Galatians 3:26-27 “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
The first baptism that each believer experiences is their baptism into Christ Jesus. Every Christian partakes of this baptism, because everyone who accepts Jesus as Lord and is born-again is at that moment baptized into Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and so this baptism takes place by default as it were. When we are born-again we have no concept of what has actually transpired and it is only after we are taught as new believers, that we begin to understand what has actually taken place in our lives. One of the truths that we come to understand is that when we accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, that we in that instant were baptized into Christ. And so because this baptism is directly linked to our salvation it is obviously the most important of the three baptisms. Also, it must be noted that this particular baptism always takes place first, for the other two baptisms cannot take place unless one has been baptized into Christ. Once this baptism has taken place i.e. once one is born-again, then and only then, can the other two take place and as we will see later in this teaching, there is no particular order in scripture in which the other two baptisms are to take place. So what does it mean to be baptized into Christ? The concept of baptism was never taught under the Old Covenant. It was first introduced just before the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, when John the Baptist began to baptize the children of Israel. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the remission of the sins, in preparation for the coming Messiah. When John baptized the people he did it in the Jordan River and he fully immersed them in the river in the act of baptizing them, for that is what the term baptism means, it means to be fully immersed. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that every born-again believer has been baptized into Christ, which by definition therefore means that every believer has been fully immersed into Christ. Paul goes on in this passage to teach us that as believers that we have put on Christ. So what does that mean? The following analogy helps us to understand that concept. When someone puts on some item of clothing then those who look at them only see that item of clothing. In the case of our putting on Christ, because we have been fully immersed in Him, it means that we are completely covered with Christ. And so that which we have put on, which is Christ, is all that those around us can see. Obviously Paul is referring to our spirits when He says that we have put on Christ, for our bodies have not yet been redeemed.
Michael E.B. Maher
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