e.r.m.
Church of Christ
Did Paul give this as a purpose for baptism? You're inferring a stretch as Paul didn't state that.This is definitely metaphor. No one ver buries a dead body in water except at sea.:
Rom 6:4 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.
Further on down the chapter Paul goes on to speak about baptism
Romans 6:5-7 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. [6] For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--- [7] because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Just because he's not saying these things are physical, the spiritual reality still exists, the automatic default is not a commemoration. Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17. At some point these are true in ther own right and are not just pointing to something else, as it is in Romans 6.
But, are you then saying that no one in the Bible ever stated "explicitly" why to get baptized, and we are left no recourse but simply to guess as to what Romans 6:4 might mean?
I would find it a whopper that no one in the Bible would issue a black and white statement on why to get baptized in Jesus's name. That they would leave us to have to guess the purpose on our own.
It's much more likely that those who believe a certain way about baptism would do everything possible to avoid the scriptures that explicitly state its purpose, because they contradict said belief.
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