave you Baptism. Baptism kills the thing you used to call “faith” when you meant your own contribution, your decision, your sincerity, your spiritual effort, or your ability to make salvation work.

Baptism does not destroy true faith. It destroys the illusion that faith is the part you play. It drowns that part of you that trusts in yourself.

True faith is not the work you contribute. It is the empty hand that receives what baptism gives: Christ’s death and resurrection.

Baptism gives you the new life of resurrection: living in daily assurance Christ’s resurrection is your life.

So just as Baptism comes to you from the outside, true faith only looks outside yourself.

In Romans 6, Paul shows us what our Baptism means for our lives every single day.

And he says three things:

1) Baptism Killed “The Part You Play”
2) Baptism Set You Free to Live with Nothing to Prove
3) You Already Are What Baptism Made You—So Think That Way

So, first, 1) Baptism Killed “The Part You Play”

Please look again at vv. 3-4 with me:

³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death,

Baptism kills something: This theme of death starts in the Law. The 10 commandments promise curse and God’s wrath to all who fail to keep them.

Moses said in Deuteronomy 27:26:

 ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

And then later in chapter 30 verse 15:

I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.

God’s law commands you to do things that bring life. And forbids you from doing things that bring death.

The first Law is this: You shall have no other gods. Which Luther explains to mean: We should fear, love and trust God above all things.

This is the command to have faith—to trust God—and it sits inside every other commandment.

Luther explains that every other commandment starts… “We should fear and love God so that…”

So when someone says “Faith is the part you play” what they’re saying is: Jesus has done everything except the very heart of the entire Law: that bit belongs to me; that’s my contribution.

So, to say this: “Have faith and live! Don’t have faith and die!” Is not unbiblical—it’s just not the Gospel.

That’s the Law! Deuteronomy 10 says exactly this:

v. 12: And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

v. 16: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

v. 20: You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him,

But the problem is not that people: don’t know they should trust God, don’t know they are supposed to put their trust in God, or don’t understand and so need to be told to trust God.

The problem is nobody can produce trust in God from themselves. God needs to do something to them from the outside. Again, Moses himself says exactly this to Israel in Deuteronomy 29:4:

But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

That’s the problem with so many messages we hear today that claim to be “Christian”: They take the commands of the Law and dress them up as the promise of the Gospel.

It is our old Adam who does this. That man who stood in the Garden and thought: “I need to make my own mind up about this fruit stuff.”

The old Adam talks about faith being a “command of the Gospel.” My old Adam does this. Your old Adam does this.

But, Paul says, Baptism Killed “The Part You Play” When we died in baptism, we died to sin. Sin is the opposite of what the Law commands. The heart of the Law is to trust God for salvation, for security, for everything. The heart of sin is trusting ourselves instead.

2 Kings 5 gives us a picture of how offensive this is to the old Adam. Naaman is the commander of the Syrian army. But he suffers from a serious skin disease. He hears that the prophet Elisha can help him.

So, he travels to Israel with gifts and expects an impressive cure. But Elisha does not even come outside to meet him. He sends a messenger telling Naaman to wash seven times in the River Jordan.

Naaman is an important man. A military man. A commander. A leader. How dare he be treated like that. Like nothing.

Surely salvation must involve my decision, my sincerity, my repentance, my spiritual seriousness, my visible transformation.

Surely there must be something more than just water and the Word coming to me from the outside. Surely there must be something about ME???!

And Naaman gets angry. The Jordan seems like ordinary water, and he expected Elisha to perform a dramatic miracle.

But when he is washed, just as God’s Word commanded, his skin is restored, and he is cleansed.

Naaman’s washing was not Baptism. But, today, Baptism saves you by giving you something humiliatingly simple from outside yourself.

That’s why we so quickly twist faith into our achievement: The external Word gives our reason nothing to boast in. The external Word gives our will nothing to boast in. We want to prove that we are truly sincere.

But you can’t: Baptism killed this. It drowned it. And that is good news. Because the part of you Baptism drowned is the part of you that could never save you anyway.

And so, Paul gives us point 2:

2) Baptism Set You Free to Live with Nothing to Prove

The end of v. 4 tells us why Baptism kills that old Adam in us:

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.

Our newness of life is the opposite of our old life of sin. Sin is not primarily bad things we do. Sin is trusting ourselves. The symptoms of that are the bad things we do.

Using your baptism daily means walking in repentance. Repentance doesn’t mean “behaving better.”

Repentance means trusting Christ that you are free of the need to prove anything, v. 5:

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.

Paul doesn’t say:

I’ll be united with his resurrection if I prove I am serious.
or I’ll be united with his resurrection if I prove I am changed.
or I’ll be united with his resurrection if I prove I am not like those other people.
or I’ll be united with his resurrection if I prove I am a real Christian.
or I’ll be united with his resurrection if I prove I deserve to be treated as faithful.

No, you are dead to that need to prove anything. And because you died like that with Christ—you will certainly rise with Christ.

Paul makes this explicit in vv. 6-7:

 ⁶ 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. ⁷ For one who has died has been set free from sin.

Christ did not rise so that you would have to spend your life proving that you are alive.

He rose so that you would live from his life.

There are so many supposedly Christian messages around us saying “If you’re a Christian—prove it!”

Those are false Gospels. Because if you’re a Christian—Christ has already proved it. That’s why you were baptised.

Baptism is God’s declaration that you are his
—that you are united to Christ,
—that you are one with him. And so, vv. 8-9:

⁸ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

Christ passed through death, judgement, sin’s accusation, and the Law’s curse—so none of it can ever claim him again.

Which means you have passed through death, judgment, sin’s accusation and the Law’s curse—so none of it can ever claim you again either. v. 10:

 ¹⁰ For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Christ’s dealing with sin is complete.

He did not partially deal with sin. He did not make salvation merely possible. He did not begin a process which your faith now completes. He died to sin once for all.

Christ now lives entirely beyond accusation, beyond death, beyond condemnation, in the Father’s favour.

His life is not a probationary life. It is not a life still needing to prove itself. It is accepted, vindicated, resurrection life before God.

And so in Baptism: that is you.

You don’t have to prove yourself, because Christ’s resurrection is God’s proof about you.

So Paul does not land his third point by telling you how to make this true, or how to prove that it is true.

He tells you how to live from the fact that it is already true.

3) You Already Are What Baptism Made You—So Think That Way

Please look at v. 11:

 ¹¹ So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Think according to your Baptism. Stop thinking according to your old Adam. Sin is not your master. Faith is not your achievement. Your feelings are not the place where your standing before God is decided.

Count as true what God has already made true: you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The water gave Naaman nothing to boast in. But it did give him everything he needed.

Baptism gives your old Adam nothing to boast in—it kills him. But it gives faith everything to receive:

Christ’s death, Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s life before God.

So, Why does Baptism kill what many think is faith?

Because Baptism killed “the part you play.”
Baptism set you free to live with nothing to prove.
And you already are what Baptism made you — so think that way.

You do not stand before God holding up your faith, your repentance, your sincerity, your seriousness, or your changed life. You stand before God wet with Baptism, clothed with Christ, joined to the One over whom death has no dominion.