In Romans 6:3 Paul says, “Are you ignorant that as many as have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” Here we see that when we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were also baptized into the death of Christ. On the one hand, we have been baptized into Christ’s person; on the other hand, we have been baptized into Christ’s death.
It is significant that in 6:3 Paul says that we have been baptized not into Christ’s resurrection but into His death. The resurrected Christ still bears in Himself the effectiveness of His death. Otherwise we could not be baptized into His death by being baptized into Him. The fact that we are baptized into Christ and into His death indicates that Christ and His death are one. The resurrection of Christ carries the element of His effective death. Thus, when a believer is baptized into Christ, he is spontaneously baptized into the death of Christ. It is impossible to separate Christ’s death from Christ Himself. The being of the resurrected Christ includes the element of His effective death. The effectiveness of Christ’s death is one of the ingredients of His all-inclusive being. Therefore, to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized into His death.
There is a tremendous difference between death in Adam and the death of Christ. We loathe death in Adam, but we appreciate the sweetness of Christ’s death. His death is dear and lovable, and we may abide restfully in it. How wonderful that a believer baptized into the all-inclusive Christ is also placed into the death of Christ! In the words of a hymn written by A. B. Simpson, “Oh! It is so sweet to die with Christ!” Rest and victory are found in Christ’s death.
In Romans 6:4a Paul goes on to say, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into death.” Here Paul introduces the thought of burial; he says that with Christ we have been buried through baptism into death. Which comes first, death or burial? In the natural realm, a person dies first and then is buried. But Paul’s word indicates that first we are buried and then enter into death. According to the New Testament, we, the believers, are buried into death. However, we are not buried into death directly; this takes place with Christ and through baptism.
Suppose a certain person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus. He should then be baptized into Christ. To baptize this new believer into Christ is to put him into the death of Christ. When he is baptized, he is actually buried. This burial results in death. This is what it means to be buried with Christ through baptism into death.
Every candidate for baptism is a person in the process of dying. Through baptism such a person is put to death. Having been identified with Christ and His death, he is immersed in water and is buried. Through baptism he enters into the actual experience of death with Christ.
The Christian life is a life of baptism. On the one hand, baptism has been accomplished; on the other hand, baptism continues until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. Hence, until this goal has been attained, we continue to live a life of baptism. This means that we are daily under the application of the death of Christ as we experience the effectiveness of His death, which is now one of the ingredients, the elements, in the all-inclusive Spirit. In our daily life we may experience the putting to death of the negative elements within us. This takes place not by doctrine or by a particular practice, but by the killing element in the death of Christ included in the all-inclusive Spirit.
The believers have also been baptized into the Body of Christ, into one organic entity with Christ as its life and constituent, to express Him. “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:13). As the Spirit is the sphere and element of our spiritual baptism and in such a Spirit we were all baptized into one organic entity, the Body of Christ, so we should all, regardless of our race, nationality, and social rank, be this one Body. Christ is the life and constituent of this Body, and the Spirit is the reality of Christ. It is in this one Spirit that we were all baptized into this one living Body to express Christ.
The believers in Christ are baptized through water and in the Spirit into Christ, the death of Christ, the name of the Triune God, and the Body of Christ. Baptism ushers the believers into an organic union with Christ and the Triune God, making them living members of the Body of Christ. All the gifts, as the manifestation of the Spirit distributed to the individual believers by the one Spirit (1 Cor. 12:4-11), are for the profit, the building up, of the Body of Christ.
To be baptized in the Spirit is to get into the Spirit and be lost in Him. To drink the Spirit is to take the Spirit in and have our being saturated with Him. By these two procedures we are mingled with the Spirit. To be baptized in the Spirit is the initiation of the mingling and is once for all. To drink the Spirit is the continuation and accomplishment of the mingling and is perpetual, forever.
Today certain believers talk a great deal about the baptism in the Spirit but not nearly as much about being baptized into the Body. The baptism of the Spirit is not for individuals; it is for the Body, which is an organic entity. We know from Matthew 28:19 and Galatians 3:27 that we have been baptized into the Triune God and into Christ. The Triune God and Christ are organic and living. From Romans 6:3 we know that we have been baptized not only into Christ but also into His death. Positively, we have been baptized into the Triune God and into Christ; negatively, we have been baptized into the death of Christ. This negative aspect of baptism clears away such negative things as sin, the flesh, the self, and the old creation. The ultimate issue of baptism is that we are put into the Body. We praise the Lord that we have been baptized into the organic entity of the Body of Christ for His expression.