Dead and Raised

by Terry Wane Benton

Paul describes our pre-conversion state as “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1). We walked like others in the world, but we were spiritually dead toward God. But from our dead state, He “made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:5). We were “raised up together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:6). This passage tells us that this happened without telling us when this happened. A death and a resurrection occurred at some point when we were united “together with Christ.” We are told that it was by grace and that it was through faith (Ephesians 2:8), and later in the book, we are told that it was with the “washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). So, when was this coming “together with Christ” and this “washing with water by the word” and this “raised up together with Him?” We know that this happened from what is said in Ephesians 2, but other verses make it very clear as to when this happened.

Consider Romans 6. In Romans 6, we see that we were dead in sin and then died to sin, were “buried with Him in baptism,” and then were “raised together with Him.” This also tells us when the washing of water by the word took place. It tells us when we were joined together with Jesus. So, this identifies both the facts mentioned in Ephesians 2 and combines them with a more detailed when, which is when we unite with Jesus in baptism.

One is baptized into union with Jesus, which is done “through faith.” We are buried with Christ in baptism (Colossians 2:12) “through faith in the operation of God.” In other words, baptism is the moment we believe God will cut away our sins because He said so (Acts 2:38; 22:16). So, that is the moment we are united together with Christ and the moment by grace that we are “raised up together with Him.” So, Ephesians 2 gives the facts that we are dead and then raised together with Christ, and Romans 6 gives the details of when we are buried and raised up, and that “when” is in the moment of baptism.

This is precisely why Acts 2:38 puts remission of sins after baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. This is precisely why Paul, though praying for three days, was told, “Why are you waiting? Arise, and be baptized, washing away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16). In both of these cases it was by grace through faith with “the washing of water by the word.” This is when the 3000 and Saul were united with Christ (Romans 6:3-6). This is the moment they were “raised up together with Christ” because their sins were remitted by grace through faith. The 3000 were dead in sin and were raised with Christ when they “gladly received his word and were baptized” (Acts 2:38-41). Saul was dead in sin and was raised with Christ when he was baptized (Acts 22:16). That is precisely why he included himself in saying we were all baptized into one body (I Corinthians 12:13). Paul did not give all the details of when we were raised up together with Christ in Ephesians 2, perhaps because it was already understood in the “one baptism” he mentions in Ephesians 4:4 and the “washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26) that they recalled from Acts 19:6. Still, he certainly included the details in Romans 6. Here, we have the death, burial, and resurrection along with the moment of uniting together with Jesus, inclusive of baptism and certainly not exclusive of it, not before baptism and not without baptism, but burial with Him in baptism.

We must not wrest the Scriptures on this matter to our own destruction (II Peter 3:16).