성경 주석서

Know ye not (ἀγνοεῖτε)

The expression is stronger: are ye ignorant. So Rev. The indicative mood presupposes an acquaintance with the moral nature of baptism, and a consequent absurdity in the idea of persisting in sin.

So many as (ὅσοι)

Rev., all we who. Put differently from we that (οἵτινες, Romans 6:2) as not characterizing but designating all collectively.

Baptized into (εἶς)

See on Matthew 28:19. The preposition. denotes inward union, participation; not in order to bring about the union, for that has been effected. Compare 1 Corinthians 12:12, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 1 Corinthians 12:27.

Into His death

As He died to sin, so we die to sin, just as if we were literally members of His body. Godet gives an anecdote related by a missionary who was questioning a converted Bechuana on Colossians 3:3. The convert said: "Soon I shall be dead, and they will bury me in my field. My flocks will come to pasture above me. But I shall no longer hear them, and I shall not come forth from my tomb to take them and carry them with me to the sepulchre. They will be strange to me, as I to them. Such is the image of my life in the midst of the world since I believed in Christ."

Were baptized into Christ (εβαπτισθημεν εις Χριστον). First aorist passive indicative of βαπτιζω. Better, "were baptized unto Christ or in Christ." The translation "into" makes Paul say that the union with Christ was brought to pass by means of baptism, which is not his idea, for Paul was not a sacramentarian. Εις is at bottom the same word as εν. Baptism is the public proclamation of one's inward spiritual relation to Christ attained before the baptism. See on Galatians 3:27 where it is like putting on an outward garment or uniform. Into his death (εις τον θανατον αυτου). So here "unto his death," "in relation to his death," which relation Paul proceeds to explain by the symbolism of the ordinance.

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Romans 6:3. But this death to sin, on which the whole argument turns, raises a question. It is introduced here quite abruptly; there has been no mention of it hitherto. When, it may be asked, did this all-important death take place? The answer is: It is involved in baptism. ἤ ἀγνοεῖτε ὅτι κ.τ.λ.: the only alternative to accepting this argument is to confess ignorance of the meaning of the rite in which they had been received into the Church. ὄσοι ἐβαπτίσθημεν: we all, who were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into His death. The ὅσοι is not partitive but distributive: there is no argument in the passage at all, unless all Christians were baptised. The expression βαπτισθῆναι εἰς Χριστὸν does not necessarily mean to be baptised into Christ; it may only mean to be baptised Christward, i.e., with Christ in view as the object of faith. Cf. 1 Corinthians 10:2, and the expression βαπτισθῆναι εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ. In the same way βαπτισθῆναι εἰς τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ might certainly mean to be baptised with Christ’s death in view as the object of faith. This is the interpretation of Lipsius. But it falls short of the argumentative requirements of the passage, which demand the idea of an actual union to, or incorporation in, Christ. This is more than Lipsius means, but it does not exclude what he means. The baptism in which we are united to Christ and to His death is one in which we confess our faith, looking to Him and His death. To say that faith justifies but baptism regenerates, breaking the Christian life into two unrelated pieces, as Weiss does—one spiritual and the other magical—is to throw away the Apostle’s case. His whole point is that no such division can be made. Unless there is a necessary connection between justification by faith and the new life, Paul fails to prove that faith establishes the law. The real argument which unites chaps. 3, 4 and 5 to chaps. 6, 7 and 8, and repels the charge of antinomianism, is this: justifying faith, looking to Christ and His death, really unites us to Him who died and rose again, as the symbolism of baptism shows to every Christian.

Romans 6:3. Ἢ] or, if this (Romans 6:2) should still appear doubtful. See Hartung, Partikell. II. p. 61; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 132. Comp Romans 7:1.

ἀγνοεῖτε] presupposes an acquaintance with the moral nature of baptism; it must in fact have been an experimental acquaintance. With this knowledge, how absurd would be that ζήσομεν ἐν αὐτῇ! Comp 1 Corinthians 6:2.

ὅσοι] all we who, not stronger than οἵτινες, but put differently; not characterising, but designating the whole collectively.

ἐβαπτίσθημεν εἰς Χ. ʼΙ. εἰς τὸν θάν. κ.τ.λ[1387]] we, who were baptized in reference to Christ Jesus[1388] (we who through baptism became those specifically belonging to Him), were baptized in reference to His death; i.e. we were brought through our baptism into the fellowship of His death; so that we have a real share ethically in His death, through the cessation of all our life for sin. Theodore of Mopsuestia: τὸ βάπτισμα κοινωνοὺς ποιεῖ τοῦ θανάτου τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Ambrosiaster: “cum baptizamur, commorimur Christo;” Bengel: “perinde est, ac si eo momento Christus pro tali homine, et talis homo pro Christo pateretur, moreretur, sepeliretur.” This interpretation, namely of the spiritual fellowship produced through baptism (prepared for by the repentance and πίστις that preceded baptism, accomplished by the baptism itself, Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:11 f.; Titus 3:5), is required by the context in Romans 6:2 (ἈΠΕΘΆΝΟΜΕΝ), Romans 6:4 (ΣΥΝΕΤΆΦΗΜΕΝ), and Romans 6:5 f. It is therefore not the idea of imitation (Reiche, Köllner, following Grotius and others), but that of the dying along with (συσταυροῦσθαι, Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; comp 2 Corinthians 5:14) unto which, i.e. in order to the accomplishment of which in us, we were baptized. The efficient cause of this fellowship of death is the divine grace, which forgives sin and grants the Holy Spirit to him who becomes baptized; the means of this grace is baptism itself; the appropriating cause is faith, and the causa meritoria the death of Christ.[1390] Observe here also, however, that the spheres of justification and sanctification are not intermixed. The justified person becomes sanctified, not the converse. In baptism man receives forgiveness of sins through faith (comp Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16); justified by which he also becomes partaker of the virtue of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament unto new life (Titus 3:5). “Liberationem a reatu peccati vel justificationem consequitur liberatio a dominio peccati, ut justificati non vivant peccato, sed peccato mortui Domino,” Calovius. Compare ἀπελούσασθε, ἡγιάσθητε 1 Corinthians 6:11, and the remarks thereon. The latter is the fellowship in dying and living with Christ, which is accomplished in baptism by the operation of the Spirit; see on Galatians 3:27; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Acts 19:2 f.; Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 345 f. But it is of course obvious that the idea of the baptism of children was wholly foreign to this view of the Apostle based on experience.

[1387] .τ.λ. καὶ τὰ λοιπά.

[1388] Βαπτίζειν εἰς never means anything else than to baptize in reference to, in respect to; and the more special definitions of its import are furnished simply by the context. Comp. on Matthew 28:19; 1 Corinthians 10:2; Galatians 3:27.—On εἰς Χ. Ἰησοῦν comp. Acts 2:38; Acts 8:16; Acts 19:5. Undoubtedly the name “Jesus” was named in baptizing. But the conception of becoming immersed into Christ (in Rückert and others, and again in Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 343) is to be set aside, and is not to be supported by the figurative expression in Galatians 3:27. The mystic character of our passage is not produced by so vague a sensuous conception,—which moreover has all the passages against it in which βαπτίζειν is coupled with ὄνομα (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 10:48; Acts 19:5; 1 Corinthians 1:13)—but is based simply on the ethical consciousness of that intimate appertaining to Christ, into which baptism translates its recipients.

[1390] Namely as the atoning death (v. 6, 19, 21), the appropriation of which shall be attended with the saving effect of a new life belonging to Him, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. If this death thus becomes “the end, once for all existent, of the relation of the world to God as determined by sin” (Hofmann), that is the divinely willed ethical result, which faith obtains from the ἱλαστήριον, inasmuch as the believer realises his being dead to the power of sin with Christ, who in His expiatory death underwent the killing power of sin and therewith died to that power (vv. 9, 10). Comp. ver. 10 f.

Romans 6:3-4. Know ye not — Can any of you be ignorant of this great and obvious truth, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ — That is, into the profession of the Christian faith; or implanted into and made a part of the mystical body of Christ by baptism, (as εις Χριστον seems to imply,) were baptized into his death — Engaged by baptism to be conformed to his death, by dying to sin, as he died for it, and crucifying our flesh with its affections and lusts, as his body was crucified on the cross; and also were made partakers of the benefits thereof, one of which is the mortifying of sin, and all sinful passions. Being baptized into Christ, or ingrafted into him through faith, we draw new spiritual life from this new root, through his Spirit, who fashions us like unto him, and particularly with regard to his death and resurrection. Therefore we are buried with him — Alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion; by baptism into death — That is, to engage us to die unto sin, and to carry on the mortification and death of it more and more: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory — That is, the glorious power; of the Father, even so we also — In conformity thereto, should rise again by the same power; and should walk in newness of life — As Christ being raised from the dead lives a new life in heaven. From all this it appears, that baptism, the rite of initiation into the Christian Church, is an emblematical representation of our dying to sin, and living to righteousness, in consequence of our union with Christ as members of his body; as also of the malignity of sin, in bringing death upon Christ, (Romans 6:10,) and upon all mankind, and of the efficacy of Christ’s death, in procuring for all pardoning mercy, renewing grace, and future glory; a resurrection both from spiritual and temporal death, to spiritual and eternal life.

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Baptized into his death — Hoc est baptizari pro mortuis, saith Beza, to be buried with Christ in baptism, Colossians 2:12 , in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, Romans 6:11 .

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Romans 6:3

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? In this and the following verse, we have something more in the form of argument in answer to the objection in question. The apostle reminds his readers, that the very design of Christianity was to deliver men from sin; that every one who embraced it, embraced it for that object; and, therefore, it was a contradiction in terms to suppose that any should come to Christ to be delivered from sin, in order that they might live in it. And, besides this, it is clearly intimated that such is not only the design of the gospel, and the object for which it is embraced by all who cordially receive it, but also that the result or necessary effect of union with Christ is a participation in the benefits of his death. Or know ye not, ἢ ἀγνοεῖτε, or are you ignorant? If any doubt what is said in Romans 6:2, he must be ignorant of the nature and design of baptism, and of the relation to Christ which it involves. Βαπτίζειν εἰς always means to baptize in reference to. When it is said that the Hebrews were baptized unto Moses, 1 Corinthians 10:2; or when the apostle asks the Corinthians, ‘Were ye baptized unto the name of Paul?’ 1 Corinthians 1:13; or when we are said to be baptized unto Christ, the meaning is, they were baptized in reference to Moses, Paul, or Christ; i.e., to be brought into union with them, as their disciples, or worshippers, as the case may be. In like manner, in the expression baptized into his death, the preposition expresses the design and the result. The meaning therefore is, ‘we were baptized in order that we should die with him,’ i.e., that we should be united to him in his death, and be partakers of its benefits. Thus, “baptism unto repentance,” Matthew 3:11, is baptism in order to repentance; “baptism unto the remission of sins,” Mark 1:4, that remission of sins may be obtained; “baptized unto one body,” 1 Corinthians 12:13, i.e., that we might become one body, etc. Paul does not design to teach that the sacrament of baptism, from any inherent virtue in the rite, or from any supernatural power in him who administers it, or from any uniformly attending Divine influence, always secures the regeneration of the soul. This is contrary both to Scripture and experience. No fact is more obvious than that thousands of the baptized are unregenerate. It cannot be, therefore, that the apostle intends to say, that all who are baptized are thereby savingly united to Christ. It is not of the efficacy of baptism as an external rite, that he assumes his readers are well informed: it is of the import and design of that sacrament, and the nature of the union with Christ, of which baptism is the sign and the seal. It is the constant usage of Scripture to address professors as believers, to predicate of them as professors what is true of them only as believes. This is also the usage of common life. We address a company of professing Christians as true Christians; we call them brethren in Christ; we speak of them as beloved of the Lord, partakers of the heavenly calling, and heirs of eternal life. Baptism was the appointed mode of professing faith in Christ, of avowing allegiance to him as the Son of God, and acquiescence in his gospel. Those, therefore, who were baptized, are assumed to believe what they professed, and to be what they declared themselves to be. They are consequently addressed as believers, as having embraced the gospel, as having put on Christ, and as being, in virtue of their baptism as an act of faith, the children of God. When a man was baptized unto Christ, he was baptized unto his death; he professed to regard himself as being united to Christ, as dying when he died, as bearing in him the penalty of sin, in order that he might be reconciled to God, and live unto holiness. How could a man who was sincere in receiving baptism, such being its design and import, live in sin? The thing is impossible. The act of faith implied and expressed in baptism, is receiving Christ as our sanctification as well as our righteousness. “Extra controversiam est,” says Calvin, “induere nos Christum in baptismo; et hac lege nos baptizari, ut unum cum ipso simus.” Baptism, therefore, as an act of faith, as the formal reception of Christ as our Savior, brings us into intimate union with him: “For as many as have been baptized unto Christ, have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27. And this baptism has special reference to the death of Christ; we are baptized unto his death. That is, we are united to him in death. His death becomes ours; ours as an expiation for sin, as the means of reconciliation with God, and consequently as the means of our sanctification. Although justification is the primary object of the death of Christ, yet justification is in order to sanctification. He died that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. If such is the intimate connection between justification and sanctification in the purpose of God in giving his Son to die for us, there must be a like intimate connection between them in the experience of the believer. The very act of faith by which we receive Christ as the propitiation for sin, is spiritually a death to sin. It is in its very nature a renunciation of every thing which it was the design of Christ’s death to destroy. Every believer, therefore, is a saint. He renounces sin in accepting Christ.

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