Correctly discerning the free gift of eternal life

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is the last verse in St. Paul's discussion of grace. It is most often quoted to invite people to pray a sinner's prayer and be saved. Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Romans 6 defines grace as God's aggressive forgiveness of sin. The phrase aggressive forgiveness helps us understand God as the initiator. Forgiveness comes at a high price, namely the reconciling, atoning death of Jesus. I cannot initiate eternal life with any amount of money or effort. Any life worth living must be lived in God's household on God's terms and from resources that God provides.

Paul clearly believes that God's household has a front door, called baptism. Some people come alone, others with their whole family. To understand verse 23, you have to read it through the prism of the middle of the chapter, say verses 3-9. Here is some of it....

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... You must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus.

With entry into the household come the lavish resources of God, including the free gift of eternal life.

The economy outside God's household resembles freedom. Each person has totally free will. So, if you spend your life distancing yourself from God, you will pay yourself what you request. We get to do whatever we please and earn the pension of death. On the other hand, as members of God's household we freely choose to consider ourselves dead to sin and thereby receive the pension of eternal life.

I don't believe in transactional baptism. Water is not a magic brew and "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" is not a magic incantation. I believe rather, in covenantal baptism by which something very real takes place in the context of a faith community. Baptism makes present God's "aggressive forgiveness" for the baptized and for witnesses. The other active ingredient is personal desire. If I want God's forgiveness, he freely grants it. Cooperation in the baptismal event signals my desire to God and so he releases his grace in my life.

You can establish a pre-baptismal relationship with God that is based on the baptismal covenant and rooted in God's promise to answer all who call on him. Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known (Jeremiah 33:3, NRSV). Among those "hidden things" are recovery and healing and abundant life (33:6). The baptismal covenant is between God and the community of those who trust him. An unbaptized person can enjoy covenantal blessings simply by association and alignment with the community of those who trust God in Christ. God answers those who call him.

But there is danger to be avoided here: That of reducing water baptism to a mere representation of an inward reality, which logically, would make the whole issue of baptism moot, because it would become optional. It would be correct to regard water baptism as an outward manifestation of certain spiritual realities. First, emancipation from the wages of sin. And secondly, reception into the eternal, committed community of Christ, each one walking in newness of life. This is key: The spiritual reality of forgiveness, community and new life demands an initiation. That is why Jesus mandated it. Therefore, no unbaptized Christ-follower should intentionally delay reception of baptism or consider it to be optional.