While the text of Gal. 3:27-28 and 1
Cor. 12:13 speak of the believer being baptized into Christ, which appears to
refer to the body of Christ, the text of Rom. 6 goes further. In light of his
discussion of Adam and Christ, the progenitors of the old and the new humanity,
respectively, Paul writes that believers have been baptized into Christ’s death
(6:3), buried with him (6:4), and crucified with him (6:6). Thus in Romans the
believer’s incorporation into Christ is more explicit. When believers are
baptized into Christ, they are baptized into the historical event of his death
and thus can say that they have been crucified with and buried with him. This,
it seems to e, is Paul’s distinctive contribution to the church’s understanding
of baptism, a contribution indebted to his appreciation for Christ as the progenitor
of a new creation. Consequently, while Paul inherited a theology of baptism
that spoke of believers being baptized into Christ’s name and of being washed,
justified, and sanctified, his appreciation of Christ as a corporate person,
the new human being, led him to present baptism as an incorporation into the
saving mystery of Christ’s death, with a promise of future resurrection.
Colossians and Ephesians develop this
baptismal theology further. Colossians affirms that not only were believers
buried with Christ in their baptism, they were also “raised with him through
faith in the power of God” (Col. 2:12). Colossians, however, remains within the
orbit of Paul’s baptismal thought. For though it says that believers have been
raised with Christ (3:1), it also affirms that their life is still hidden in
Christ and that Christ is yet to be revealed (3:3-4). Ephesians goes further
and speaks of believers as not only being raised up with Christ but also being
seated with him in the heavenly places (2:6). Despite these strong statements,
neither Colossians nor Ephesians claims that the resurrection from the dead has
already occurred in baptism. Rather, developing a line of thought that Paul
begins in Rom. 6, they affirm that baptism is a participation in the salvific event
of Christ’s death and resurrection. In a way that believers will never fully
comprehend, their baptism units them with Christ’s unrepeatable death and resurrection.
This sacramental union with Christ is, for believers, the foundation of the
believer’s ethical life . . . (Frank J. Matera, Romans [Paideia
Commentaries on the New Testament; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2010], 160-61)
