Galatians 3 offers a very short, very to-the-point, two verse lesson on baptism; in which nearly every word is absolutely packed with germane information. Let’s read it.
Galatians 3:26-27
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Paul, in this letter to the Galatians, is writing once again about an event which happened in the past. He is reminding them about something… and what is that something? It is the Galatians’ baptisms. Let’s get some context.
The Judaizers
The Galatian church had been infiltrated by dangerous teachers and Paul is over-the-top ticked about it. No other letter in the New Testament demonstrates the Apostle’s wrath better than Galatians. These false brothers had persuaded some in the church to fall back into Old Testament rituals which depended on “works of the flesh,” namely, circumcision. These “Judaizers,” as they were called, taught people they must be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses in order to become Christians. Paul, in furious manner, declares, trying to obey the Old Testament Law for salvation, was of absolutely no value. In fact, he tells them, if you give into this teaching, your relationship with Christ is worthless.
Galatians 5:2
Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.
Back in Galatians 3, Paul spends a good amount of time explaining the Galatians must have faith in Christ, not circumcision. And, it is in this context, he makes his statement about baptism.
He tells them, “You are all sons of God…” This means they are saved. Their sins were already forgiven. They could not be “sons” if they had not been adopted into the family. He next explains exactly how that happened. “Through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Steps of Faith
The only way people become “sons of God” is through this thing Paul calls “faith.” But what kind of faith is this? Is this simple, intellectual belief or assent? Does the kind of faith Paul is talking about stop at mental cognition and agreement with the message of the Gospel? No. Faith is never faith until there is some kind of commitment or action which backs it up. Even the best Evangelical agrees with that statement. Let me show you.
In the Evangelical world, preachers present some kind of “final step of faith,” necessary to become a “son of God.” For example, they might ask people to make a decision to follow Jesus. Some churches teach that we simply and quietly need to accept Christ into our heart. That is their final step of faith. Some churches use “The Sinner’s Prayer” as the final step of faith. Some churches might ask people to raise their hand in the service or come forward during an alter call. Once the person completes that specific action… their “step of faith…” they are considered saved. A person would never be considered saved prior to their decision to trust Christ or whatever the presciribed step of faith might be. The goal is to get a person to make a commitment to Christ but the effort stops short of obedience in water baptism. Baptism is often tacked on later but not for anything related to salvation.
So, even in the denominational world, where human works are decried, we see that some step of faith is required before salvation. People are told they must “do” something in order to be saved. Now that’s pretty weird because nobody ever claims these man made traditional, so called acts of faith are works of man. We are told they are necessary acts of faith that lead to a relationship with Christ. Yet these same folks claim baptism is a human work even though baptism is discussed often in the scriptures. How can a command written in the scripture be a work of man but the Sinner’s Prayer is not?
Paul points the Galatians back to a different step of faith than the Evangelical world uses. He says…
“for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
There is something kind of cool hidden in this statement. Think about this phrase for a second. The statement “all of you who were baptized,” implies; there is also an unbaptized group of people listening to this letter too, doesn’t it? Certainly there were people visiting the Galatian church who had not yet been baptized. All of the ones who were baptized are “in Christ.” All of those who had not been baptized were not in Christ. Doesn’t that fact alone tell you something critical about water baptism? How does Paul tell us these people got “into” Christ? They were baptized into Christ.
Baptized into Christ
But then, he takes it even further…
“…all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
When they were baptized into Christ, they were also “clothed with Christ.” They put on Christ like a garment. If they were not baptized, they were not clothed. Hmm. This sounds strangely familiar! Where have we seen this before?
Matthew 22:11-13
“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
In this parable, Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven, a place we all want to be, to a great wedding banquet. Many people are invited to this awesome banquet and some folks will even try to get in without proper attire. By the way… there is a super strict dress code. We can’t get in dressed in whatever we want, even if it is the latest and greatest fashion. We must be dressed in the appropriate attire as required by the King. In our case du jour, the Galatians were clothed with Christ, the supreme and holiest of all garments! Do you think they will receive the King’s approval? I’m pretty sure they will.
Folks, the Bible provides no other way to cloth ourselves with Christ. We must be baptized into Christ in order to clothe ourselves with Christ.
The Objections to Water Baptism
A popular objection raised to deny this truth is to claim the baptism of Galatians 3 is exclusively a spiritual baptism, not a water baptism. The claim is made that only the Spirit baptizes people “into” Christ and only the Spirit “clothes” people with Christ. It is not something man can do for himself of have done to him.
I whole heartedly agree. Man surely can not do any of these things. That is exclusively the Spirit’s good pleasure.
Now a most important question: When does the Spirit do all of this? At what point along a conversion timeline does the Spirit baptize us, thereby cleansing our soul and sealing us with the promise of eternal life? Is it when we take that man made step of asking Jesus to come into our heart? No. Absolutely not. God only gives His Holy Spirit to those who obey him.
Acts 5:32 – We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
It happens when we take a particular Biblical step of obedient faith. It happens when we follow the Biblical Plan of Salvation by surrendering our old life of sin and die in the welcoming waters of baptism. When we make this Biblical decision to obey the Gospel, the floodgates open and the Spirit does His saving grace baptizing us into the body of Christ and clothing us with Christ. Remember, there is only one baptism but two things happen during that event. We are immersed in water by another disciple which is our Biblical act of faith at which time the Spirit baptizes us into Christ and the church. It’s one event with two things happening. This is why Paul can say in Ephesians 4:5, there is one baptism.
Think about it. Why would God offer a relationship with His son to a person who was unwilling to obey him? That makes no sense.
When someone argues that Galatians 3 is a spiritual baptism, there is a really interesting corner they paint themselves into. The reasoning is a little convoluted but follow along. It’s pretty amazing. Remember, we are dealing with two foundational claims in the argument. First, baptism is a work and second, this is a spiritual baptism not a water baptism.
If we go back and read all of Galatians 3, Paul is on quite a tirade about not depending on works of the Law for salvation. He even says in, Galatians 3:5, “All who rely on observing the law are under a curse…” That’s pretty strong language! Keep this important fact in mind as we reason this out.
The Flawed Syllogism
In this second claim, Baptism is deemed a human work. This is done so it can be equated with works of the Law which Paul is talking about; specifically, circumcision. If we equate baptism and circumcision, we next claim that water baptism is just as invalid as circumcision for salvation or works of the Law. You may recall our syllogism from A Faith that Obeys Podcast 012 – The Proponents…
We are not saved by works.
Baptism is a work.
Therefore, baptism doesn’t save you.
The first statement of the syllogism is true. The second one is false, so the conclusion is false. Baptism is not a work, it is commanded by God just as circumcision was. If you think about this further, under the Old Covenant, if you were not circumcised, you were not part of God’s kingdom. In this case, circumcision would be a lot like baptism!
Do you realize Paul never discusses works of merit in Galatians. Galatians is specifically about the Old Testament rituals and systems. The Old Testament law is a completely separate issue and has nothing to do with man’s tendency to employ works of merit to win God’s approval or favor. There are other places in the Bible which discuss works of merit as they relate to salvation but Galatians is not one of them. Galatians is exclusively about the Old Covenant Law being null and void. Do not make the mistake of jumping to conclusions and thinking Galatians is about human works of merit. It is not.
Split Reasoning
Now, here’s where this argument gets interesting. This reasoning reveals a very curious dilemma for our Evangelical friend. Listen closely. If we read this passage and claim “baptism is a work,” then we have just agreed; Galatians 3 is indeed about water baptism not spiritual baptism. This may be a little hard to see. Let me walk you through it.
Let me restate the argument. “Galatians 3 can not be about water baptism because baptism is a work therefore, it must be a spiritual baptism.”
On one hand, we claim Galatians 3 is talking about a Spiritual baptism and on the other hand, we claim that the baptism of Galatians 3 is a work because it is talking about water baptism. So, which baptism are we talking about, water or Spirit? We can’t argue that the baptism of Galatians 3 is water baptism and a work, then argue that the baptism we have been talking about is a spiritual baptism. Please pick one or the other.
We can’t claim the baptism is a spiritual baptism as a result of our conclusion that baptism is a work. There is no logic in that. There is no reasoning that leads to the conclusion of of this being a spiritual baptism because the conclusion is based on an opinion. This opinion is further challenged in light of the fact that water baptism in no place ever is even remotely considered a work of merit. it is always and only the only Biblical ordained response to the Gospel.
We wrongly conclude that since we believe water baptism is a work, this passage must be talking about a spiritual baptism. We build a conclusion based on something that is not true because baptism can’t be a work if it is a command.
At the conclusion of Paul’s polemic, he points the Galatians to their own baptisms in stark contrast to the Old Covenant works based method of justification he has just finished condemning. In doing this, Paul creates another serious problem for an anti-baptism proponent. Think about this. If water baptism is a work, why would Paul suddenly include water baptism as acceptable in his diatribe against works! That makes no sense. Paul has done a really great job of condemning works salvation then tells us that our baptism is where we were clothed with Christ. Clearly, Paul knows baptism is not a work?
Now some might say, “That’s right! Don’t you see it? Paul is fine with this type of baptism because it is a spiritual baptism, not a water baptism?”
Stop thinking that way. The baptism Paul is talking about is both. It is water and it is Spirit. One event two things happening. This is the only way to harmonize Paul’s later insistence that there is only one baptism. (Ephesians 4:5)
As I conclude, I have one more thought. Everyone agrees, faith is paramount and one must have faith. But, we must also recognize; it is possible for faith to be incomplete just, as James tells us in…
James 2:22
You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.
John says the same thing in…
1 John 2:5-6
But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
The Galatians faith and their actions were working together. They completed their faith when they were baptized. It’s no different for us today.
Have your faith and your actions worked together? Has your faith been made complete by anything you did? What was that thing? What was your final step of faith? What Gospel did you obey? When were you saved? If that thing was not the clothing of yourself with Christ in baptism, then do you really think you have had a saving Faith that Obeys?
Enjoy!
Dana Haynes