Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Theodore Beza (1592) on Romans 6 and Galatians 3 as a Reference to the Ordinance of Baptism

  

No less truly is it also necessary that humanity itself of Christ truly (yet spiritual, as we will soon see, by the acceptance through the instrument of faith) he be made ours, so that we may obtain all those benefits and eternal life in Him. In this way also, when baptism, another sacrament of the church, is discussed, we are not simply said to have been baptized into His death, burial, and resurrection (that is, so that from it we obtain fruit of remission and sins and of our renewal). Rather, we are expressly said to have been baptized into Him (Rom. 6:3) and to put Him on (Gal. 3:27). (Theodore Beza, “A Defense of Justification through the Righteousness of Christ Alone, Freely Imputed, Obtained by Living Faith” (1592), in Justification by Faith Alone: Selected Writings from Theodore Beza (1519-1605), Amandus Polanus (1561-1610), and Francis Turretin (1623-1687) [trans. Casey Carmichael; Classic Reformed Theology 6; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Reformation Heritage Press, 2023], 74)