Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

"Dry Baptism?"

This entry was posted on 12-20-2006 and is filed under Devotional.

"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3,4 NKJV).

Yesterday a good friend told me that a well-known religious author and president of a prestigious theological seminary has referred to the above verse as teaching "dry baptism." In the study Bible I use nearly every day the notes read, "This does not refer to water baptism." The compiler of the note is also a leading evangelical preacher.

I could say that those who teach "dry baptism" from this verse are all wet, but that would not be very charitable. But I have to challenge their reasoning. Paul said, "As many of US as were baptized into Christ Jesus." Was Paul's own baptism a "dry baptism"? Hardly. See Acts 22:16 where Paul was told to arise and be baptized to wash away his sins. Compare this passage with 1 Cor. 15:3,4. The gospel is Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Our response to the gospel is our death, burial, and resurrection — as it is beautifully and accurately portrayed in Christian baptism. For modern evangelicals to summarily dismiss baptism or curtly call it "dry baptism" does violence to the text.

Statement and prayer of Martin Luther: Come thus to thy baptism. Give thyself to be drowned in baptism and killed by the mercy of thy dear God, saying, "Drown me and throttle me, dear Lord, for henceforth I will gladly die to sin with thy Son."