That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Eph 5:26)
Commenting on Paul’s theology of water baptism in this verse, Andrew T. Lincoln wrote:
ἵνα αὐτὴν ἁγιάσῃ καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι, “in order that he might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing in water through the word.” The writer now elaborates on the goal of Christ’s love for the Church in three ινα clauses. In the first one, the purpose of that love is seen as the Church’s sanctification. As Westcott (85) put it, “Christ loved the Church not because it was perfectly lovable, but in order to make it such.” Sanctification in the light of its OT cultic background involves a setting apart to effect a state and condition of moral purity. Through Christ’s death on their behalf, believers have been separated from the sinful world and transferred to the sphere of God’s holiness. The writer has repeatedly drawn attention to their aspect of the readers’ identity through his use of the term αγιος “holy” (cf. 1:1, 4, 15, 18; 2:19; 3:18; 4:12; 5:3). Sampley (“And the Two,” 42-43, 129) makes the interesting observation that in rabbinic literature the Hebrew term for “to sanctify,” קדשׁ, qādaš, can mean “to espouse a wife,” but this specific denotation is not the force of αγιαζειν, “to sanctify,” here, not likely to have been in the writer’s mind as a secondary allusion in terms of marital imagery.
Instead, sanctification is explained as a cleansing that takes place through washing with water. The action of the aorist participle, καθαρισας, “cleansing,” is best taken as coincident with that of the main verb, αγιαση, “sanctify”; hence the translation “cleansing” rather than “having cleansed.” The definite article (lit. “the washing in water”) may well indicate a specific event and the readers are scarcely likely to have been taken this as anything other than a reference to their experience of baptism. In 1 Cor 6:11 washing and sanctifying occur together as metaphors of salvation, with an allusion to baptism highly probable. But here, the explicit mention of water suggests not simply an extended metaphor for salvation (pace Barth, 691-99) but a direct reference to water baptism (cf. Acts 22:16; Heb 10:22), not to baptism by the Spirit (pace J.D.G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit [London: SCM, 1970], 163; Barth, 698). Sanctification and cleansing had also been lined with ritual washing at Qumran (cf. 1QS 3.4, 8-10; 1QH 11.10-12). Again, in line with the writer’s perspective in this passage, the church as a whole, and not merely individual believers, can be seen as having been sanctified through baptism as a washing. If Christ’s death is the point in history at which his love was demonstrated, baptism is the point at which the Church experiences Christ’s continuing purifying love for her as his bride. Indeed, the language of “the washing with water” is likely to have as a secondary connotation the notion of the bridal bath. This would reflect both Jewish marital customs with their prenuptial bath and the marital imagery of Ezek 16:8-14 which stands behind his passage. In Ezek 16:9 Yahweh, in entering his marriage covenant with Jerusalem, is said to have bathed her with water and washed off the blood from her. (Among those who support an allusion to the bridal bath here are Meyer, 295, 298, Abbot, 168-69; O. Casel, “Die Taufe als Brautbad der Kirche,” Jahrbuch für Liturgie und Wissenschaft 5 [1925] 144-47; Dunn, Baptism, 162-63; Bruce, Epistles, 387; Halter, Taufe, 282.)
The Church’s sanctification takes place not only through a cleansing involving a washing in water but also εν ρηματι, “through the word.” It is difficult to decide whether this phrase is meant to be taken as linked closely to the washing of water and related specifically to baptism, or as connected with the aorist participle καθαρισας, “cleansing” (this is more likely than a connection with αηιαση, “sanctify”; pace TEV; Meyer, 295; Cambier, Bib 47 [1966] 75; Schnakenburg, 255) and having instrumental force. If it is the former, as the majority of commentators hold, and is taken as signifying accompanying or attendant circumstances, then ρημα is best understood not as a reference to the baptismal formula pronounced over the candidate (cf. Abbott, 169; J.A. Robinson, 125, 206-7; Schlier, 257; Sampley, “And the Two,” 132; Gnilka, 282; Halter, Taufe, 284; Mussner, 158). This would have included a reference to the name of Christ (cf. Acts 2:38; Jas 2:7) and this to what had been achieved through him on behalf of believers. If “through the word” is to be taken more closely with “cleansing” then ρημα could have the more general sense of the gospel message (cf. also Meyer, 295; Batey, New Testament Nuptial Imagery, 28; Caird, Paul’s Letters, 89; Hendriksen, 252). This is the way the term is employed elsewhere in Ephesians in 6:17, where it is the preached word of the gospel that the Spirit uses as his sword (cf. also Rom 10:8, 1; Heb 6:5; 1 Pet 1:25). The writer would then be saying that, as well as being cleansed through baptism, the Church is cleansed through the purifying word of the gospel (cf. also John 15:3; 17:17 for notions of being cleansed and sanctified through the word). On either of these interpretations, this writer sees the Church’s cleansing from the moral pollution of sin being carried out not through baptism only but through baptism accompanied by the word which points to Christ. Sanctification takes place through both water and the word. (Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians [Word Biblical Commentary 42; Dallas: Word Books, Publishers, 1990], 375-76, emphasis added)