While arguing that the “baptism” in Rom 6 and Gal 3 is “spirit” baptism, not “water” baptism, note how Merrill F. Unger understands this baptism to be the instrumental means of being united to Christ and not a mere symbol thereof (like what a wedding ring is to being married):
Condemnation
is shown to be universal in its extent upon all in the old creation under
Adam’s federal headship (Ro 5:12-17). Similarly justification is declared to be
universal in its extent to all “in Christ” in the new creation (Ro 5:18).
Condemnation in the old creation in Adam entails judgment, which is due (Ro
5:16). Justification in the new creation in Christ secures the free gift of
eternal life, which is not due (Ro 5:16-17). Condemnation abounds in the old
creation in Adam (Ro 5:20). Justification superabounds in the new creation in
Christ (Ro 5:20).
By
this contrast of the sinner in the old creation and the saint in the new, the
apostle shows that the believer has been cut off and completely removed from
his former position under sin and condemnation “in Adam” by the baptizing work
of the Spirit and placed “in Christ” (Ro 6:3-4) in a new sphere of
justification and righteousness. “All details of his salvation spring from this
new position” (John F. Walvoord, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 156).
By
the term position is meant the sphere in which God sees the justified
sinner who believes on Christ. The Spirit of God takes the believing sinner out
of his lost estate in Adam at the moment of salvation and places him eternally
in Christ. In this new placement the Father views the justified believer in the
merits and perfections of His Son. He henceforth sees him always and only as
“accepted in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6), simply because he is in the
Beloved.
In
this new estate, the Father declares to every one of His sons—strictly by
virtue of their unchangeable and unforfeitable position in His only begotten
Son—what He declared to the after at His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). (Merrill F. Unger, The Baptism and Gifts
of the Holy Spirit [Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1974], 104)
Some
teachers correctly differentiate the baptism of Romans 6:3-4 from water
baptism. However, they unwarrantedly distinguish it from Spirit baptism, making
it a separate “baptism into death” in contrast to the Spirit’s baptizing work,
which is supposed to be a “baptism into life” (Ray C. Stedman, “On Baptism,” Our
Hope Magazine 59 [1952]: 298). But this differentiation is wholly
unnecessary. The Spirit first places the believer in the sphere of Christ’s
death that he might be the beneficiary of Christ’s glorious resurrection life.
Moreover, baptism into the body of Christ (1 Co 12:13) is an initiation into
the experiences of that body (Ro 6:3-4), which in turn are the experiences of Christ
Himself, the Head and Savour of the body (Eph 1:20-23; 5:23).
On
the other hand, because the glorious spiritual realities dealt with in Romans 6
are such as no ritual ceremony could possible effect, and because the truth of
identification with Christ must already have been an actuality in the
experience of the convert before the water ceremony could be administered, it
is quite evident that the ritual ordinance is no more under explicit
consideration in Romans 6:3-5 than in other key passages on Spirit baptism (1
Co 12:13; Col 2:10-12; Gal 3:27). (ibid., 106-7)
The
baptism of the Spirit is, accordingly, a “putting on Christ.” this means the
believer as a result of Spirit baptism is transported from the immature stage
of legalism into the adult stage of faith in Christ. In this position the
believer is clothed with Christ’s own standing and merit. He rejoices in
perfect acceptance by virtue of a finished redemption. No longer, as under the
Old Covenant, does he labor to be accepted by the performance of legal
minutiae. Nor does he fulfill certain conditions to obtain spiritual fullness,
except as that fullness resides wholly and completely in Christ and is received
solely by faith in Christ’s finished redemption.
The
very meaning of the baptism of the Spirit as the coming of age spirituality and
the liberation from legalism was being threatened by the legalizing teachers at
Galatia. The apostle in the Galatian epistle masterfully demonstrates that
“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law” by becoming “a curse for us
. . . that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith” (Gal
3:13-14). (ibid., 110-11)
