Friday

Related Verses
Gal. 3:27
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Matt. 28:19
19 Go therefore and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

Acts 8:16
16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them, but they had only been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

Acts 19:5
5 And when they heard this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.

1 Cor. 1:13, 15
13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
15 That no one may say that you were baptized into my name.

Related Reading
The book of Matthew…ends with the command to baptize people into the Triune God and with the Lord’s promise that He will be with us all the days until the consummation of this age (28:19-20). These verses are profound and all-inclusive. We all must realize that we have been baptized into the Triune God…In Matthew 28:19 the Triune God is likened to the water of baptism. When we baptize people into water, this signifies that we put them into the Triune God.

Galatians 3:27…is a wonderful verse. It does not say, “baptized in Christ,” but, “baptized into Christ.” There is a great difference! We have not been baptized in Christ but into Christ…If you were baptized into Christ, you surely have put on Christ.

The same concept is expressed in Romans 6:3: “Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?” We have been baptized into Christ Jesus, and now we have Christ Jesus covering us. We have put on Christ. Is this a form or a ritual conducted according to a vain word? Absolutely not! This is a reality accomplished by the faithful word of the Lord. (CWWL, 1972, vol. 2, “The Kingdom,” pp. 170-171)

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In Galatians 3:26 Paul tells us that we “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Verse 27 opens with the word for, which connects these verses and indicates that verse 27 gives an explanation of how we are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. We are sons of God because we are in Christ, and we are in Christ because we have been baptized into Christ. Verse 27 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” To be baptized into Christ is the way to be in Christ. Based upon the fact that we have been baptized into Christ, we can say that we have put on Christ.

In verse 28 Paul continues, “There cannot be Jew nor Greek, there cannot be slave nor free man, there cannot be male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Here we see that we are one in Christ by His resurrection life and His divine nature to be the one new man, as mentioned in Ephesians 2:15. This new man is absolutely in Christ. There is no room for our natural being, our natural disposition, or our natural character. In this one new man Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11).

In Romans 6:3…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.

According to Matthew 28:19, the believers are baptized into the name of the Triune God, into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In 1 Corinthians 12:13 we see yet another aspect of baptism: “Also in one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free…” According to this verse, we have also been baptized into the Body.

In Ephesians 2:15-16 Paul says, “Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity by it.” In these verses we have the thought that all believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, have been reconciled to God in one Body and in Christ have been created into one new man. In Colossians 3:10-11 Paul says, “Have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” (Life-study of Galatians, pp. 175-176)

Further Reading: Life-study of Galatians, msg. 21