ὅσοι γὰρ εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε, Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε.
(Gal 3:27)
For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ. (NASB)
Michael
Green, while, as self-described “Evangelical Anglican” (p. ix) does not hold to
baptismal regeneration, in his following comments about Gal 3:27 is very-well
done vis-à-vis a believer being incorporated into Christ through the instrumentality of water baptism, as well as how water
baptism is to be looked upon as an objective
event in the life of a believer, as opposed to a merely subjective “conversion experience”:
Incorporation
into Christ
Baptism means incorporation into Christ (Gal.
3:27). The whole New Testament unites to stress, in defiance of Greek syntax!
For the phrase which constantly faces us in its pages is ‘baptism into Christ’
or ‘baptism into the name of Christ’ (the ‘name’ being, to the Hebrew mind, the
‘person’, the ‘character’, sometimes toe ‘ownership’ of the one named). So
baptism is a total commitment which brings us into the most intimate union with
Christ, rather as sexual intercourse does for a married couple. It is meant
both to symbolise that indivisible union, and to bring it about. Christ did all
that was necessary for us through his incarnation, his death, and his
resurrection. As a result we can be forgiven, indeed, justified ‘or made right’
with God: but only as we are incorporated in Christ, only as we are united with
the Righteous One. That is why the first half of Romans 5 can be so strong on
justification: Christ for us. But the
second half of that chapter is all about the new Adam, and our incorporation in
him: us in Christ. The two belong
together. Justification would be immoral and impossible if we were not taken up
and incorporated into Christ the Righteous One. And baptism is the rite of that
entry, the seal on that justification, as the beginning of Romans 6 makes so
clear. We are from henceforth ‘accepted in the Beloved’ (Eph. 1:6). This is a
marvellous thought. If we are incorporated by God himself into Christ, his
death, his resurrection, his victory, and his endless life, then we can never
be the same again. Even if our growth is stunted because of cold winds and poor
soul, we remain like branches in a tree. The power and the grace are still
there, waiting to be appropriated. He is faithful even though we are not
All of this underlines how important baptism
is. It cannot be thought of as an optional extra, which is how some modern
Christians seem to treat it; nor can it be repudiated altogether, as the
Quakers and Salvation Army do. To do this is not merely to disobey Christ, but
to pin all on faith, to give way to excessive subjectiveness, and to neglect
entering into the solid, objective event of salvation history which baptism denotes.
(Michel Green, Baptism: Its Purpose,
Practice and Power [London: Paternoster, 2006], 31-32, italics in original;
also note how Green refers to being made righteous, not merely declared such)
