2. Baptism and
Christ
Baptism “in the name of Jesus” is distinguished from all other religious
ablutions by virtue of its relation to Christ. Believers are united with Christ
in his redemptive actions of death and resurrection, and so pass from the life
of the old age to the life of the new (see
Dying and Rising).
2.1. Putting on Christ. The relationship
between baptism and union with Christ is indicated not only through its
administration “in the name of Jesus” but also in Paul’s foundational baptismal
utterance, Galatians 3:26–27: “You are all children of God in Christ Jesus
through faith, for all you who were baptized to Christ clothed yourself with
Christ” (see Adoption, Sonship). The
statement is shaped by the discussion in the context as to who the children of
Abraham are, for the promise of God that he should inherit the world to come
was made to him and his descendants (Rom 4:16). To Jews the answer was plain:
they are Abraham’s descendants, and any who would be included with them must
receive the sign of the covenant (circumcision) and live in obedience to the
Law of Moses. Paul, on the contrary, maintained that the “offspring” of
Abraham, for whom the promise was intended, is Christ and all in union with
him. Hence the pertinence of Galatians 3:26: “In Christ Jesus you are all
God’s children through faith.” They are children not merely of Abraham, but of
God. For they are “in Christ,” the unique Son of God. This has come about
“through faith” (Gal 3:26), “for all you who were baptized to Christ clothed
yourself with Christ” (Gal 3:27).
We have already noticed the symbolism used in this passage. The imagery
of stripping off clothes and putting on fresh ones to indicate a transformation
of character is frequent in the OT (cf., e.g., Is 52:1; 61:10; Zech 1:1–5). The
symbolism was peculiarly apt for Christian baptism in apostolic times, since it
normally took place by immersion, and apparently often in nakedness. (That was
insisted on in Jewish proselyte baptism; when women were baptized the Rabbis
turned their backs on them while the women entered the water to their neck, and
the latter were questioned and gave answers; they had to have their hair loose,
to ensure that no part of their bodies was untouched by water. This feature
reappears in Hippolytus, The Apostolic
Tradition, c. a.d. 215. Cyril
of Jerusalem later remarked on the fitness of being baptized in nakedness, as
Jesus died on the cross in such a state.)
More important than the symbolism is the reality expressed through it:
the baptized “took off” their old life and “put on” Christ, thereby becoming one
with him, and so qualified to participate in life in the kingdom of God (see New Nature and Old Nature). The two
statements in Galatians 3:26 and 27 are complementary: verse 26 declares that
believers are God’s children “through faith,” and verse 27 associates entry
into God’s family upon union with Christ, and Christ sharing his sonship with
the baptized. It is an example of Paul’s linking faith and baptism in such a
way that the theological understanding of faith that turns to the Lord for
salvation, and of baptism wherein faith is declared, is one and the same.
2.2. Union with Christ in Death and
Resurrection. Because baptism signifies union with Christ,
Paul saw it as extending to union with
Christ in his redemptive actions, for the Christ who saves is forever the
once crucified and now risen redeemer. Such is the message in Paul’s exposition
of baptism in Romans 6:1–11 (for a survey of interpretation, see Wedderburn).
First, it should be observed that in this passage Paul was not primarily
giving a theological explanation of the nature of baptism, but expounding its
meaning for life. He is concerned to rebut the charge that the doctrine of
justification by faith logically encourages sin. Accordingly he urged that
“people like us who died to sin” could not still live in sin, for “death to
sin” is the meaning of our baptism. When we were “baptized to Christ Jesus” we
were “baptized to his death” (Rom 6:3, echoing Gal 3:27). That is the
consequence of becoming one with the Lord who died and rose for the conquest of
sin and death. Moreover, “we were buried with him by baptism to death.” Note
that Paul did not write, “we were buried like
him,” but “buried with him.” That is,
we were laid with him in his grave in Jerusalem! So, too, the death he died on
the cross was our death also. This entails a different way of looking at
Christ’s death for the world from what may be expected.
When we read in Romans 5 that Christ died for us while we were still
sinners, we think of Christ as our substitute.
Here, however, Paul speaks of Christ as our representative.
If he died on the cross as our representative, and that death was accepted,
then it was accepted as our death, so
that when he died, we died (see Death
of Christ). He was an effective representative! Taking that a step further,
united with him in his death for sin, we rise in him to live the resurrection
life. Through the faith expressed in baptism, what was done outside of us (extra nos) becomes effective faith
within us. In Christ we are the reconciled children of God.
But a further element is involved in this exposition of baptism. The
last two sentences echo Paul’s statement of the gospel in 2 Corinthians
5:14–15: “We are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died. And he
died for all that those who live might live … for him who died and was raised
for them.” “Those who live” are those who, having learned that Christ died as
their representative, thankfully trust him, confess their faith in baptism,
share his resurrection life and in gratitude have begun life in Christ to his
glory.
This aspect of baptism—the end of life without God and the beginning of
life with God—is explicitly stated in Colossians 2:11–12. Like the Galatians
passage, this rebuts an attempt to persuade Christians to submit to
circumcision, but adopts a different approach by emphasizing the needlessness
of the rite of Israel, for in Christ they have suffered a more drastic circumcision:
“In him (Christ) you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting
off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ.” Apparently, Paul depicts
Christ’s death as a circumcision; cutting off the foreskin of the male sex
organ is replaced by the tearing of Christ’s whole fleshly body, hence his
death. In him that happened to us; it happened in baptism understood as our
turning-to-God-in-faith. “When you were buried with him in baptism, you were
also raised with him.” This is not so much an advance on Paul’s teaching in
Romans 6 as a clarification of what he wrote there. The person who hears the
gospel, heeds it, believes it and confesses it in baptism, ends the old life
apart from God and begins life in the risen Christ. Colossians 2:12 makes the
point: “buried with him in baptism … you were raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from
the dead.” Any effectiveness in baptism is due to the power of God
operative “through faith.” Clearly Paul is talking about conversion-baptism, a
baptism that embodies both the gospel and the convert’s response to it. Some
find Paul’s use of “sealing” (in 2 Cor 1:21) to include the latter element, as
God certifies his acceptance of the human response.
Yet a third feature is inherent in baptism as Paul expounds it in Romans
6. The baptism which sets forth believers’ identification with Christ in his
death and resurrection, and the end of life apart from God for life in Christ,
calls for renunciation of life unfit for the new age. Romans 6:4, when stripped
of its parenthetical clause in the middle, reads, “We were buried with him by
baptism for death … that we might walk in
newness of life.” Paul thereby gives the reason the Christian can never
willfully “sin that grace may abound;” in Christ’s death believers died to sin,
in Christ’s resurrection they rose, henceforth to live for God who redeemed
them in Christ (so 2 Cor 5:15).
(George R. Beasley-Murray,
"Baptism," in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. Gerald
F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, and Daniel G. Reid [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity
Press, 1993], 61-63)
