Sanctification Series: Sanctification and Identification with Jesus Christ

In Romans 6:3, 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Galatians 3:27, Paul is using the verb baptizo (βαπτίζω) in a figurative or metaphorical sense to denote the Holy Spirit causing the believer to be “identified” with Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. (NIV84)

Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (NIV84)

Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? (NIV84)

“Us…were baptized” is the first person plural aorist passive indicative conjugation of the verb baptizō (βαπτίζω), “to cause the believer to be identified with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

At the moment of justification, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This as we noted is called the baptism of the Spirit, which results in positional sanctification and the potential to experience sanctification in time and the guarantee of perfective sanctification at the resurrection of the church.

By positionally, I mean that God views the believer as crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.

He views the believer in relation to these events in His Son’s First Advent because at the moment of justification, the Holy Spirit placed them in union with Christ.

Also through the baptism of the Spirit He identified them with His Son in His crucifixion (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20), His death (Romans 6:2, 7-8; Colossians 2:20; 3:3), His burial (Romans 6:4; Colossians 2:12), His resurrection (Romans 6:5; Ephesians 2:6; Philippians 3:10-11; Colossians 2:12; 3:1) and His session (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1).

Therefore, in 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Galatians 3:27 and Romans 6:3, the verb baptizo (βαπτίζω) does not refer to water baptism but rather it refers to the act performed by the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit on behalf of those sinners who exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

This act places the believer in Jesus Christ in an eternal union with Jesus Christ and identifies them with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.

The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This identification with Jesus Christ in His spiritual and physical deaths is called in theology, “retroactive positional truth” meaning that when Christ died spiritually on the cross and then physically, God the Father considers and views the believer has having died spiritually and physically with Christ as well.

At the moment of justification, the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ in spiritual and physical deaths and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ’s spiritual and physical deaths.

In Romans 6:3, the noun thanatos (θάνατος), “death” refers not only to the unique voluntary substitutionary physical death of Jesus Christ on the cross but also His unique substitutionary spiritual death as well.

Often in the New Testament, when the word “death” is used for Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, the word contains the figure of speech called “heterosis of number,” which means that the singular form of a word is put for the plural form of the word.

The New Testament writers use this figure many times when referring to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross indicating that when they are speaking of this death, they are referring to both His spiritual and physical deaths on the cross.

This is indicated by the fact that the first Adam died first spiritually as a result of his disobedience in the Garden of Eden and then physically.

Therefore, the Last Adam, Jesus Christ had to die spiritually first and then physically to negate the fall of Adam and to reconcile the first Adam and his progeny, i.e. the human race to a holy God.

His spiritual death was “unique” in that He suffered spiritual death as a “sinless” human being whereas every member of the human race suffers spiritual death the moment they are born into the world.

His physical death was “unique” in that He died physically of His own volition.

The Lord Jesus Christ did “not” die from suffocation or exhaustion, nor did He bleed to death, or die of a broken heart but rather He died unlike any person in history, namely by His own volition according to John 10:18.

Our Lord’s spiritual death is recorded in Matthew 27:46.

Matthew 27:45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (NIV84)

Romans 6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (NIV84)

“Through baptism” is composed of the following: (1) preposition dia (διά), “through” (2) articular genitive neuter singular form of the noun baptisma (βάπτισμα).

The noun baptisma (βάπτισμα) does not appear in classical writings or the Septuagint and is unique to the New Testament.

The word means, “the identification of one thing with another resulting in a change.”

In Romans 6:4, the noun means that God the Holy Spirit places the church age believer in union with Christ at the moment of justification resulting in a permanent change of condition for the believer.

It does not refer to water baptism but rather it refers to the act performed by the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit on behalf of those sinners who exercise faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

This act places the believer in Jesus Christ in an eternal union with Jesus Christ and identifies them with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session.

The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit causes the believer to become identical and united with the Lord Jesus Christ and also ascribes to the believer the qualities and characteristics of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Understanding the nature of the baptism of the Spirit and its implications is so very important for the Christian to understand and apply to his own life.

The Father’s viewpoint of the believer is directly related to the baptism of the Spirit.

As we have noted the believer is identified with Christ in His crucifixion, His deaths, His burial, His resurrection and session. God views the believer as He views His Son in the sense that He looks at the believer as having been crucified with His Son, to have died and been buried with Him and raised and seated with Him at His right hand.

This is all the result of the work of the Spirit.

The believer’s responsibility is to appropriate by faith this fact!

Doing so, results in the believer experiencing his sanctification and deliverance from the sin nature, Satan and his cosmic system.

Ultimately, it leads to the glorification of the Father since if the believer appropriates by faith His position in Christ, he will manifest the character of Christ and to manifest the character of Christ is to glorify God.

To glorify God is to manifest His character.

No wonder the devil has done an enormous amount of work in this area to cloud and confuse Christendom’s knowledge of this truth.

My prayer for this study is that it will lead the Christian reader to further transformation into the image of Christ.