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John Phillips received his Doctor of Ministry degree from Luther Rice Seminary. He served as assistant director of the Moody Correspondence School as well as director of the Emmaus Correspondence School, one of the world's largest Bible correspondence ministries. He also taught in the Moody Evening School and on Moody Broadcasting radio network. Now retired, Dr. Phillips remains active in his writing and preaching.
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Excerpted from Exploring Romans: An Expository Commentary by John Phillips. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications. Copyright 2002. Used with permission.
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1 Kenneth S. Wuest, Romans in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1955), pp. 96-97. Used by permission.
2 William R. Newell for example in Romans Verse by Verse strongly maintains that water baptism is in view in Romans 6. Those who practice the baptism of believers by immersion maintain that water baptism is "the outward expression of an inward experience." It typifies that which has already been done in the heart by the Holy Spirit. Baptism by immersion does indeed afford a striking illustration of the believer's death, burial and resurrection with Christ. First, the believer takes his stand in water — an element foreign to his nature and which spells death to him as a natural man. Then he is immersed in this element of death, put right out of sight, buried. Finally, he is brought up from this watery grave by the power of another's arm. Then he lives on, publicly identified with Christ through this act of obedience. Baptism thus complements the Lord's Table. The one ordinance sets forth the believer's death with Christ; the other sets forth Christ's death for the believer.
3 W. Sanday and A. C. Headlam, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Edinburgh: T. and T. Clark, 1911), p. 157.
4 C. I. Scofield, Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1909), p. 1198.
5 W. E. Vine, The Epistle to the Romans (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1948), p. 89.