express the general idea that our connexion with sin had been effectually broken off. This is effected, as he immediately teaches, by the death ot Christ. His meaning, therefore, is, ' How can those who, in virtue of their union with Christ, have been effectually freed from the dominion of sin, live any longer therein V It enters into the very idea of a Chris- tian that he should be thus dead to sin, and his living in it consequently involves a contradiction.
(3) Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christy were baptized into his death P In this and the following verse we have something more in the form of argument in answer to the objec- tion in question. The apostle reminds his readers that the very design of Christianity was to deliver men from sin ; that every one who em- braced it, embraced it for this very object; and, therefore, it was a con- tradiction in terms to suppose that any should come to Christ to be de- livered 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 partici- pation in the benefits of his death.
TVere baptized into Jesus Christ. In the phrase to be baptized into any one, the word rendered into has its usual force as indicating the ob- ject, design, or result for which any thing is done. To be baptized into Jesus Christ, or unto Moses, or Paul, therefore, means to be baptized in order to be united to Christ, or Moses, or Paul, as their followers, the recipients of their doctrines, and expectants of the blessings which they have to bestow ; see Matt. 28 : 19. 1 Cor. 10 : 2. 1 Cor. 1 : 13. In like manner, in the expression baptized into his death, the preposition ex- presses 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 partakers of its benefits. Thus " bap- tism unto repentance," Matt. 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 into one body," 1 Cor. 12: 13, i. e. that we might become one body, &c. The idea of the whole verse, there- fore, is, ' That as many as have been baptized into Jesus Christ, have become intimately united with him, so that they are united with him in his death, conformed to its object, and participate in the blessings for which he died.' Much to the same effect the apostle says, Gal. 3: 27, "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ," i. e. have become intimately united to him. Paul uses the expression baptizedinto Christ, not for the mere external or formal profession of the religion of the gospel, but for the cordial reception of it, of which submission to the rite of baptism was the public and appointed expression. The meaning, therefore, is, that those who have sincerely embraced Jesus Christ, have done it so as to be united to him, conformed to his image and the design for which he died. Christ died in order that he might destroy the works