Dakota Sorenson vs Jeremiah Nortier : Is Baptismal Regeneration True?

All right. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the gospel truth. I'm your host Marlon Wilson. And we have another great debate for you this evening. I usually don't do shows on sundays, man, but Decided to do one this so this week on sunday.

And so this is a great one. I pray that your time at church today. If you did make it to church today was a blessed one. And now this evening you get to enjoy another great debate. That's on the gospel truth.

I have jeremiah nortear and dakota sorenson with me and they are going to be debating Baptismal generation is it biblical and they're going to have a fantastic discussion? And so I know you're looking forward to it as I am as well.

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All right coming up next after this one I have tourism fan and dr. Kirk jarrus. They're going to be debating provisionism. Is it semi-pelagianism? All right, so this is going to be a fantastic debate first time topic on the gospel truth.

So i'm looking forward to this one and I pray that you are as well. After that we'll have michael favor and michael borowski. Does god predestine all things that is the question the premise of this debate and so this is coming up here in the near future.

So make sure you are glued in and locked in for this debate coming up. After that, I have cj cox and rick caldwell. Should we obey the law of moses? So if you're a guy who likes to dive into the law of moses and How god dealt with the laws in the old testament things like that.

This is debate for you. So make sure you are ready to go for this debate. Then after that have a couple newcomers. I have uh enrique and I think johnny mack. I believe these guys i'm not totally familiar with but they gave me a rundown of their theological positions and they're going to be debating Jesus is jesus eternally divine.

All right, so this is going to be a great debate. So I hope you're looking forward to it going to be an exciting one. As always i've been hitting this drum really hard. We're doing a media fund a fundraiser for media equipment.

Uh, we're trying to build funds to purchase media equipment to take on the road. Uh, so we'd have to rely on the venues rely on the venues, uh, uh audio visual, uh equipment. We want our own equipment.

So therefore we're asking for your assistance in these efforts. If you are so if god is pulling your heart to support the ministry. Make sure you look in the description of this live video and you'll see the fundraiser link click on that link.

And support the ministry if it is if god's put on your heart to do so. All right. All right, that's it. Uh, once again, we have jeremiah nortier and dakota sorenson. Uh, both of these guys have been on for for a while.

Um have been on before. Uh, if you remember the last time jeremiah nortier debated on the gospel truth. Was the live in person debate that he had that was the first live in person debate that the gospel truth is hosted and moderated and Jeremiah nortier was on that was one of the debaters there.

And so that was a outstanding time. Uh, I got to meet jeremiah obviously in person and uh, it was a great time fantastic time with pastor nathan. And jeremiah and so it was great meeting him and he was the first one to have a live debate for the god's truth.

And the dakota sorenson the last time he debated was I think a couple years ago. And his last debate I believe was christianity eschatology. And that was a great debate. And so both of you guys are aware of the god's truth and have been on before and they perform very well when they're on.

So i'm glad to have these guys back. What's up fellas? How y 'all doing?

Marlon, thanks for having me back.

Uh, no doubt. No doubt, man. What's up, dakota? Hello. Hi, uh, man, you got to get that energy up dakota, man.

A little bit.

I'm saving the energy for later. There you go. That's what i'm talking about.

You don't want to expand that energy too soon because I do know that this topic can be extremely passionate. So definitely I want you to have the energy to debate passionately in your position. So before we jump into this debate, I do want to give you guys time to introduce yourselves to the audience.

Tell them what you do blogs youtube channel, whatever it is. Let them know what you do so they can come check you out. All right, start with jeremiah. Go ahead. Give a quick introduction yourself, man.

Well, thank you again marlon for having me back on. It was an honor last year getting to fly you in from california to do a live in-person debate. That was awesome people. Please go check that out. It was a debate with the church of christ individual on baptism.

So my name is jeremiah nortier. I serve as a pastor and elder at 12 -5 church in jonesborough arkansas. That's northeast arkansas. And so you can look us up on the website. It's the the word 12 the number five church .com.

If you're anywhere in the area, please come check out our fellowship. We'd love to meet you in person um, I also run an apologetics ministry called the apologetic dog and so the reason why we chose that Me and my team and and counsel with my church family is the apologetic dog is a guard dog.

This is the christian guarding, uh, the gospel of grace. And so when you look up my youtube channel of the apologetic dog, you'll see first timothy 620 embedded in the logo and paul's saying Hey timothy guard the gospel guard the deposit entrusted to you avoid pagan philosophy.

And we contend for knowledge we stand on god's truth at every point in turn. So please go check out my youtube channel. I have a website the apologetic dog if you ever want to support the channel. Financially, um, you can go to the website and find many options there but I just want to also thank my church family that has allowed prepared for me time to be able to study and do debates for Contending for the faith.

And so I just want to give a shout out to my wife The babe of all babes ally nortier. She's watching the apologetic pup who is jj nortier and he's almost 10 months old. So love you, buddy, and I just want to give a shout out to adam carmichael to my left here.

And uh pastor nathan, uh that marlin got to meet uh last year when he came to jonesboro, so thanks so much.

All right. Thank you as well for coming on the gospel truth. All right, dakota. You're up man. Go ahead and give a quick introduction yourself.

Well, I just want to say thank you marlin for hosting and moderating this debate concerning one of the most important doctrines of christianity. And thank you jeremiah for coming on to debate me. Um, I appreciate it.

So my name is dakota sorenson. I'm 22 years old and recently married. For the past three years. I have been independently researching early christianity in the first few centuries after christ. I'm interested in the historical continuity between the time of the apostles and the post apostolic period and how By utilizing the writings of the early christians We can better understand the apostolic faith as well as weed out the false and heretical doctrines that have sprung up in the contemporary church.

Um.

So the best way to contact me is by my youtube channel or by my email which you can find on my youtube channel. And um, yeah, i'm looking forward to a great debate tonight. So go ahead marlin.

All right, all right, thank you for the segue and bringing me back here at dakota, I appreciate you buddy. Good stuff good stuff. All right, so we're going to jump into this debate. Let's not waste any more time.

The topic of this debate is is baptism regeneration biblical jeremiah. You're arguing the negative dakota. You are arguing the affirmative and we're going to start that with 15 minute open to statements.

Hey, i'm the negative.

I'm, just kidding.

Oh, oh, man. About to have me scared for a minute man. Now we're gonna start out opening with 15 minute openings. We're gonna fall out with five minute rebuttals. Then we'll have a 40 minute cross-ex both of you will have 20 minutes each to leave with questions after that.

We got five minute closings and then we have about 20 minute q a from the audience. Sounds good. Yes, sir. Yep. All right, dakota. You are arguing affirmative. So you are up first.

Go ahead get your slideshow ready. Open this up real fast. All right. Can you see this?

Yes, we can sir. Uh, let me get your time set up real quick and then I'll let you know when to go. All right, dakota you're good to go and i'll start your time as soon as you begin to speak. Oh one more thing don't forget about the little chime here.

That'll be your indication that you have one minute left in your presentation. So, uh, keep that in mind. All right, but you're ready to go as soon as you start speaking. I'll start your time.

The resolution for the debate is water baptism regenerates. I will take the affirmative. Baptism is the instrument or the means by which god confers his grace of regeneration and justification upon the faithful.

The benefits of our lord's death and the work he did to reconcile man to god is given through the water of baptism. Baptism is thus necessary as a condition for salvation and for entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

This teaching is commonly called baptismal regeneration. For my position. I only need to prove that jesus and the apostles ascribe a regenerative or saving power to baptism. The fact that baptism regenerates is why jesus says that people are made his disciples through baptism.

Matthew 28. If baptism does not regenerate why should it be mentioned here in the commission at all? Baptism alone is singled out and is distinguished from the category of all that I have commanded you.

The way the commission is worded suggests that baptism has a saving significance. This interpretation is confirmed by mark's version of the commission. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

This verse undoubtedly teaches that baptism is necessary for salvation. Some have pointed out. However that the negative part of the statement omits any reference to baptism. To this former cincinnati bible college and seminary professor jack cottrell responds.

There is no need to mention both faith and baptism in the negative clause since the efficacy of baptism presupposes the presence of faith. Peter says to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins acts 238.

The word for ice here retains its most common meaning of direction or motion towards something. Which includes the concepts of purpose and goal? The purpose or goal of baptism is the forgiveness of sins according to robert stein.

Although some have sought to interpret the expression for the forgiveness of your sins as in the hope of forgiveness or Because of your forgiveness it is best to interpret the expression as indicating the purpose of repentance baptism.

The greek construction is exactly the same as jesus statement in matthew 26 28 that he shed his blood for ice the forgiveness of sins. Namely for the purpose of bringing about forgiveness. Thus peter is saying in acts 238 that part of what a sinner must do to bring about forgiveness of his sins is to be baptized.

Acts 319 offers a parallel to acts 238. The identity of the first and third items suggests a certain equivalence between the second and fourth items. Repentance is the decision to turn and baptism is the turning around.

Which is followed by the removal of sins and the reception of the holy spirit. Peter writes in his first epistle. Eight persons were saved through water and Baptism which this prefigured now saves you through the resurrection of jesus christ first peter 3.

Cottrell explains. The flood is the preceding type or figure and baptism is the reality to which it points. Thus baptism is not the symbol, but the reality itself and that reality is the fact that baptism saves.

Peter is comparing the fact that the occupants of the ark were saved from physical death through water To the fact that the baptized are saved from spiritual death through water. As the water saved noah's family baptism now saves you.

Water is prominent in the context of first peter 321. The fact that this baptism involves water is what links it with the flood in the first place. One commentator admits. Interpretation of this verse has been plagued by protestant fear of finding in it a basis for the doctrine of baptismal regeneration.

The only other time the phrase through the resurrection of jesus christ is used in the new testament is in first peter 1 -3. He has caused us to be born again through the resurrection of jesus christ.

The parallel between first peter 1 -3 and first peter 321 Indicates that regeneration is connected to baptism. That's also why jesus says in john 3 -5 That one must be born of the water and the spirit to enter the kingdom of god.

A clear reference to the necessity of baptism. Many claim that jesus reference to water is a reference to our biological birth and the breaking of the amniotic sac and the fluid That's released. However, according to the baptist scholar d .a. carson There are no ancient sources that picture natural birth as from water.

And the few that use drops to stand for semen are rare and late. Others have argued that christian baptism must be excluded from john 3 -5 because it had not been instituted yet. However, jesus frequently taught about future events and future blessings without explaining them as such.

In fact the second part of the statement born of the spirit is itself a reference to the future. Since regeneration by the indwelling holy spirit was a blessing offered only after pentecost. Every christian writer who cited john 3 -5 before the council of nicaea Agreed that it referred to baptismal regeneration.

According to everett ferguson in his study of baptism in the first five centuries of church history. John 3 -5 is the most commonly used baptismal text in the second century. The language of born of the water was generally understood in the early church of baptism.

Ananias tells saul to be baptized and wash away your sins acts 22 16. The washing away of sins takes place in baptism. Denver seminary professor bruce demarist even admits that a superficial reading of acts 22 16 Might suggest that baptism affects regeneration.

He claims however that the washing away of sins is not associated with the baptism itself, but it clearly is. The free jewish historian josephus uses the same word for wash away Apolluo to describe the baptisms of the jews for ceremonial purification.

First corinthians 6 11 which describes how the corinthians were washed sanctified and justified. Uses the same word for wash that acts 22 16 connects with baptism. The three verbs are in the aorist tense referring to a singular occurrence.

This is precisely because a christian is washed sanctified and justified simultaneously in baptism. That's why acts teaches that people are baptized in the name of the lord. Acts 10 43 and first corinthians 6 11 likewise teach that forgiveness of sins is received in or through the name of the lord.

Thus baptism is the act done in the name of the lord through which sins are forgiven. In ephesians 4 baptism appears among the seven foundation unities of christianity. The inclusion of baptism in such a list testifies to its saving power.

In the same epistle paul refers to the church having been made holy and purified by the washing of water. Ephesians 5 26. The word for washing is lutron, which means washing or bath. It is a noun form of the verb luo which is used in acts 22 16 for baptism.

The idea that washing is used here Is precluded by the reference to water. It is the washing of water. The only washing of water in christian experience is baptism. The same word for washing is also used in titus 3 5 for the washing of regeneration.

The only two times that word for washing is used are in ephesians 5 26 in titus 3 5. Ephesians 5 26 uses the same word for washing and connects it with water because the washing of regeneration in titus 3 5 Comes through the water of baptism.

The methodist scholar laurence stuckey says that titus 3 5 uses language, which is undeniably baptismal. Ephesians 2 8 through 9 and its reference to being saved through faith is a baptismal allusion.

That's proven by the parallel passage in colossians 2. Ephesians 2 and colossians 2 are parallel texts that supplement one another and have to be read together for the total picture. Let's look at the context of ephesians 2 5 through 8 and colossians 2 12 through 13.

This will demonstrate without any doubt that ephesians 2 8 through 9 refers to the same thing as colossians 2 12 namely regeneration in baptism. The reformed scholar james white acknowledges that ephesians must be considered in the light of colossians.

Ephesians 2 5 refers to when we were dead in our trespasses. Colossians 2 13 says you who were dead in your trespasses. Ephesians 2 says that god made us alive together with christ. Colossians 2 13 says that god made you alive together with him.

Ephesians 2 6 refers to how in regeneration god raised us up with him. Colossians 2 12 says in baptism in which you were also raised with him. Ephesians 2 8 uses the words through faith when it says by grace you have been saved through faith.

Colossians 2 12 uses the same words through faith when it teaches that baptism is the means by which one is raised with christ through faith. The same words through faith are also used in galatians 3 26 through 27.

Where it connects putting on christ and becoming a son of god with receiving baptism. For in christ jesus you are of god through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into christ have put on christ.

The parallels between ephesians 2 and colossians 2 Demonstrate that paul is referring to the same thing in both passages. Namely the reception of regeneration and justification through faith and he teaches that this happens in baptism.

Baptismal regeneration goes back to the earliest period of church history. It's no secret that the entire early church believed in the necessity of baptism for salvation. Ferguson the new testament and early christian literature are virtually unanimous in ascribing a saving significance to baptism.

The following quotations are from writers who lived less than 100 years after the death of the apostles. The first century work shepherd of hermes describes how christians went down into the water and received the forgiveness of their former sins.

The epistle of barnabas says the prophets predicted of israel that they will not receive the baptism that brings forgiveness of sins. The second century apologist justin martyr says that only those who have been Cleansed by baptism for the forgiveness of their sins and for their regeneration.

May partake of the eucharist Nicholas of antioch says that we receive forgiveness of sins through the water in the bath of regeneration. Irenaeus the spiritual grandson of the apostle john says that just as naaman was cleansed of leprosy through water Christians are lepers in sin who are cleansed with baptismal water that makes them spiritually regenerated.

He also says that the power to baptize given to the apostles in matthew 28 19 was the power of regeneration into god. And at the end of the second century tertullian makes clear that without baptism salvation is attainable one.

My opponent is forced to conclude that within only a few decades of the apostles every important christian leader in the church Managed to come to the exact same error on the meaning of baptism. Ferguson responds.

It is Inconceivable that the whole christian world reversed its understanding Of the meaning of its central rite of conversion within 50 years of the lifetime of the apostles. Baptismal regeneration is a thoroughly scriptural teaching held by the majority of christians both in the early church and even today.

Cottrell writes. The understanding of baptism as the time when god bestows salvation Was the nearly unanimous view in christendom for nearly 1500 years. It was a consensus shared by the early church fathers catholic theology in the middle ages and martin luther To deny that baptism regenerates and conveys the forgiveness of sins is not only to reject the clear Repeated and overwhelming teaching of scripture.

But to pit yourself against the entire church believed from the beginning of christian history. Jesus and the apostles clearly taught that water baptism regenerates. Thank you.

All right. Thank you as well for that open statement. All right, jeremiah. You're in a seat now, buddy. And you got it for 15 minutes for your opening statement. I'll start your time as soon as you begin to speak.

All right. Thank you. Marlon. Thank you. Dakota. I really appreciated that opening statement and so something you said towards the end that really resonated with me is like We have to conclude that we are regenerated.

And necessarily justified you didn't say that term. But you're talking about the forgiveness of sins and the washing away of some type of maybe sin nature will get into this but the the act undergoing and you kept saying water baptism is the thing that essentially makes us right before god and regenerates us and so I I question that because.

The epistemology that I think everyone must hold to is a revelational epistemology. Meaning that god gives us truth according to his word and so it's no surprise I hold to what's called sola scriptura.

God's word is the thing that we hold most preeminent in our hearts in our mind. Jesus said father sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. And so how do I adjudicate? How do I know if baptismal?

Regeneration is true or biblical like our propositional question is we got to go to the word of god now. I do appreciate all the scriptures that you brought forth Dakota. And so this to me is going to be a battle of exegesis.

This is going to be a battle of context. And this is going to be a battle of definitions of words. And so we are called to be noble bereans. It's there's no way around it. It's it's all of scripture that equips us for godliness for reproof for doctrine correction all these things and so yes I'm allowed to uh question some of these early christians that held to.

Faith is what makes us right before god. And yes, I do see some inconsistencies. When somebody at the early church like john christendom or victorius? Mary, uh marianas, uh talks about the necessity of baptism, but it's faith alone that makes us right before god.

I'm saying okay, which one is it? And so I think one way we can approach this debate my time of My opening statement is talking about the ordo salutis. Okay, what do I mean? This is the order of salvation now, obviously God is transcendent.

He's eternal and so we can at another time talk about the doctrine of predestination and election many wonderful things. But the the salvation in terms of our experience. And so what I want to lay out to you very briefly is the order of salvation that is logical in its priority.

And I think many of these things will be temporally in our experience as well is number one is regeneration. This is a monergistic act of god through the holy spirit. Regenerating taking out that heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh.

And so number one is.

Regeneration.

And so I think also in this instantaneous miracle when someone comes to saving faith as a Result of the work of the holy spirit in their heart in their life is the doctrine of justification. Right. This is the this is a forensic term meaning that we are legally declared right before god.

Just as if I never sinned. Now the the doctrine of adoption kind of goes hand in hand with that and then flowing out of a believer is a justification. Which also results from their regeneration is the doctrine of sanctification.

Now this is huge because I believe regeneration is monergistic a work of god alone and we'll get into that and it's sanctification that is synergistic meaning that we Play a part in working out our salvation before the watching world and so.

This debate this evening. I believe dakota is conflating the doctrine of regeneration with Sanctification. Okay, we can't do that. These are two different terms. I mean that matters and yes. We need to talk about the context of john 3 first peter 3 21 acts 238 mark 16 16 Acts 22 16 we can go to all the proof texts and discuss context.

But we have to understand is this order of salvation? Regeneration justification. Sanctification and believers look forward to glorification that we will experience in the future. And so sanctification Is our faith being worked out and so this is all the works.

That we are called to do in obedience to what jesus has called us to remember the great commission that dakota read earlier. We are to obey all the things that god has commanded us to that's within discipleship.

That's with in Sanctification and guess what belongs in a believer's sanctification and not regeneration. It's baptism. Now, why do I say that because what we're going to see later is how do we define what the word works mean?

That is ergon or ergodzaman. Now when we go to bdag, I understand church history is important, but it's not infallible. God's word alone is the the bar the precipium of truth. And so what is the greek word ergon in ergodzama actually mean?

And so when we look at this greek word, it means an activity of any kind that is displayed in deed or in action. And so i'm going to press dakota for being consistent or providing his own definition. Tell me if you think uh, Maybe baptism is a different kind of work without the objection.

I often hear is well baptism is a work of god. And i'm like great. It sure is god's working all things together after the council of his will but my big question for dakota is a couple things. What is works give me a definition of that please in your rebuttal time or i'm going to ask you.

Um, and I also want to know is baptism a work of god only. Because if it's synergistic then we're working together with god guess what synergism awesome term for our sanctification. Not for our regeneration.

That is a work of god alone. And so Just to kind of touch on that again regeneration is a work of the spirit alone monergistic that results in a believer's justification. We now experience that transformed heart and life that looks to jesus and saving faith and flowing out of a believer's justification.

Is our Sanctification this is synergistic. This is all of our works. We participate in baptism. And so it's a work, uh that we participate in and so that's i'm going to also ask dakota is to define baptism.

Because if it's a ceremonial right then we participate in it. This is an act of faith and it is a work that we do. Problem is it just doesn't justify us and it doesn't go hand in hand with our regeneration.

And so with my eight minutes left I want to discuss some of these passages that uh, dakota brought up and I want to start with first peter 3 21. I I love this verse because context is everything and I do appreciate dakota trying to quote Verse 20 with 21.

I think that's important. But he totally missed the anti-type that's going on and we can appeal to all the the early church. Um, see what they said. That's fine. I'm going to question their exegesis as well.

So first peter 3 20 says because they formally did not obey when god's patience waited in the days of noah while the ark. Remember that please the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons including noah.

Remember that as well were brought safely through Water, okay, so we need to remember the ark. We need to remember the water and the eight persons. And so I asked the question what was salvific in that context?

It wasn't the water the water was judgment. Just go back to genesis 6 look at the old testament there and you can see That the the water was a judgment on all of mankind. Now certain translations like the king james says that they were saved by water.

Well saved in what sense because women are saved by childbearing, right? Their role is preserved in light of the fall through being obedient to the commandments of god in light of their justification.

And living in their sanctification. And so the point is the esv rightly understands that these eight persons were saved in spite Of the water they were saved through the water because the thing that was salvific.

Was the ark and so when we look in verse 21, what is the ark of our salvation? Is it our water baptism? I would offer no and peter is actually very clear with this verse. He says baptism question mark.

Immersed into what context and he tells us Not a removal of dirt from the body and so we back up baptism, which corresponds to this Now saves you. Okay, what baptism is going to be the ark of our salvation?

He says not the removal of dirt from the body. Well, that's a ceremonial bath and peter is saying that's not the baptism that now saves you it is an appeal to god for a good conscience through the resurrection jesus christ.

Jesus is the ark of our salvation earlier in this context. What is a good conscience? It's sanctifying the lord in your heart. That's what we give a defense for that is faith alone in the perfect savior alone.

And so this is a wonderful text saying the baptism now saves is being in christ by faith. And so that's that's important. Hopefully he wants to ask me more about that context. Like I said, we can go into many verses and I do want to touch on acts 22 16 and so as we begin to unpack this context.

We understand that ananias is conversing with the apostle paul. And so when we look at this verse, we have to read the whole context. So that's acts 22 16. And ananias says and now why do you wait to rise and be baptized and wash away your sins?

Jeremiah, how can you deny this? This is baptismal? Regeneration. I would say well, we we got to read the whole verse calling on his name. Okay. Well when we do exegesis and we apply the grammatical historical method of interpretation.

This is a narratival book right, these are Descriptions of the early church. Yes, of course, they're getting Baptized into water as a ceremony, but how did the apostle paul understand this verse? Well, he clearly tells us in romans 10 what it means to confess Jesus is lord or calling upon the name of the lord and you'll be saved.

That is how you have your sins washed away. Not just your past sins, but jesus is a perfect savior. God sees the entirety of your life and all of your sin gets imputed back to calvary. Completely washed remove as far as the east is from the west how by calling on the name of jesus.

That's what the argument of the apostle paul is in romans 10 and you do that by faith by believing In his name and so this isn't talking about the ceremony. An act of faith an act meaning a work that you participate in that's not what forgives him but ananias was being faithful to Preach the gospel here to the apostle paul.

He didn't know everything that happened on the road to damascus. He's being faithful to god saying look I have a sovereign calling in the apostle paul's life. This is going to be okay so he preached the gospel here, he's being faithful to the great commission and Nakota asked earlier, why would baptism be mentioned in the great commission?

It's because this is what sets us apart as disciples followers of jesus is declaring to the world in works that we do that we identify With him visibly for everyone to see and so a big distinction in this debate is Understanding the similarities and the dissimilarities of faith and works.

So we're going to be consistent. Faith is pistis in the greek. This is inward and of the heart. This is firm trust. You can look at a semantic domain faith is always inward of the heart trusting in the perfect savior.

That's essentially what hebrews 11 1 tells us that faith is assurance of things hoped for assurance is firm trust conviction of things not seen. And so conviction is that inward desire that will manifest itself outwardly With a changed life.

And so the point is faith is inward and works are everything outward that we do. And so a lot of these verses can be understood within Context and so something else like I said, we could go to i'm saving john 3 and titus 3 because we're going to spend more time on that but I want to draw our attention to the parallel between ephesians 2 and colossians 2.

Like um, dakota brought up earlier because I actually agree with him. There is a strong parallel going on when we read for by grace. You are saved through faith. This is not your own doing. It's a gift of god.

Not a result of works. Because you could boast about it. And so the apostle paul is clear there and that whole context is in the context of regeneration. You've been brought to newness of life and that's the powerful work of god and so in colossians 2 I do think this is about Regeneration, but I don't think paul is actually invoking the ceremonial act of baptism with human hands.

And so my remaining time here. I just want to look at The context of colossians 2 in him in christ. You also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands and so there's a correspondence there in verse 12 when he says you've been buried with him in christ in baptism.

This is important word, this is baptize moss. This is a little bit different than baptize. Oh baptize moss is hearkening back to that jewish context of ceremonial Washings what you have to understand.

This is not like the book of acts. This is a didactic book. So yes, there would have been uh believers that have already been baptized by ceremony and when they hear this word baptize moss. They would be understanding.

Okay. Paul is teaching us a theological reality a spiritual truth of how we have been United together with christ and this is not a ceremony with hands. He literally goes on to say that this is the powerful working of god.