Paul very specifically links baptism to the death of Jesus. This is particularly clear in Romans 6:3–4, where the symbolism of the sacrament is linked to the believer’s transformation:
Romans 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Before we start, we must resist the polarization of seeing the sacrament as either nakedly symbolic or autonomously efficacious in itself. Both poles of interpretation are problematic in the reading of Paul’s theology. The former fails to take seriously the unqualified nature of the references to baptism in Paul and arguably imposes modern categories of symbolism onto ancient thought; the latter inadequately treats the apostle’s eschatological pneumatology and, consequently, runs the risk of ascribing a magical significance to the sacrament as a rite in itself. Against this, Paul appears to speak of the sacrament as functioning within the Spirit’s operation as a real event of union:
For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. (1 Cor 12:13)
The juxtaposition of Paul’s use of baptism imagery in Romans 6 with that of marriage in Romans 7 is suggestive of the significance of the rite: it is a ceremony of formalization, truly meaningful as an event within the context of the individual’s relationship of faith to Jesus. If we approach the rite with this in mind, it suggests a covenantal conceptuality. Once this is grasped, the ceremonial or formal identification of the believer with Jesus as the covenant representative who has died under the curse of the Law and risen to new life, is more readily comprehensible. The believer, in baptism, identifies him/herself as dead and risen under the terms of the covenant on account of the representative work of Jesus.
This specific link between baptism and the death/resurrection of Jesus emerges also in the clothing metaphor. The description in Gal 3:27 of those baptized into Christ being ‘clothed’ with him is reflective of the extent to which the believer’s identity is now defined by the personhood of Jesus. The statement is paired with a negation of other grounds of identity or status (‘there is no Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female’, 3:28) and with a declaration of unity in Christ (‘you are all one in Christ Jesus’).
This coordination of statements is paralleled elsewhere in Paul in relation to the body of Christ, requiring us to see these different images in Paul as essentially unified. It is also followed by a further statement (3:29) that associates baptism into Christ with filiation: ‘if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise’. The clothing metaphor here, then, is one that is intended to present believers as sharing in the identity of Christ as sons of God. It is subordinated to the imagery of adoption, but it is vital to note that the grounds of this is the categorically different sonship of Jesus: believers are baptized into him, and clothe themselves with what he is as constituent of his ownidentity. Their identity is derivative of his; his identity is sui generis. Paul’s manner of speaking of the derivation of Christian identity from Jesus cannot be accounted for in any christological configuration that neglects the categorical uniqueness of his relationship to God.
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