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Romans 23: Our Second Husband (7:1-6)

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Introduction
Remember that the apostle has laid out the gospel for us, and he is now answering objections. The universal problem is set forth in the first three chapters, and then the glorious gospel in chapters four and five. Beginning in chapter six, he starts anticipating and answering objections. The first is that if we are justified apart from the law, won’t that result in moral chaos? No, Paul says, for we have died with Christ in our baptisms. Now we come to the objection that about the length of the Torah’s dominion. Wasn’t the law supposed to be permanent?

The Text
“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? . . . ” (Rom. 7:1-6).

Summary of the Text
Paul starts here by identifying who he is addressing—those who know and care about the Torah (v. 1). If we are justified by faith alone, then what is the role of the law? The first question here has to do with the extent of the Torah’s authority. The second question, addressed in the rest of chapter seven, has to do with the point of the Torah. If it did not justify, then what was it for then? Now Paul’s point here is that the Torah does not have authority over men who have died (v. 1). We have to follow him closely here because his illustration is a complex one. A woman is bound to her husband by the Torah as long as he is alive, but his death releases her (v. 2). She is guilty of adultery if she marries another man with her first husband still alive, but if he has died, she is free to remarry (v. 3). In a similar way, we are dead to the Torah because of the body of Christ (v. 4). This frees us to marry another—that one being Jesus, the one who rose from the dead. This was done so that we could be fruitful before God (v. 4). When we were “in the flesh,” married to the old man, the Torah stirred up the “motions of sins,” and the result was “fruit unto death” (v. 5). So now that we have remarried, we are delivered from that Torah, that condition in which we bore fruit to death (v. 6). The result is that we may now serve in the newness of the Spirit (v. 6), and not in the oldness of the letter (v. 6).

Who Is Who?
In order to grasp Paul’s point here, we have to be careful to correctly identify the characters in his illustration. Who is who exactly? We are the woman, and our husband was the old Adam. He was the federal head of the entire human race (Rom. 5: ), and his sin meant that we, married to him, bore fruit to death. The Torah is not the husband in this illustration—the law is holy, righteousness and good (Rom. 7:12). But a good law can bind a woman to a bad man. The law holds people to their covenants, even when those covenants are destructive. A good law can insist that death must beget death (v. 5). Note that in this illustration, the woman cannot just walk away from Adam, even to marry Christ. Adam must die in order for her to be free (Rom. 6:5). Adam died in the new Adam, so that the human race could be married in the new resurrected Adam, walking in newness of life, while remaining truly human. The Torah faithfully required us to beget according to our marriage vows, and God in His grace enabled us to bear fruit in another way. So this means that humanity is the woman, her first husband is Adam, and her new husband is Christ. The Torah held us fast to our first husband, which is not the same thing as approving of our first husband.

Dead to the Law
Note carefully how Paul discusses the issues of death here. Who dies? The first husband dies (v. 2). If the first husband dies, his wife is free to remarry (v. 3). Christ died, which is implied by the fact that He rose from the dead (v. 4). Because Christ died and rose, we are dead to the law (v. 4). A wife whose husband has died is not a dead woman, but as far as the laws of marriage are concerned, she is dead to the law, and the law is dead to her. The law that held us to our first husband is dead in that respect (v. 6).

As will become apparent shortly, Paul is not saying that the standards of righteousness are now waived or abrogated (Rom. 6:14; 13: 8-10). He is talking about a particular aspect of Torah, that which regulates marriage unions and the issue born from such marriage unions.

Respectable Depravity
The Jews who were still in Adam were bound to him by the Torah. The Gentiles who were in Adam were bound to him by the law of the heavens, seen in every clear night sky. The Jews were bound by Torah, the Gentiles by natural revelation, and the two of them together bore fruit to death. Now of course, the Jews of the Old Testament who walked by faith (Heb. 11) did not bear fruit to death—they were looking forward to Christ. And in the same way, the many Gentiles of the Old Testament who walked by faith did not bear fruit to death either. Men like Melchizedek, Jethro, or Namaan walked before God.

It is too easy for us to caricature the “old” man. The fact that our first marriage resulted in so much death and despair should not make us think that it was cartoon evil. Our first husband did not rampage through brothels and taverns talking like a pirate. This kind of thing of course happens in a fallen world, but the really serious temptations came from our first husband at his respectable best. The kingdoms that came from him were glorious enough to present a significant temptation to the second Adam (Matt. 4:8), and the angelic being who led him astray appears as an angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Recall t hat Paul is making this point over the objections of those who “knew the law.” They were better than the unwashed Gentiles; that was a given. They were chosen. They were religious. They were respectable. And they were just as married to Adam as anybody else.

Fruitful or Fussy?
Notice that in this passage, Paul contrasts two husbands, death and life, fruit to death and fruit to life, and, right at the end, Spirit and letter (v. 6). He does this elsewhere, and we do well to understand it. He is not condemning letters as such because he wrote the contrast of Spirit and letter with letters. But those who have those letters only are still married to the first Adam—and the fruit to death they consistently bear proves it.

But those who receive the letters of the New Testament (and the Old) in the power of the Spirit are not bibliolaters (Jn. 5:39). When the Spirit is at work in you, you bear fruit organically. If when you try to grow your apples, the trunk shakes and the branches clank and smoke, something is obviously wrong. We serve, that is true (v. 6), but we serve in newness of Spirit. This is life. This is regeneration. This is grace and mercy, and peace. This is righteousness hanging heavy on the branches, given to you. We are talking about the fruit of the Spirit; we are not talking about crawling over the broken glass of rules for the Spirit. Our first marriage was full of turmoil. But now we are invited to be at peace.

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Romans 22: Ugly Babies (6:15-23)

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Introduction
We come now to Paul’s treatment of the great theme of true liberty and freedom. What is the nature of freedom? We need to be especially careful with this because as Americans we are trained to believe that we understand liberty in some special way, while it appears that we have really lost an understanding of the foundation of all liberty.

The Text
“What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid . . .” (Rom. 6:15-23).

Summary of the Text
Paul begins by returning to the question that began this chapter (6:1). He asks if we should therefore sin because we are under grace. Is that what grace means (v. 15)? God forbid. Grace is liberation from sin, not liberation in sin. Sin is a dungeon, and a set of chains bolted into the wall. Paul then turns to instruct us so that we won’t fall for this elementary mistake. “Know ye not . . .?” he asks. The word in this passage rendered servant is doulos, meaning slave. The direction of obedience establishes the nature of the servitude. You are either a slave of slave, leading to death, or a slave of righteousness (v. 16). Those are the two options. But thanks to God, the Roman Christians, who used to be slaves of sin, had transfered their allegiance by obeying “the form of doctrine” they had heard (v. 17). The gospel is obeyed. They were as a consequence freed from one slavery by means of enslavement to another (v. 18). Paul is using a rudimentary illustration because we are slow to get it (v. 19). Just as we used to yield our bodies to iniquity, producing lots more iniquity, so now we are to do the same thing to righteousness, producing holiness (v. 19). Freedom from one is attachment to the other. When the Romans were slaves of sin, they were “free” from holiness (v. 20). But what was the fruit of that way? They were now ashamed of what they used to freel free to do. And the result is death (v. 21). But now they were free from sin, and were slaves of God—with the fruit being holy, and the result everlasting life (v. 22). For wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus (v. 23).

Ugly Babies
The illustration of marriage is not explicit for a few more verses yet (7:1-5), but Paul appears to be anticipating something like this already. Even though he is speaking of slaves and not wives, the language of v. 19 appears to have some sort of sexual connotation. A verb form of the same word for fruit is found in 7:5, in the context of marriage. So when you yield your members as slaves to uncleanness, the result is that iniquity produces more iniquity—a perverse kind of “increase and multiply.”

You present your members to iniquity, and the result is lots of ugly babies. But when you leave that behind in repentance, the results of the gospel union are holy. In the spiritual realm, the babies always look like the father. If the unbelieving Jews had been children of Abraham, they would have looked like him (John 8:39). Also keep in mind that tolerating sin in your life, especially hidden, secret sin, is like trying to be a little bit pregnant. The reason your sin will find you out (Num. 32:23) is that sin grows and multiplies.

Freedom From, Freedom To
In our individualistic tradition, we have very unwisely truncated our definition of freedom. We tend to think of it as “freedom from” restraint, because this leaves room, as we like to imagine, for a pretended autonomy. But this definition is only partially true, and when it is taken for the whole truth, the results are routinely disastrous. “Freedom from” liberty is entirely incapable of sustaining any concept of civil or political liberty unless we ground it in the Pauline concept of the “freedom to” be virtuous, which is nothing other than the freedom to obey Christ. Notice what Paul does here. If you are at the bottom of the sea, you are free from being dry. If you are in the desert, you are free from being wet. That, by itself, is as far as “freedom from” will get you. This is because Paul takes it as axiomatic that you will be someone’s servant. As Dylan put it in one of his moments of lucidity, “ya gotta serve somebody.” You will either be wet or dry. You will either serve iniquity or you will serve righteousness. If you are a slave to the wrong one, then the result is death—you will be a dead slave. If you become a slave to the righteous one, then the result is life, everlasting life, and at the end of the story, the slave will be adopted as a true son.

How does this matter? It matters because modern secularists want to pretend that they can establish a “freedom from tyranny” kind of liberty without serving Christ. But that is impossible. If you take that route, the result will only be an ever-increasing iniquity. But if we as a people “obey from the heart the form of doctrine” that faithful gospel preachers declare, the result will be holiness, righteousness, and life. Part of that fruit will be every legitimate kind of “freedom from” liberty. Spiritual freedom is the necessary precondition to every other kind of freedom (2 Cor. 3:17), and spiritual freedom always begins with slavery to Christ. Notice how Paul reasons from spiritual freedom to what we think is the only freedom (1 Cor. 7:22-23). Never forget that political and economic liberty is gospel fruit. Do you really think that God will permit us to grow that glorious fruit in our orchards of death?

Form of Doctrine
Many Christians today, for the sake of what they call grace, react away from the word obedience. But Paul is not of their mind. Liberty is obedience. Grace and obedience are not contrary because grace demands to be obeyed. What was the form of doctrine that the Romans had delivered to them? The book of Romans would be as good as summary of that gospel as we could find anywhere. What did they do with it? They obeyed. In Paul’s mind, we may obey in this direction or that one, but we are creatures and we will obey. The only question is whether we will obey words of life or words of death.

Wages and Gifts
Life and death are opposite one another, but they are not symetrical. Paul does not contrast the wages of sin and the wages of righteousness. Neither does he contrast the gift of death and the gift of life. These two destinations are not symetrical at all. The death and the life are opposed, but so are the forms in which they come. One comes as a wage, a payment, a pay check. The other comes as a present, as a gift. Connect this with everything that has gone before and we see that the servitude that leads to death is a servitude of strict justice, and the servitude that brings liberty is a servitude of grace.
You are the people of God. Hear then thewords of the gospel. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil” (Dt. 30:15). Which will you have?

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Romans 21: Three Kinds of Grace (Rom. 6:6-14)

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Introduction
As we continue to work through this great letter of the apostle, we can see in various ways how his mind works. We see it in how he answers objections—”one of you will say to me then . . .” We also see in this passage a typical Pauline move, where he says, “These things are so, and you must act as if they are so.” This is something we must learn because it is how our sanctification progresses.

The Text
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin . . .” (Rom. 6:6-14)

Summary of the Text
As we improve our baptism, as we build on what Paul has just said (vv. 1-5), we do so “knowing this” (v. 6). Progress in godliness is not groping in the dark; it is the result of sound teaching. What do we know? That our “old man” was crucified in Jesus in order to destroy the “body of sin.” This was so that we would cease to be slaves of sin (v. 6). The way out of sin-slavery is to die (v. 7). But there is no way to be united with Christ in His death without also being joined to His resurrection life (v. 8). When Jesus rose, He did so in a way that freed Him from death forever; death has absolutely no claim on Him (v. 9). Moreover, He died unto sin one time, at a specific point in time, but the life He lives is continuous, and is before God (v. 10). All these things are so. How should we therefore act? We should therefore act as if they are so. “Lifewise reckon ye also yourselves . . .” Jesus died at a point in history, and He lives forever before God. You should therefore reckon yourself to be dead to sin in a decisive way, and alive to God through Jesus (v. 11). What is including in such a reckoning? Refuse to let sin reign (key word) in your mortal body, which means obedience to the lusts of that mortal body (v. 12). Present or yield the members of your body as though you were raised from the dead (because you were), and make this presentation to God (v. 13). To present such resurrected members as instruments of unrighteousness is not just morally wrong, it is schizophrenic. It is a contradiction (v. 13). Sin is not to rule over you any more because you are under grace, and not under law (v. 14).

Three Kinds of Mortification
In order to understand what Paul is teaching here, we have to sort something out first. He is describing a crucifixion, a death, a mortification. But this is not a concept that has only one application for the Christian life. First is the death of the “old man,” the old way of being human. This is equated with the overthrow of the rule and reign of sin, the dominion of sin (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 5:24; 6:14). The old man is dead—you don’t have to keep killing him. This is something that is equally true of all who are genuine Christians. The second kind of mortification occurs in the lives of Christians who have stumbled or fallen, and significant sin has grown up in their life. This is what Paul addresses in his letter to the Colossians. “Mortify your members which are on the earth” (Col. 3:5). These are not trifles, because he goes on to define them as “fornication, uncleanness, etc.” But he is talking to Christians, who should have their affections set above, and the action he calls them to is a decisive action at a point in time. The third kind of mortification is daily, for each of us. As John Owen once put it, a man should not think he makes any progress in godliness “who walks not daily over the bellies of his lusts.” We will see this just a few chapters from now—”if he though the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Rom. 8:13). The verb here refers to an action that is continuous and ongoing. This mortification you will never get to walk away from on this side of glory. If you do, then you will be confronted with the duty mentioned to the Colossians.

An IllustrationPicture a weed patch, not cultivated at all. When the first mortification happens, God plows the weed patch under, and makes it a garden. It is now a garden, and not a weed patch. The old status is dead. The second mortification is what happens when that garden is untended for a week, and you come back to find weeds in it that are up to your thigh. Uproot them, pull them out. That is the second kind of mortification. The third kind is what any good gardener will tell you about. Get out there every morning, and pull up the weeds that are the size of your thumbnail. They will always be there. That is the third kind of mortification.

Reckoning Righteousness
We are not called to do good in order to impress God, or to ingratiate ourselves with Him. We are not trying to earn anything. God has already reckoned the righteousness of Jesus Christ to you, and that is your justification. What is your sanctification? It is you reckoning the righteousness of Jesus Christ to yourself. Reckon (logidzomai) yourself to be dead to sin. So what is sanctification? It is acting as though you really believe what happened in your justification. It is acting as though the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ are really yours.

Your Mortal Body
The old man is dead. Don’t worry about him. But the flesh, your mortal body, is not dead, and you should keep a wary eye on it. In v. 12, Paul cautions these Christians against letting sin “reign” in your mortal body (like back in the old days). He then equates this with obeying “it” in its lusts. What is the antecedent to “it”? As it happens, the antecedent is “mortal body,” and not “sin.” Your mortal body will make all kinds of suggestions to you all day long. Stop feeling like the lonely pervert at church—there isn’t a person here who doesn’t deal with this. At the same time, there is a difference between godliness and backsliding. Pull up the thumbnail size weeds. Stay on top of it. Don’t wait till the weed requires three shovels, two hands, and a backhoe.

Grace and Law
We have drifted so far from the biblical understanding of the words grace and law that to a certain extent we have inverted them. We think that grace means “you get to sin,” and that law “means you can’t sin.” But as Paul is describing it is here, being under law means that you can’t stop sinning, and that you therefore cannot stop accumulating the condemnation for that sin. Grace liberates you from that sin trap, from that sin slavery. Notice what Paul says here. Sin shall not have dominion. And why? Because you are under grace. Grace is the liberty of the Spirit, not the slackness of lowered standards.

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The Temple Pulled Inside Out

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Introduction
We are all generally familiar with what happened on the day of Pentecost. But we also need to take note of where it happened . . . and where it did not.

The Text
“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:1-6)

Summary of the Text
Jesus, crucified and risen, ascended into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the Father. From that exalted place, He had promised to give gifts to men, a promise that was fulfilled in the Church on the day of Pentecost. We of course rejoice that it has happened, but let’s look a bit more closely at how it happened. The followers of Jesus were gathered together, it says, “in one place” (v. 1). In the next verse, when it describes the sound of the Spirit coming, it says that it filled “all the house” where they had been sitting. Cloven tongues like fire came down and rested on each of them (v. 3), and as the Spirit filled them they began to speak in many different languages (v. 4). There were devout men in Jerusalem at that time, as it says, “out of every nation under heaven” (v. 5). They were there in Jerusalem because of the Temple, about which more in a minute. When word of this great miracle got around, the multitude gathered at this house, moving away from the Temple, and heard the disciples speaking the wonderful works of God (v. 11) in their own languages.

The Temple Complex
The Temple complex was huge. Picture a rectangle running north/south, covering about 35 acres. The east side was Solomon’s Colonnade (John 10:23; Acts 3:11; 5:12). Part of the retaining wall for the western side still remains today—the famous Wailing Wall. There was a large Pool of Israel outside the north wall, and at the northwest corner was the Antonia Fortress, where 600 soldiers were garrisoned. This was named for Mark Anthony, and Paul gave his impromptu sermon from the stairway up from the inside Temple court (Acts 21:40). The south wall was the Royal Stoa, the most ornate part of the complex—where Jesus as a boy had discussed the things of God with the rabbis of Israel (Luke 2:46). The Temple sanctuary and restricted courts butted out from the west wall, and did not quite reach the east wall. Everything inside the walls and outside the central Temple area was the Court of the Gentiles.

A sign was posted in the Court of the Gentiles that said, “No foreigner is allowed within the balustrades and embankment about the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death.”The accusation that Paul had violated this law was not a trifling accusation (Acts 21:28). Paul is probably referring to this when he says that in Christ the wall of partition has been torn down (Eph. 2:14). As you entered the central Temple area from the east, you went through the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:2), and came into the Court of the Women. There were also four gates on the north and four on the south side of this court. This is the court where the treasury was (Mark 12:41-44). Proceeding west, you then entered the Court of the Priests. Then came the Holy Place, and after that the Holy of Holies. The internal Temple was plated with gold, and when the sun was shining on it, you could not look directly at it. It was glorious. The disciples were not rubber-necking for no reason (Matt. 24: 1).

A Strange Inversion
Now if the Shekinah glory were to reappear in Jerusalem, where would you expect it to appear? You would expect it to appear the same way it had for Moses at the Tabernacle (Dt. 31:15), or for Solomon at the first Temple (2 Chron. 7:1). But that is not what happened. In order to get to the nondescript, no-name place where it had happened, the multitude had to leave the Temple in order to get there.

Not only so, but when the multitude gathered at the new center, the place where the Spirit now was, the new Holy of Holies, what did they hear when they got there? They heard the babble of languages from all over—they heard at the center what they had been hearing only at the periphery before. God had reached down inside Israel, inside the Temple, and pulled everything inside out. The Spirit “got loose” from the Temple, and away from His official handlers and representatives. God had now placed Gentile chatter at the new center. Fire rested on each of the disciples, as though each of them were an altar. And the power of the Lord was there.

Your House Is Left Desolate
But this was not done arbitrarily or capriously. The Court of the Gentiles was the place where Jesus had dealt with the moneychangers twice, and where He drove the clean animals (representing Jews) out of the area reserved for the Gentiles (Acts 10: 11-17). What did Jesus say when He did this? He said, “My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer” (Mark 11:15-19). Jesus had visited the House of God twice, the same way a priest in the Old Testament was to visit a house with leprosy (Lev. 14: 33-48). But if the lesser measures did not suffice, then it was necessary to dismantle the house entirely, which the Romans came and did. Now when Jesus described the streaks of this particular leprosy, what were the characteristics that He mentioned? There were two—refusal to let the Gentiles approach God in order to pray to Him (for all nations), and secondly, there was grasping avarice and theft (den of thieves). This is why their house was left to them desolate (Matt. 23:38). And what did God accomplish in the new Temple, assembled out of living stones? How did the new Temple answer the dual indictment of the old Temple? The praises of God in every tongue were now at the center, and the people of God were characterized by overflowing generositry (Acts 2:44-45 ). Of course the Temple was still in the picture (Acts 2:46), but it was one of the places where believers would go with the Word, and not the anointed place from which they would come.

Pancentralized
We, living as we do in the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8) might think that the application is obvious— build churches that are as diverse as a random sampling taken from the Court of the Gentiles. But that is not quite it. This is certainly true of the Church, but all those people were in one place because of the old system. When the first missionaries got to Hawaii, they were not welcomed by a committee of Swedes, Jews, and Eskimos. The message of Pentecost does not reduce to a spiritual quota system. But at the same time, we need to recognize that the Holy of Holies is now everywhere (1 Cor. 3:16). The sanctuary has not been decentralized, but rather pancentralized.

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Romans 20: How to Understand the Gospel (6:1-5)

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Introduction
Thus far in Romans we have learned of our universal plight in Adam, whether or not we are Jews or Gentiles (1-3). We have also learned of the universal salvation for the human race that has been accomplished in the second Adam (4-5), the salvation that was promised for the world through father Abraham. But we now have to bring this glory down to the individual level, and this can be tricky. For example, if “all” are condemned in Adam, and “all” are justified in Christ, then no more worries, right? Just do what you feel. Wrong.

The Text
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom. 6:1-5).

Summary of the Text
So Paul begins here by setting up a false conclusion to what he has presented so far. What shall our response to this glorious gospel be? Shall we continue our sinning so that God might continue His gracious forgiveness (v. 1)? And of course the answer is no. God forbid. How can people who are dead to sin still live in it (v.2)? But someone might come back at Paul—what do you mean, dead to sin? And Paul replies, “Don’t you know what baptism means?” If you were baptized into Jesus, you were baptized into His death (v. 3). Not only were you killed in baptism, you were also buried (v. 4). But the whole point of this was so that you might participate in His resurrection as well (v. 4). Note that Christ was not only raised, He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In the same way (by the glory of the Father), we should walk in newness of life (v. 4). This is because if you have been planted in the likeness of His death (which is what baptism is, the likeness of His death), we also participate in the likeness of resurrection (v. 5).

Baptism In Water, Baptism in Christ
The first thing we need to work through here is whether or not Paul is referring to baptism in water. And our first instinct is to say that he could not be referring to water because, as we evangelicals all know, water baptism doesn’t do those things that are described here. Therefore we must hunt for a baptism that does do them, which would be baptism in the Spirit. This solves the problem, but perhaps it solves it a bit too easily. There is no contextual or grammatical reason to think that anything other than water baptism is meant. At the same time, there is a way of taking this as water baptism that is nothing but religious superstition. How are we to deal with this?

Faith As Catalyst
The seed of the gospel is broadcast. It falls on good soil and hard, it falls on the asphalt parking lot and on the well-tilled ground. The thing that makes it germinate is faith. When the declaration is made, we find out who it was meant for by seeing who believes it. We don’t test the declaration, sending it off to an objective lab somewhere, in order to find out whether or not it is worthy of our belief, so that we may then believe it. The gospel always brings its own credentials to those who are elect, to those who have genuine faith. So there is therefore always a perfect correspondence between those people for whom the statement is true and those who believe it to be true.

The doctrine of definite atonement is certainly true. Jesus died in order to secure the salvation of His elect, and only His elect. But Jesus also died so that we might offer salvation to every creature (Mark 16:15). These two things harmonize wonderfully, so don’t worry about it. We are preaching the gospel to a raggety-taggety world, not doing clean little syllogisms about P and Q. So don’t worry about it when your Arminian friends persist on telling people that “Jesus died for you.” If it is true, that person will believe it. If it isn’t, he won’t. (Incidentally, many Calvinistic paedobaptists make the same kind of statement at the baptismal font. We say in essence, “Jesus died for you,” without having been given a clear copy of the electing decree with little Herbert’s name on it. We walk by faith, not by sight.) But we want to be doctrinal fussers, saying that if it isn’t true and independently verified, then we shouldn’t even think about saying it. We should be reminded of Chesterton’s comment about the poet who tries to get his head into the heavens, as opposed to the rationalist, who tries to get the heavens into his head—and it is his head that splits.

Sacramental Union
The Westminster Confession rightly says that there is a sacrament union between sign and thing signified, such that it is appropriate to speak of one in terms of the other. So Saul of Tarsus was told to rise up in order to receive water baptism, washing away his sins (Acts 22:16), even though water doesn’t really do that. And Peter preached the same way, preaching a baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:28). Someone with genuine faith sees Christ in his baptism, and in the Lord’s Supper, in just the same way that he sees Christ on a tract made of paper and ink, or he hears Christ in a sermon preached by a poorly educated street preacher who breathes through his nose. God uses despised and weak things in order to humiliate the worldly wise. So does the grace go in when the water goes on? No, of course not, no more than a tract left in a laundromat can zap you as you walk by. This is something we understand easily in other settings. When performing a wedding, I have never said, “Please repeat . . . with this ring I thee wed,” only to have the bride stop me and say, “I didn’t know that gold rings could do that!”

Grab Them By Their Baptism
So follow the direction of Paul’s argument. The direction of this argument, rightly understood, is always into newness of life. If you have a life of sin on the one hand, and a baptism into Christ’s death on the other, which one should we follow? Which one is in charge? Paul says, “What are you doing that for? You’re baptized.” The logic is the same as a man rebuking a friend—”You can’t go honky-tonking . . . you’re married now.” And when someone sees, really sees, that this is what their baptism means, then that is what their baptism is.

The Call to Faith
We have been planted together with, united with, Jesus Christ in baptism, this likeness of His death. We therefore have a covenanted obligation to be united with Him, just as united with Him, in His life. Let God be true and every man a liar. If there is an inconsistency between baptism and the sin, then it is the sin that must die—never the baptism.

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