Q. The expression “baptized into Christ” is found in Rom. 6:3; also in Gal. 3:27. See also 1 Cor. 12:13, where the agency of the Holy Spirit in Baptism is clearly indicated. Is it not so?
CLERICUS.
A. The premises are unsound, and the conclusion an error. The Greek preposition means “unto” (or “to") as often as “into “: which depends on the context or on the nature of the case. Now baptism with water is clearly indicated in 1 Cor. 10:2 as a warning to the baptized at Corinth. Impossible to think the Israelites were baptized into Moses; and here therefore the A. and R. Vv. rightly say “unto”. The marginal note of the R. V: is a delusion, for the Greek means “to” no less than “into”. So in Acts 19:3 it is as in the A. V. “unto", not “into” as in the Revised. Baptism is the symbol of profession. Reality, depends on faith.; which might, or might not, be true of the baptized; as is certain from our Lord's words in Mark 16:16. To say “into” therefore goes beyond God's word and implies vital efficacy without and against scriptural warrant. This falls in with the self-importance of a caste (on which the truth frowns), and takes away efficacy from living faith in Christ (on which scripture insists). All have not faith. “He that disbelieveth shall be condemned” (the same sense as “damned” in the A. V.). Baptism will no more save him than dead faith. Baptism is “unto” or “to” only, not “into", even in Matt. 28:19. Compare 1 Cor. 1:13, 15.
But the Spirit's baptism is wholly distinct. It is the peculiar privilege of the church of God, and consequently never was till Pentecost and only is after men believe. See Gal. 4:6, Eph. 1:13. Hence on the church's birthday the apostle Peter told the convicted Jews to “Repent and be baptized”, and they “should receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”. It was a consequence for genuine faith, never a necessary accompaniment of the water. Indeed in Acts 10:44 we see the believers received that gift, attested by outward powers, before they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (ver. 48). So false is the ignorant and dangerous tradition which identifies the baptism of water and that of the Spirit. John 3:3-8 means no baptism at all.
Further, even the import of the sign in baptism with water is misunderstood generally. It is a sign not of life-giving, still less of the gift of the indwelling Spirit of God, but of death with Christ, as Rom. 6 and Col. 2 make plain. “We who died to sin, shall we any longer live therein? Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized unto Christ Jesus were baptized unto His death?” Baptism by or in virtue of the Spirit, as we see in 1 Cor. 12:13, is into (not “unto”) one body, Christ's body; because His work efficaciously unites. Water baptism does not go beyond profession, as in Gal. 3:27 and elsewhere, though we are responsible to be true. No one is true save he who believing has Christ as his life. But the baptism of the Spirit unites the believer to Christ as a member of His body, the church, in the truest and abiding sense.
He who is baptized thereby says he died with Christ to sin and put on Christ. Yet it is only “to” Christ he was baptized, as it may turn out to be without life and only an outward confession, however important it may be, and whatever the privilege. Baptism is to the objective truth of Christ dead and risen, to the remission of sins therein, to sin judged; and not the sign of our subjective state.