Buried with Christ, The Meaning of Baptism

” What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Focusing on verse 3-4, we looked at the theology of baptism, and the imagery of baptism and how that points to believers’ baptism by immersion as the normal biblical method of baptism. Paul has labored the point that baptism is about union with Christ and a death of the old self (that was in union with Adam). Baptism therefore is to be given to those who are truly in Christ, not those who you one day hope will be in Christ. This seems to be the pattern of baptism in the NT. When you see who is baptised in the NT you see people who have professed faith and been united to Christ. Of course this is an issue that good Christian’s have disagreed about, and we need to be careful not to rank this too high in our list of important doctrines that we disagree about. It is worth discussion because surely God cares how we conduct this sign and sacrament of baptism. But surely God doesn’t want us to be so divided that we cannot see authentic bible loving Christ exalting Christians on both sides.
The second issue to consider is the mode of baptism. Should it be done via full immersion or by sprinkling? Again this is not a crucial issue, but still a question worth asking, and I believe Rom 6:3-4 helps. The imagery doesn’t support the notion of sprinkling, but of immersion. Paul says “we were buried with Christ through baptism into death..” This is clearly indicating a baptism that is like a burial, like a grave. This indicates full immersion baptism in my opinion.
But finally, what are we to make of Paul’s language about being “baptised into Christ.” Is it truly in baptism that we are united to Christ? This has been the position of many, if not most Christians throughout the history of the church. I don’t believe that’s what Paul is saying. Rather, Paul is speaking of the sign as a way of talking about the things signified, without intended to say that what is signified is caused by the sign. An example of this is how we speak about wedding rings as a sign of being married. We might say “when I put on this ring I become her husband.” But of course we don’t mean that the ring itself actually caused the marriage.
While all of this is important, it isn’t as important as this question: Are you truly united to Christ? If you are, you should be baptised. If not, you must run to Him and put your faith in him and in so doing you can rest assured that you are safe and united to Him.