Dr. Rolex Cailing

Paul’s letter to the Romans presents one of the most searching descriptions of the Christian life:
participation in Christ’s own death and resurrection (Col 2:9–12; 1 John 3; 2 Pet 1:4). In
Romans 6, Paul grounds the transformed new life of the Christ-believer in a participation with
the crucified and risen Lord. And it is in baptism that this organic and mystical union with Christ
is experienced or enacted. Paul’s appeal to baptism points to a twofold connection between the
rite and the Christian life. Baptism initiates the believer into a life of union with Christ’s death
and resurrection, which has implications for how the baptized ought to behave in the present.
This behavior, characterized in some sense as a participation in Christ’s resurrection,
anticipates the future resurrection. For Paul there is almost nothing that can be predicated of
Christ that cannot also be predicated of the baptized. Take for instance Romans 6:5 and 8:

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the
likeness of his resurrection… But if we died with the Messiah, we believe that we shall live
with him. [KNT]

The future-tense verbs in these verses reflect the twofold connection we mentioned above: the
first future-tense verb points to a present life of holiness and the second expresses hope in the
future resurrection. This pattern reflects the conclusion to Paul’s argument in Romans 6:22–23.

However, to feel the force of Paul’s argument in Romans 6, it is essential to grasp his theology
of union with Christ. Given that the expression “in Christ,” or variations thereof, occurs 151
times in Paul’s writings, it seems clear that union with Christ is a major key to the Apostle’s
thought (“In Christ,” DPL, 436). Apart from union with Christ, there could be no salvation, for it is
exactly through the mystical oneness the Spirit effects between Christ and his people that
enables all the good that is in Christ to be enjoyed by those who trust and follow him. Campbell
is right to note that “union with Christ” is too narrow to encapsulate Paul’s full range of meaning;
hence, he employs a fourfold definition of “in Christ”: union, participation, identification, and
incorporation (Campbell, Paul and Union with Christ, 29).

While baptism cannot be separated from the other elements of conversion or initiation, there is
good reason Paul has chosen to highlight baptism to demonstrate the believers’ solidarity with
Christ in his death and burial. Those who submit to baptism have publicly identified themselves
with Christ, renouncing allegiance to the old idols that enslaved them and submitting to the life-
giving lordship of the exalted Christ. Just as Christ’s burial demonstrated the finality of his death
on the cross, so the believer’s baptism demonstrates the finality of his or her death to the reign
of sin. Therefore (to return to the argument of Romans 6), it is not possible for those who have
made the decisive break with sin, in Christ through baptism, to go on living under its thrall. The
gospel Paul is preaching is “the power of God” (1:17), a power that has real effect in the lives of
the redeemed: “The gospel that Paul preaches deals not merely with forgiveness but with
transformation” (Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, 38). The Christ-believer’s
participation in Christ’s death and resurrection (“dying and rising”) enables him or her to walk in
newness of life. May we take it fully seriously in our Christian lives as well as in our theology.

References

• Campbell, Constantine R. Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012.
• Hays, Richard B. The Moral Vision of the New Testament. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996.
• Schreiner, Thomas R. Romans. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 1998.
• KNT. Wright, N. T. The Kingdom New Testament: A Contemporary Translation. San Francisco: HarperOne, 2011.
• Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (DPL). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.