When you respond to contextual data that opposes your position by making simple assertions without contextual based responses, you are doing the very same thing the opponents of the doctrines of grace do in their responses.
The contextual evidence condemns your assertions and just making more assertions does not justify your assertions.
I posted this earlier;
The reference to “baptism” is not literal, but must be taken figuratively. The Scriptures do not teach baptismal regeneration. The term “Baptism” was often used figuratively for identification with someone or thing (e.g., John the Baptist came to prepare or identify a people for the Messiah. Our Lord had to experience a “baptism” of suffering in Matt. 20:22–23; Mk. 10:38–39; Lk. 12:50, etc.). Here, of the believer’s union with Christ.
Water baptism is symbolic of this union as an act of identification with Christ, but does not and cannot effect it.
The term changes at this point to “corpse,” i.e.,
the believer is to reckon himself to be as it were a corpse (logi,zesqe e`autou.j Îei=naiÐ nekrou.j me.n th/| a`marti,a|) with respect to sin—wholly unresponsive to sin’s solicitations.
o[ti eivj u`pe.r pa,ntwn avpe,qanen( a;ra oi` pa,ntej avpe,qanon. “That if one died on behalf of [the] all, then [the] all died,” revealing the covenant and effectual nature of Christ’s death and the believer’s vital union in this transaction.
The Lord Jesus Christ is now exalted at the Father’s right hand as the Lord of glory in an entirely new and different relationship as the God–man (a death and resurrection have taken place); just so, there is a distinct, radical change for every believer—the old life with its significance has passed away, and all has become new by virtue of his union with Christ.
…Ihsou/ Cristou/( diV ouv evmoi. ko,smoj evstau,rwtai kavgw. ko,smw|Å “Crucified” (evstau,rwtai) perf. pass. 561 Positionally, the believer is already in heaven, i.e., as good as there already—because he is “in Christ”. This vital union is the basis of the believer’s assurance in the infallibility of the redemptive purpose.
The believer’s union with Christ necessarily evidences itself in Christian experience. Cf.
Rom. 6:1–23, despite some modern Dispensational teachers who hold that the believer’s position “in Christ” is merely objective and has no relation to the daily life.
Romans chapter six, more than any other passage, deals with practical implications and necessary expression of the believer’s union with Christ in the life and experience. The basis of the teaching in this chapter on the believer’s union with Christ is laid in 5:10, 12–21:
• Believers are saved by [in union with] the resurrection–life of our Lord (evn th/| zwh/| auvtou/).
• As every believer was once identified with or considered in union with Adam, so now every true believer is considered as identified with or in union with Christ.
• As the sin of Adam was imputed to the human race, and everyone inherited his sin–nature, so everyone in union with Christ has both an imputed righteousness [justification] and an imparted righteousness [sanctification].
• As sin reigned unto death in Adam, so grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, a converted life is the expression of the reality of the believer’s union with Christ.
His answer in this chapter is that the doctrine of grace does not lead to sin, but to holiness! mh. ge,noito May it never be! oi[tinej avpeqa,nomen th/| a`marti,a|/, such ones as we are (qual. pers. pron.) who died to sin, pw/j e;ti zh,somen evn auvth/|È How shall we live any longer in it?! Cf. aor. ajpeqavnomen “died.” (Every occ. of “dead” is aor., and should be so translated from v. 2–10). Every believer “died” to sin, but is not “dead” to sin. What is the difference?
The language refers to a past act, not to a present state. It is neither a present state of experience nor an experience to be sought. It is rather the reality of our union with Christ. Believers “died” to the reigning power of sin. Cf. Rom. 3:9, pa,ntaj u`fV a`marti,an ei=nai (“all under sin [‘s dominion] are [as a state of existence]”).
Sin possesses five great realities: guilt, penalty, pollution, power, and presence.
Salvation, if truly scriptural, must necessarily deliver from all the realities of sin!
Justification delivers from the guilt and penalty of sin,
sanctification delivers from the power and pollution of sin, and future glory will deliver from the very presence of sin.
Any teaching concerning salvation which is only partial in its deliverance from sin, is evidently both inadequate and false.
What exactly is the believer’s relation to sin if he “died to sin” and yet still sins?! The necessary distinction must be made between living in sin (under its dominating or reigning power) and committing acts of sin. The believer no longer lives under the reigning power of sin, but he still commits acts of sin (Cf. Rom. 6:15, a`marth,swmen and 1 Jn. 2:1, i[na mh. a`ma,rthte kai. eva,n tij a`ma,rth|… Both are aor., and so ref. to acts of sin). 223
