What
Paul is not saying is ‘you are sons of God because you believed/put on Christ
and that was then symbolised in baptism.’ Paul is not thinking, then, of
baptism as a testimony to faith. If that were the case, you would expect Paul
to have put it the other way around: ‘you are sons of God because, as many of
you as have believed/clothed yourselves with Christ, have been baptised.’ But
he doesn’t put it that way. Baptism comes before ‘clothing yourself with Christ’
by faith.
Nor
is simply Paul referring to a spiritual baptism rather than an actual physical
act. So, ‘you are sons of God because as many of you have been washed/baptised
by the Spirit have (in so doing) put on Christ.’ That view wouldn’t fit the
logic of Galatians. Paul is very careful in Galatians to show that the Holy Spirit
is the inheritance that comes through identification with Christ, rather than
the other way around—they are heirs of the Spirit through Christ (Gal. 3:7, 9,
14, 22, 29; 4:7). A person receives the Spirit because of identification by
faith with Christ and the deliverance from the law that comes through Him (esp.
Gal. 3:2). Again, that being the case, if Holy spirit baptism was meant it
would have to come second: ‘as many of you as have put on Christ, have been baptised
(by the Spirit).’ (Karl Deenick, Washed by God: The Story of Baptism [Ross-Shire,
Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, Inc., 2022], 128)