http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1646
Do We Die to Sin Before Baptism or In Baptism?
Q:
Do we die to sin before baptism or in baptism?
A:
Sometimes this question is asked in an effort to discount the divinely
ordained necessity of baptism for the remission of sins. The claim is
made that if a person “dies to sin” before baptism, then that person is
saved
before baptism since “he who has died has been
freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). In truth, however, the expression found in
Romans 6:6 (“our old man was crucified”) refers to the biblical
doctrine of repentance—the “change of mind” that must occur within a
person prior to baptism. Another metaphor used in Scripture to refer to
the same change is seen in Hebrews 10:22 in the phrase “having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.” Since one cannot literally
sprinkle anything on one’s heart/mind, this is a figurative expression
that refers to a person changing his attitude about sin—cleansing his
mind concerning the desire to practice sin. Hence, a person must “die to
sin” in the sense that he has changed his thinking about sin and
disobedience, making a mental commitment to cease sin. He dies to the
love and practice of sin. As Paul explained to the Galatians: “And those
who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires” (Galatians 5:24).
Observe, however, that while a person dies to sin at that moment in his
own mind, he is not forgiven of sin by God at that point. Forgiveness
occurs
in the mind of God when the penitent believer
allows himself to be lowered into the watery grave of baptism. That is
the moment we contact the blood of Christ which was shed in Christ’s
death. Hence, Romans 6:3-4 explains that when we are baptized in water,
we are baptized
into Christ’s death—the contact point
for forgiveness. Being “buried with Him through baptism into death” is
the point at which we are cleansed of sin, thus enabling us to “walk in
newness of life.” According to the sequence stipulated in the passage,
we cannot have “newness of life” until
after we come up
out of the waters of baptism. While many within Christendom have come
to reject the role of water in God’s scheme of redemption, the New
Testament repeatedly affirms it (e.g., John 3:5,23; Acts 8:36,38-39;
10:47; Hebrews 10:22; 1 Peter 3:20-21). [NOTE: For a comparison of
Romans 6 to the parallel teaching of Colossians 2 and 3, see:
http://www.apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1232&topic=379.]
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