Baptism into Christ

Rev. Ronald Hanko

Rev. Hanko is a minister in the Protestant Reformed Churches in America and has authored a number of books, including (among others) the following: Doctrine According to Godliness: A Primer on Reformed Doctrine (2004), The Coming of Zion’s Redeemer: Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (2015). He was also the joint author of Saved by Grace: A Study of the Five Points of Calvinism (1995) and its accompanying study guide (all of which can be purchased at http://www.cprc.co.uk and http://www.rfpa.org).

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[Previous section: “Baptism with the Holy Spirit”]

One of the key Baptist arguments for immersion is the supposed correspondence between immersion and Christ’s burial and resurrection.  According to every Baptist writer, we go down into His death in the same way that the baptized person goes under the water and we come up again through His resurrection in the same way that a baptized person comes up again out of the water.  This is, however, a very superficial argument.

Romans 6:3-5

The key passage for Baptists who make this comparison between death, burial, resurrection and baptism is Romans 6:3-5, which speaks of being buried with Christ by baptism and of being baptized into Him.  This is, to a Baptist, indisputable proof of baptism by immersion.  The passage reads:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

The Baptist argument is that this burial by baptism is best pictured by immersion, since immersion is a going down into the water, just as burial is a going down under the earth.  Baptism by immersion, therefore, symbolizes this burial in a way that sprinkling cannot.  Further, that baptism ought to be by immersion, is indicated in the passage by the word “into.”  We ought, the Baptists say, be put into the water, not just have it sprinkled on us, to symbolize the fact that we are baptized into Christ.

      

This argument has a lot of appeal and is used also by paedobaptists who believe that immersion, along with sprinkling, is a legitimate biblical mode of baptism.  What seems to be proof for immersion vanishes, however, in the face of some careful study.

      

At issue, here, is the meaning of baptism which we have discussed previously.[1]  “Baptism,” as we have seen, does not mean “immersion,” but rather it means bringing two things into contact so that the condition of the one is changed by the other.  Thus, one can be baptized by a sword or by fire, as well as by water.  In Matthew 3:11, Jesus speaks of being baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost.  Does He mean that we are immersed in fire and in the Holy Ghost?

      

The point of this passage when it speaks of baptism is that we are brought into contact with the death, the burial and the resurrection of Christ, all of which change our condition.  That we are brought into contact with the death of Christ means that we are dead to sin and no longer alive to it.   That we are brought into contact with His burial means that His burial is the power by which our sins are left behind and destroyed.  That we are also brought into contact with His resurrection means that we are alive unto God.

      

The text, when it speaks of being baptized into Christ, is not saying that we are immersed in His death and then also in His resurrection.  That would be meaningless.  Nor is water baptism intended to be a picture of His going down into the earth, for His burial was not even of that sort.  That is what burial is to us, but to the Jews it was the laying of a body in a cave, something which immersion does not and cannot symbolize, as we shall explain more fully below.

      

This is confirmed by the fact that Romans 6:4 speaks literally of being buried by baptism into the death, that is, the death that atones for sin and frees the believer forever from the guilt of sin, and gains for him all the benefits of such freedom, including deliverance from the power and dominion of sin.  The point is not that the believer, in baptism, is symbolically immersed in death, but that he is united by baptism to the death that atones and delivers, and therefore cannot continue in sin.

      

What is even more important, however, is that Romans 6:4 indicates that baptism is not the actual burial with Christ, but the means by which we are buried, i.e., the “hands” that put us in the grave.  In other words, we are not buried in baptism or when we are baptized, but by baptism.  To put it as strongly as possible, even if burial, for the Jews, was a going under the earth, baptism would not be that burial, but the hands which accomplished that burial—that put the body in the grave.

      

What simplifies the matter in Romans 6 is that Scripture is talking there about the spiritual reality of baptism and not water baptism.  The water does not bury us into His death, but the spiritual reality does.  Let us note that!  If water baptism buries us with Him and plants us together in the likeness of His death, then what Rome teaches is correct—that the water of baptism has saving power.  Romans 6 must, therefore, be talking about the spiritual reality of baptism.  Nevertheless, there is and ought to be a correspondence between the spiritual reality and the water sign.  If the spiritual reality is that we are immersed in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, then the symbol should also be by immersion; but that, as we have seen, is meaningless.

      

Romans 6, however, also speaks of being planted together in the likeness of his death (v. 5) a reference which sounds at first to suggest the idea of immersion, in that planting involves putting a seed under the ground.  The fact is that the Greek word used here has no such connotations, but is a word which simply emphasizes again the idea of unity with Christ and means “to join, to unite, to become one” and could be better translated “ingrafted,” here in Romans 6:5.  It would then plainly emphasize the point that the Heidelberg Catechism makes, when it speaks of faith as an ingrafting into Christ: “Are all men then, as they perished in Adam, saved by Christ?  No; only those who are ingrafted into him, and receive all his benefits, by a true faith” (Q&A 20).

      

The point in Romans 6, therefore, is not that, by baptism, we are immersed in the death of Christ, but brought into contact with His death, as also with His burial and resurrection, all of which permanently and savingly change our condition from dead sinners to living and holy saints.

Colossians 2:11-12

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

This passage is similar to Romans 6 in that it speaks of being buried with Christ in baptism.  Here, too, the idea that burial is a picture of submersion would not have entered the minds of those to whom Paul was writing, for the Jews did not bury their dead underground in graves as we do, but placed them in caves or cisterns, such as the tomb in which Christ was buried.[2]  Burial with Christ in baptism, therefore, would not have suggested the idea of submersion, to the early church.  Nor does it mean we are submersed with Him or in Him, but rather that we are united to Him—that we are dead, buried and risen again with Him, sharing in His finished work.

      

Indeed, this is the main thought of the whole book of Colossians which speaks of Christ’s glory as the Head of the church (1:18), of our union with Him (v. 24) and of the fact that, in union with Him, we have all things and are complete, lacking nothing (2:10).  We even have circumcision in Him (v. 11)—something which these Gentile Christians needed to know, since there were those who were telling them they did not have it and needed it.

And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (1:18)

Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church. (1:24)

And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. (2:10)

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. (2:11)

“Buried with Christ in baptism,” therefore, does not mean “buried with Him in an immersion” but “buried” with Him through union with Him—and not only buried in union with Him, but risen again also (2:12), and victorious (2:15), and in no need of anything beside Him, whether philosophy and tradition (2:8), or the observance of days (2:16), or the worshipping of angels (2:18), or subjection to ordinances that require the neglect of the body (2:23).  Note the emphasis in these passages on union with Christ, and how beautifully the idea of baptism as union with Christ fits:         

Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. (2:12)

And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. (2:15)

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (2:8)

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. (2:16)

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. (2:18)

Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?  Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body: not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. (2:20-23)

Galatians 3:27

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

              

This third passage clinches the matter.  It defines baptism into Christ not as an immersion, but as the putting on a garment: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” That is the meaning of baptism—not immersion, but constant, living, vital contact with Christ, that can be described as a wearing of Christ and which forever changes anyone who does put Him on.  Through this putting on of Christ, the believer is justified (2:16), lives (2:20), is a blessed child of Abraham (3:9), is a child of God (4:7), stands in liberty (5:1), is lead of the Spirit (5:18); shows the fruits of the Spirit (5:22-23), crucifies the flesh (5:24), is crucified to the world (5:14), and is a new creature (5:15).

[Next section: “Acts 19:1-6 and Rebaptism”]

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FOOTNOTES:

1. See section #1 on “The Meaning of the Word ‘Baptism’”

2. Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. II, pp. 315-320.