Eph. 2:1-4; Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages of sin is death. How can water baptism or good works make a spiritually dead person alive?
DLC
The issue here we are discussing is baptism.
Good works can be discuss in another thread not this one.
I also like to note that in the previous verses of Roman 6:23 we see that in baptism we were baptized into his death.
Let me quote it:
Roman 6:1-5.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means no! How can we who died to sin live in it? Do you not
know that all of us have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glory of the Father, we too might walk in newess of life.
Baptism
saves because we received the Holy Spirit. It takes away original sin and all personal sin a person had committed.
We also now baptism saves because Scripture explicit says it does.
Baptism, which corresponds to this,
now saves you, not a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Chirst. - 1 Peter 3:21(RSV-2nd Edition Bible)
The different effects of Baptism are signified by the perceptible elements of the sacramental rite. Immersion in water symbolizes not only death and purification, but also regeneration and renewal. Thus the two principal effects are purification from sins and new birth in the Holy Spirit.
Yet certain
temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering, illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character, and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence, or metaphorically, “the tinder for sin” (fomes peccati); since concupiscence “
is left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ.” Indeed, "an athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte “a new creature,” an
adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature,"
member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
The
Most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of justification:
- enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues;
- giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
- allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.
Thus the whole organism of the Christian’s supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.
If Baptism wasn’t necessary then why did Jesus commanded his Apostles the following:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,** baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Sp**irit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" (Mt 28:19-20)
Baptism is the commanded by Jesus Christ himself. Do you say that we should ease from baptism, and not follow what Jesus said? Baptism is what makes us Christians. In baptism, we become incorporated into the Body of Christ, the Church, and Jesus as his Head.
