Baptism: Because St. Paul Says So

There aren’t too many passages where Paul speaks about baptism. However, in the passages where he does mention it, his theology is profound and worth unpacking. The two passages that we will look at, respectively, are 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Romans 6:3-4, 7, 17-18, the passage from Romans 6 being the clearest and strongest text.

1 Corinthians 12:13

Let’s start with 1 Corinthians 12:13, where Paul writes, “For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.” The “body” that Paul speaks of here is “the body of Christ.” The context involves Paul comparing the union of Christians in Christ to members of a physical body. He begins in verse 12: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.” Then, in verse 27, he identifies the body that all Christians make up with this body of Christ, saying, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individually parts of it.” Given that the “body” Paul speaks of in verse 13 refers to “Christ’s body,” and baptism incorporates us into that body, it follows that baptism incorporates us into the “body of Christ.”

The question, however, is whether by “body of Christ” Paul means simply the visible corporate body of believers, a common interpretation among some Protestants, or the mystical body of Christ, which is constituted by believers united via grace. The latter view is the Catholic view, which the Orthodox and others also hold. If Paul intends this view, then we have revelation of the salvific efficacy of baptism, since to be “in Christ” is not to be subject to condemnation, as Paul teaches in Romans 8:1 (“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”). We argue that Paul intends this latter view: Baptism incorporates us into the mystical body of Christ.

I think the key is the analogy of the body. Paul compares each member of Christ’s body, which refers to Christians, with each member of a physical body. Now, each member of a physical body doesn’t live with its own life. Rather, it lives with the life of the person whose body the member is a part of, such that if a member gets cut off from the body, it’s dead and no longer living with the life of the person. It’s this single life of the person, which flows through each member of his body, that unites all the members, such that one member can assist the others.

Given that Paul compares the union that Christians have with this sort of union, we can conclude that Paul envisions Christians living spiritually not with a life of their own, but with the life of the person whose body they are a part of—namely, Christ. There is a mystical union among Christians in Christ that Paul envisions here, a union established by God’s grace dwelling within each Christian.

Since baptism incorporates us into that mystical union in Christ, and that union in Christ is a state of salvation (being free from condemnation), it follows that baptism saves.

Romans 6:3-4, 7, 17-18

The next passage where we find Paul’s teaching on baptism is Romans 6:3-4, 7, and 17-18. Paul starts in verses 3-4, writing,

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

He goes on to articulate the effects of this baptismal death and resurrection:

We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin (vv. 6-7).

What’s interesting about this passage, as pointed out in Catholic circles by apologist Jimmy Akin, is that the original biblical text in Greek doesn’t say “freed from sin.” The Greek verb translated “freed” is dikaioō, which means “to put into a right relationship (with God); acquit, declare and treat as righteous This is the same verb Paul uses when he speaks of our justification by faith: “Since we are justified [Greek, dikaiōthentes] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). So the phrase “freed from sin” in Romans 6:7 can literally be translated “justified from sin.” And such justification is the peace that we have with God as Christians—to be in a right relationship with him, or to be saved.

Modern translations render verse 7 as “freed from sin” because the context is clearly about sanctification. For example, in the verse before Paul speaks of baptismal death, he speaks of those in Christ as having “died to sin.” As quoted above, Paul speaks of those who have died the death of baptism as “no longer enslaved to sin.”

In verses 17-18, Paul actually uses a form of the Greek word for “free” (eleutheroō) in relation to the freedom from sin that we receive in Christ:

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free [Greek, eleutherōthentes] from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Paul’s teaching about the freedom from sin through the baptismal death tells us that, for Paul, justification includes sanctification, which is the interior renewal of the soul whereby the objective guilt of sin is removed. And that justification, or salvation, takes place in baptism.

Now, the above verses (vv. 17-18) specifically also support the thesis that Paul sees the baptismal death as justifying us. Consider that the Greek word for “righteousness” is dikaiosunē, which is related to the verb (dikaioō) that Paul used above in verse 7. It’s also the word that Paul uses in Romans 4:2-5 when he describes Abraham’s justification by faith:

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness” [Greek, dikaiosunēn]. Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned as a gift but as his due. And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness [Greek, dikaiosunēn].

So for Paul, the state of being “slaves of righteousness” is a state of being justified, like Abraham. Since for Paul it’s the baptismal death and resurrection that bring about such a state of justification, it follows that Paul believed that baptism justifies us—that’s to say, it saves us. And if Paul believed it, then so should we.

As to the nature of this justification or salvation, we saw above in verse 7 that Paul identifies justification with sanctification, thereby excluding the idea that justification is merely a legal declaration by God. Verses 17-18 serve this same end.

Notice that in verses 17-18, Paul describes two states, both of which are preceded by and contrasted with the same state of slavery to sin. First, he speaks of becoming “obedient from the heart,” as opposed to being “slaves of sin.” Second, he speaks of “slaves of righteousness” who were “set free from sin”—which is to say his addressees went from being slaves of sin to being slaves of righteousness.

Given this “common denominator” of slavery to sin, it’s clear that Paul is describing in two different ways the same state that is opposite being a slave to sin. This being the case, Paul doesn’t see a hard divide between the state of “obedience from the heart” and the state of being “slaves of righteousness.” In fact, he conceives of them as one and the same.

Here’s where the understanding of interior righteousness (brought about through regeneration) comes into play. Consider that obedience to God (“obedience from the heart”) entails the mind and the will being rightly ordered to God’s will—being disposed to believe as true what he says and to do what he commands. That’s an interior state—a state that’s constitutive of our character.

It’s this interior state of the heart and mind, a state that God brings about within us by grace, that Paul identifies as the state of being “slaves of righteousness,” which, as we saw above, is a state of justification, like that of Abraham. Therefore, interior righteousness, or what the Council of Trent called the “justice within us,” is grounds for our justification at least to some extent.

So not only do we have evidence that Paul believed that baptism justifies us. He also believed that such justification is a spiritual renewal within us, freeing us from the slavery of sin. Put those two things together, and we have regeneration by water and Spirit, according to Paul.

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