For ye are ALL the children of God BY FAITH in Christ Jesus. For AS MANY of you [saved children of God] as HAVE BEEN baptized INTO Christ have PUT ON Christ. . . -- Gal. 3:26, 27

A good brother showed us a letter, which he had received from someone, who was upset with him regarding his application of Galatians 3:27 to water baptism.

The fellow's argument was that since strict Baptists teach that the book of Galatians and the book of the Corinthians were written to local churches, the passage could not read, "as many of you as have been baptized," for they were already water baptized members of the church.

He argued further that Paul would not have said "as many," he would have said whatever would have included all of them! The poor brother did not notice that the preceding verse said, "Ye are ALL the children of God," which would mean that ALL these children of God (according to him) might not have been mystically, invisibly baptized into Christ due to the words, "AS MANY OF YOU (children of God) as have been baptized into Christ."

A simple explanation would be that some of the believers were not all baptized or were awaiting water baptism and were receiving instruction to its meaning.

The Old Testament saints were baptized unto Moses (1 Cor. 10:2), but unlike the baptism of Galatians 3:27, only a single aspect, identification with Moses, was in view there, for no one ever was said to be IN Moses or baptized INTO Moses’ death.

There are, however, multiple aspects and perspectives involved in the baptism INTO Christ (Gal. 3:27; Rom. 6:3-5), in that the word INTO has a composite meaning of TOWARD or IN REFERENCE TO and WITHIN and involves a baptism which PORTRAYS both the IDENTIFICATION and the POSITION of a believer IN Christ. Romans 6:3-5 explains both this identification and position.

There is, however, no demand in either passage for a mystical, universal, invisible Christ or a mystical, universal, invisible bap- tism.

Not An Invisible Planting

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 . . . --Rom. 6:3-5

Not even the notable John R. Rice, who edited an interdenominational periodical and believed in a universal, mystical, invisible church and a universal, mystical, invisible baptism of all believers, would surrender Romans 6 to mystical baptism. He believed correctly that Romans 6 refers to a SYMBOLIC water baptism, which PORTRAYED the things mentioned there. And Harry Ironside viewed Romans 6 as WATER BAPTISM.*

Again, the mystically baptized, who did not see, hear, feel, or sense their mystical baptism (they were merely told that they were mystically baptized), have a problem. If ALL the children of God are truly mystically baptized into Christ upon conversion? How can the "US" refer to all Christians or to all the children of God. Why would it say, "SO MANY OF "US" as were baptized."

Romans 6 teaches baptismal identification with being IN CHRIST but goes on to teach being identified with His death and resurrection? How in the world could you get mystically baptized INTO DEATH or mystically PUT ON Christ??

Another problem in making the so-called "mystical baptism" synonymous and simultaneous with the new birth is that the new birth is a BIRTH NOT A DEATH! The baptism of Romans 6 is a DEATH.

How can the Holy Spirit be the BAPTIZER, when Jesus is the BAPTIZER (Matt. 3:11). The Holy Spirit is the ELEMENT and His life can never be synonymous with death as He has been always very much alive? How can the body of Christ be the ELEMENT, if He is the BAPTIZER? Does He baptize you into Himself (in contradiction to Matt. 3:11).

And then there is the fact that you are baptized WITH CHRIST into His death. Christ was baptized INTO HIS DEATH as he prophesied. We are baptized into that death symbolically, dueling prepositions notwithstanding.

If we allow the baptism of Romans 6 to be what it is, water baptism, and that baptism pictures the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and our identification with Him and pictures the entrance into His REPRESENTATIVE BODY, the LOCAL CHURCH BODY, we are consistent with the context.

It is a figurative PLANTING a figurative BURIAL and a figurative LIKENESS, simply a FIGURE. An invisible, mystical likeness would be a contradiction of terms, an oxymoron. But someone says, "There is no water mentioned in Romans 6!" How observant! Nevertheless, there is no Spirit mentioned in Romans 6 either.

And then there is the matter of symbolically PUTTING ON of Christ in WATER BAPTISM. You don’t mystically or invisibly PUT ON Christ. You do it visibly and publicly and SYMBOLICALLY to demonstrate your identification with Him and His death. You PUT ON the Christ UNIFORM.

HARRY IRONSIDE ON

ROMANS SIX

Harry Ironside, hardly a Brider, hardly a Landmarker, hardly a hard-nose local church only Baptist, and most definitely a Spirit baptism advocate and mystical body advocate, said in his "Lectures on Romans (1926) on page 76.

"Of this initiatory ordinance of Christianity speaks. Know ye not that so many of us have been baptized into (or unto) His death?" Israel were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." They passed through death in figure, and Moses was their new leader. Pharaoh's dominion was ended so far as they were concerned (1 Cor. 10). So we who are saved are now baptized unto, or into, the death of Christ. We have accepted his death as ours, knowing that He died in our place. We are baptized unto Him as the new leader."

"IS THIS SPIRIT BAPTISM? I think not. The Spirit does not baptize unto death, but into the one new Body. It is establishment into the mystical Christ. Our baptism with water is a baptism unto Christ's death." – Harry Ironside