Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Adolf Schlatter (1852-1938) on Paul's Theology of Baptism in Romans 6

  

 

The substantiating sentence speaks expressly of the participation in the death of Jesus which the believer receives by means of Jesus’ association with him. This association begins with baptism. For this reason Paul explains what took place in baptism; it happened, without exception, to all who have been baptized. The only provision was that they were to be baptized into Christ, because there were also many other baptisms at that time. The effect of baptism assumes that it unites with Christ; Paul did not expect that effect from the water or from the degree of understanding or faith exercised in the act by the one being baptized or by the baptizer. But because the believer was baptized into Christ, he was baptized into his death; hence it is true of him that he died to sin. On account of Jesus’ death Jesus has the authority to forgive his sin and to save him from guilt and form the power of his sinful will; for this reason baptism receives its content and importance from his death.

 

In order to explain the effect Paul expects from baptism, the preposition eis in baptisthēnai eis Christon eis ton thanaton autou is frequently filled with mystical sentiments. Here to be baptized “into him and into his death” occurs when the believer focuses his thinking and feeling intently upon Christ and approximates his death. Yet the new assertions cannot be severed from the first part of the letter, nor do they permit us to construe a relationship with Jesus other than established by faith. This faith is actualized by the whole person, in complete sobriety, in the broad daylight of consciousness. An element of mystery enters faith in Jesus, as well as baptism, because his divine work grants Jesus the power to shape the individual’s inner life. Paul always considered the one who associates his human life with those have been apprehended by his message and his bequest. The one who receives baptism focuses his thinking and volition on him and on his death; yet in him he also finds the one who shapes his innermost life, as the potter forms his clay (9:21, 23). By means of God’s creative power, Jesus turns his death into the death of his own. Paul’s final explanation in regard to this is that through Christ’s association with his own, they are moved by his Spirit (8:9). (Adolf Schlatter, Romans: The Righteousness of God [trans. Siegfried S. Schatzmann; Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1995], 136-37)

 

 

 

 

To Support this Blog:

 

Patreon

Paypal

Venmo

Amazon Wishlist

 

Blog Archive