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 In
the biography of Daniel Sommer, by William Wallace, my attention
was captured by Sommer’s impression of southern churches of
Christ. He said they fought the sects, and were firm on the burial
of baptism, but were weak on the resurrection to a new
life. (You may have to “chew” on that one for awhile, as did
I.)
He
clearly meant that “we” put a lot of effort into getting
people to be baptized, but did not emphasize sufficiently the
NEW life, the NEW creature and CHANGED life, that must follow
the “death and burial” of the old man. He may have struck a
most needful chord.
Our
burial with Christ is not the “end”, but is done with a view
to the NEW life ahead. Note carefully the context of Rom. 6:1-f.
“Shall we continue in sin?... God forbid.” “We who died to
sin, how shall we any longer live therein?” “We were buried
therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we also walk in newness of life”. (emph, rft) ”Our
old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be
done away.” “Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.” (Through vs.
11, AS)
One
might almost say that Paul’s argument in Rom. 6: concerns
chiefly the DEATH to sin, and RESURRECTION to a NEW life; and
that the BURIAL part, which we so often emphasize, is more or
less incidental to his purpose. This is not to say the burial is
of no consequence (the very words Bapto, and Baptidzo,
mean
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“immerse” “dip” etc.) but while
we are making a legitimate use of this portion of Rom. 6:4,
would it not be well to stress the point that Paul stressed
here.
Life
can not be a vacuum. We have poorly taught, and done an
injustice to a convert who is led to believe that getting rid of
his past sins is the essence of Christianity. He can not
properly “count the cost” with such and understanding. (Lu.
14:28-f) Jesus warned of the “vacuum” concept in his lesson
re. the unclean spirit, cast out of a man, who found his old
abode empty (nothing good in his former place) and so he
“taketh with himself seven other spirits more evil than
himself, and they enter in and dwell there; and the last state
of that man becometh worse than the first.” (Matt. 12: 4345)
There
is a great need to prepare the potential convert for the new
life that must follow his baptism. We err in trying to “shield”
him from the problems of the future. If we are properly working
at such problems, and our attitude toward them is what it should
be, this would serve to encourage the prospect — show him just
what wonderful, sacrificing, and dedicated people we are. But if
we hide our carnality (or try to hide it) and are
hypocritical about our struggle with sin, we practice deception,
and lay the ground-work for another weak church member,
having no NEW life.
A
Christian is something different. If we could teach people to BE
what they ought to BE, then they would DO what they ought to DO.
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