Baptism for the Dead? (1 Corinthians 15)

1 Corinthians 15 and the Gospel of the Death, Burial, and Resurrection

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today we are going to be in 1st Corinthians chapter 15. 1st Corinthians 15 begins with Paul explaining the gospel.

He says that the gospel is the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He then continues to give a defense for the resurrection of Jesus because apparently there had been some in the Corinthian Church who were questioning whether or not people were actually raised from the dead.

And it could be that this was a holdover from some of the Sadducees. The Sadducees taught that there is no resurrection from the dead or that this was some other false teaching that had arisen within the Corinthian Church.

And the Apostle Paul says if the dead are not raised then Christ is not raised and if Christ be not raised that we are of all men to be pitied because we are teaching a lie and ultimately if Christ is not raised we are still lost in our sins.

And so that is the Apostle Paul's argument on the resurrection and he goes deep into that and then he moves on into some other areas regarding the subject of our looking forward to the day of our own resurrection.

He moves from talking about Christ's resurrection to the resurrection of all believers. And again this passage is so full, this chapter is just full, and I encourage when you read it today to read it multiple times and just seek to truly ingest what the Lord is teaching you in this passage.

Baptism for the Dead in 1 Corinthians 15:29

But one of the one of the sections of this passage that's often most controversial and most difficult to understand is when Paul mentions in one verse about baptism for the dead. Baptism for the dead is taken by some to mean that if you have an unbelieving family member who passes away that you can be baptized on their behalf and that that baptism would somehow be effectual for their salvation.

This is what is done in the Mormon Church. The Mormons take this passage to mean that you can be baptized on behalf of another person and therefore if you have Mormon family members there's a good chance that somebody's been baptized for you because they are concerned with your soul and that of course is a in a sense that that's a commendable thing that they would be concerned for your soul but it certainly is not commendable in the sense that it's not what the passage is teaching and it's not what God has commanded us to do.

There is nothing that I can do that can cause the salvation of someone else. There's nothing that I can do that can bring about someone else's eternal the change in their eternal state. That is a something that happens between them and God.

God must bring regeneration to the soul which causes faith and faith must be exercised in the Lord Jesus Christ individually. My children cannot be saved by my faith and my parents I cannot be saved by my parents faith faith and regeneration and salvation and even baptism are individual things that happen between the individual and God certainly baptism with the with the witness and the authority of the church but not certainly the church isn't causing the blessing that happens at baptism that is something between that person and God.

And so what does it mean to be baptized for the dead? Well last year when I was preaching through this passage I pointed out that sometimes when we understand a passage in light of a modern interpretation sometimes we get it wrong and baptism for the dead is often seen as the as the Mormon view that that people are being baptized on behalf of someone else and that they're basically being baptized to save someone else or to be to baptism by proxy but I don't think that that's what the Apostle has in mind here and I want to give an opportunity to consider a different understanding.

The word for can mean on behalf of but it can also mean because of and so when the Apostle Paul talks about being baptized for the dead he could be saying you're being baptized on behalf of someone who has died or that you're being baptized because of someone who has died and I do believe that that is the better understanding and here's here's how I would understand that passage.

If in the first century a person had watched someone else die for their faith that could inspire them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are countless examples of people who watched others be martyred and as a result of that martyrdom they themselves were encouraged to believe.

There's a story of of a group of Christians who were put out on a lake a frozen lake to freeze to death and the soldiers that were gathered around them were watching them die and they at any moment they could come off the lake and be saved but they would have to renounce Christ.

Well as the as the night moved on and it got colder and colder and the people began to freeze one of them did step and break rank from the Christians and he ran to the shore and he was welcomed by the soldiers and he got put near the fire and he was essentially saved his life but one of the soldiers who had been watching the conviction of the Christians decided that he himself would join them and so he dropped his armor he dropped his shield and he walked out onto the ice and he died having taken the place of the one who had renounced Christ.

Why did he do that? Well he did that because he saw in the Christians a resolve and a true spirituality that he had never experienced and by the grace of God God changed his heart right there and he was willing to go out and die for his faith.

So I look at this and I say okay if someone had died or rather if somebody had been baptized because they had seen someone else die for their faith then that this makes perfect sense in regard to what Paul is saying because Paul is saying if that person's not raised why be baptized in a sense because of them?

Why would their death encourage you to be baptized if all they are is dying and going into the ground? No, the reason why their death inspired you to be baptized was in fact because you believe they will be raised and if you believe they will be raised then you believe you yourself will be raised because you have sought the same faith that they have.

Ultimately I think this is the point. Baptism for the dead is not baptism on behalf of a dead person but baptism because of having seen someone die for their faith you were encouraged yourself to go and follow Christ in baptism.

Conclusion and Channel Sign-Off

So I hope this has helped clear up a rather difficult passage. I hope this has helped give you a better understanding of what I believe the Apostle is saying here and I do hope that these daily Bible studies are continuing to be an encouragement for you.

And so again I want to tell you my name is Keith and I thank you for watching. Thank you for joining me for your morning coffee and again I'm Keith and I'm a Calvinist. God bless you. Thank you for tuning in to Coffee with a Calvinist.

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