Bulletin Articles
Baptism: The Work of God
One of the most common objections that I hear regarding the necessity of baptism goes something like this: "Baptism can't be necessary for salvation because that would be an attempt to earn our salvation through works. Paul said in Ephesians 2:8-9 that grace is a gift we receive by faith." Baptism is indeed a work, but it's not the kind of work that people often think about. Consider what the Apostle Paul says about baptism in his letter to the Colossians:
"And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead." (Col. 2:11 – 12)
Baptism is "the working of God." Notice what God is doing in baptism:
1. God is performing a circumcision. But he clarifies that it's not a physical circumcision "made with hands." It's a spiritual circumcision; a "circumcision of Christ." He elaborates on this further in verse 13: "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions." Through baptism, God is removing the sin that is counted against us.
2. God is raising someone from the dead. But again, this is not a physical resurrection, but a spiritual one. When we are baptized, we are both buried and raised with Christ through faith. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that raises us up from spiritual death (Eph. 1:19 – 20).
When someone gets a heart transplant, the patient does not come out and say, "I did such an amazing job giving myself a new heart!" All the patient did was give their consent to the surgeon and allow the surgeon to perform the heart transplant. The surgeon did the work. In like manner, when we are baptized, all we are doing is putting our faith in God and allowing Him to give us a new spiritual life.
Even the physical act of being immersed in water is a passive experience. With that being said, the water itself doesn't contain the power to cleanse us spiritually (1 Peter 3:21). Instead, Jesus' blood is how our sins are washed away, and baptism is the moment God chose for this cleansing to occur. Grace is a gift of God and baptism is how we accept that gift "through faith" (Col. 2:13).
"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:3 – 4)
