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The thrust of the Galatian Letter is Paul's defense of freedom for "The Uncircumcision" believers, freedom from the Law of Moses with all its attendant legalism
of rites, dogmas, and observances. The implication was that while Christ was sufficient for their initial encounter with God, still they would have to accept the position of a "Proselyte
of the Gate," that is, take upon themselves the yoke of the Mosaic Law, in which manner they could straddle the separating wall between the Jew and "The Uncircumcised." It is
tragic that the enemies of grace should be the Apostles or those closely associated with them, for it was a company coming from James meeting with Peter that caused Peter to play the hypocrite, Gal.
2:11-15. There will always be "Jameses and Peters" seeking to nullify the grace of God.
Ferrar Fenton's Translation of Gal. 3:23-27 serves to illustrate the issue:
But before THE FAITH came (The revelation of the singular sufficiency of Christ for all things; not "Christ, plus legalism) we (Jews) were anchored, sheltered under
a Law, until a revelation of that future FAITH. So that the (Mosaic) Law became a leader of our childhood to Christ, in order that we (Jews) might be made righteous from FAITH. But
THE FAITH having come we (Jews) are no longer under the leader of our childhood. For you are all Sons of God through THE FAITH in Christ Jesus. For whoever of you were BAPTIZED into
Christ have put on Christ.
By virtue of God's having placed these in Christ Jesus all are "peers" of each other, and having put on Christ, these are, in effect, antedating the Mosaic
economy with its rigid barriers of race, culture and sex. The obliteration of these lines is beautifully set forth:
Not one a Jew and another a Greek, nor one a slave and another free; nor one a male and another female: for you all are united in Christ Jesus. Gal. 3:28:
Ferrar Fenton's Trans.
The word "united" is a good reflection of the Baptism mentioned in the preceding verse. Peter, having had the vision of the sheet from heaven with clean and
unclean beasts, Acts 10, should have know the walls were to be eventually broken down. Peter was given the added words of caution:
"What God has purified, never treat as defiled."
At the time this had a statutory effect on Peter, hence he did feel free to eat with the Uncircumcised, Gal. 2:12. Later, however, fearful of the Circumcision and
the legalism of James, he caused all to Judaize; so that Paul alone strove to defend THE FAITH - the grace of God operating through the perfect person and completed redemptive work of Christ as
having been accepted by God without any appendages of law-works of the Jewish economy nor the need of the circumcision enjoined upon Abraham. This rite, so important to the Jew, was to them the
mark of the covenant. Those not having this "mark" were to be "cut off" from among the people, (Gen. 17:10-14). This covenant-sign cut in the flesh was not applicable
to these uncircumcised men who had been given a position of sonship to Abraham; in proof of which Paul cites Gen. 15:6 ; Gal. 3:6 - this was years before "Circumcision" was given to
Abraham, and while he was still called "Abram." In effect Paul takes these "Uncircumcised" back before either the "Law of Moses" or "Circumcision" was a
factor, back before there was a Jewish nation and a Moses. Paul also points this out in Rm. 4:9 - if Abraham did not need circumcision to be declared righteous, neither did these need
circumcision. The opposite is true:
Listen to what I, Paul, tell you: that if you be circumcised, Christ profits you nothing. Gal. 5:2.
For in Christ neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision strengthens; (avail anything); but faith energized by love (does). Gal. 5:6.
For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is. Gal. 6:15 Ferrar Fenton Trans.
A Jew was born into a covenant relationship with God; a male child was circumcised when eight days old as a mark of that relationship. This token-mark was to be
expressive of a circumcised heart, lips, and life, of a whole person having been redeemed by the offering symbolized in the drop of blood caused by the rite. It was performed on the male sexual
organ - betokening "Death, a Cutting Off." When the Mosaic Law was added to the Abrahamic promise, a child became indentured to the Law of Moses. The Law was a temporary codicil
added to the Abrahamic promise because, as Stephen stated in Acts 7:39b, ". . . in their hearts turned back again into Egypt." It was to correct this tendency that the Law was
given. It is largely negative because of their propensities. It was a schoolmaster, a child-trainer, Gal. 3:24, to lead them to Christ, and thereafter to be abolished, Gal. 3:25.
The question of whether or not circumcision, or any other rite, was to be added to the person and work of Christ had now been answered - certainly, circumcision embraced the whole of the Mosaic Law,
not merely the Ten Words. It would include Israel's multitude of water baptisms. It was only right that all types and shadows having anything to do with redemption or cleansing should
be fulfilled in the person and work of Christ. The reality always was Christ and always will be Christ. Those coming from James questioned the validity of the sufficiency of Christ alone
being needed by insisting on the added need of circumcision and all that it implied. Paul returns to a basic premise, Gal. 3:27:
Of this there was no question as they all would agree that Christ's Death-Baptism had taken place and that these "Uncircumcised" ones were a partner-beneficiary
of that death - but was that enough? What about their continued relationship to God and Israel? Did their life and conduct need the regulatory benefits of a legal system already made,
that of Moses? Paul strikes at the very heart of the issue:
For whoever of you were BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST (have, omit) put on Christ.
It is in union with not only the death of Christ but His life as well that results in the "putting on" of Christ, that is, being clothed, arrayed in His Life.
These truths are cast in another form in Gal. 3:20,21:
I have been crucified with Christ: but I live; yet still not I, but Christ lives in me. but the bodily life I now live, I live for the faith of the Son of God
Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not set aside the Gift of God; for if righteousness were through a ritual, then Christ died to no purpose. Ferrar Fenton Trans.
Here, beautifully set forth, is the death-baptism of Christ, here the sequential baptism into His Life. If a ritual of water accomplished this then there was no purpose
in Christ having died at all.
THE BAPTISM OF COLOSSIANS 2:12
In the Colossian Letter Christ's unique Headship is set forth in bold strokes. Christ gives substance to the otherwise invisible God, Col. 1:15. To
creation, Christ is its Firstborn, i.e., owner, redeemer and deliverer, 1:15. Creation itself resided "In" Christ, "through" Christ it came into manifestation, time and
space; all things "move" toward Christ, 1:16. He "is" and "existed" before anything "was," 1:17. "In" Him all things consist, cohere, and
hold together, 1:17. Of the Church designated "His Body" Christ is its only Head, 1:18a. Christ is THE BEGINNING of everything - not the first in a series of celestial beings
but the Original from whence all else springs, indeed, the Chief or Foremost, 1:18. Christ is the FIRST-BORN out from the dead - His ascended state a portraiture of all God's intentions
toward us, 1:18. In all and in everything Christ is holding the First Place. 1:18. In Christ dwells all (not just some) the Fulness of The Godhead bodily, i.e., "Bodily = somatikos," a
dwelling of God's fulness that is a continual manifesting form of the very being of God, 1:19; 2:9. Christ's work of redemption, His right and duty as Creation's Firstborn, resulted
in more than reconciling the universe, 1:20b. On a personal level note the following:
Col. 1:12 "Made Meet," i.e., Fully Prepared.
Col. 1:13 "Delivered" and "Transferred"
Col. 1:14 "The Full Release" and
"Remission."
Col. 2:10 "Ye are COMPLETE in HIM."
"In Christ" expressed the sum-total of all that God has for you and "Christ in you" what God envisions you to be.
To the "Circumcision-Legalistic" minded the Apostle has this to say:
In Whom (Christ) you were circumcised also with a circumcision NOT MADE BY HANDS, in the stripping off of the body of flesh in the
circumcision (cutting off=death) of Christ. Col.2:11 Concordant Version
There is a soulish body, Adamic, subject to decay, weakness, and the final dishonor of death. There is also a spiritual body that bears the image of the Lord of heaven,
1Cor. 15:42-49. Like the Heavenly Christ, this is not subject to corruption. God has granted this body to us, not in a separate "out-resurrection" but as part of the
redemptive-death "cutting off of Christ in His Death" factor. The "Not Made By Hands" statement is an echo of what Christ had said earlier:
. . . I shall be demolishing this temple MADE BY HANDS, and during three days I shall be building another, NOT MADE BY
HANDS. Mk.14:58, cf. Mt. 26:61; Jn. 2:18-22 C.V.
It is of interest that the "Seed of the Woman" body-temple of Christ was to be changed into a body befitting His glory. Phil.3:21. In this body He could
be what He wanted to be and where He wanted to be. He appeared in "another" form to two disciples, Mk. 16:12.
The "Not Made With Hands" being cut off from the land of the living death-circumcision was the stripping off of our Adamic-flesh body - the sequence of this death
is wondrously set forth:
Co-entombed with Him in THE BAPTISM, in Whom also ye were co-roused through the Faith of THE OPERATION OF GOD Who roused Him out
from among the dead. Col. 2:12. Resultant Trans.
The phrase, "The Faith Of The Operation Of God," is not speaking of our faith in the operation of God, rather it is speaking of FAITH as a principle, a body of
truth, in this case a body of revealed truth in respect to the death-baptism of Christ and our part in having been entombed with Christ and God's co-joining us with the Christ of glory. We
were enclosed with Christ in the rock-walled tomb and share that awakening by the Father. All through this BAPTISM the Father is the Baptizer and Christ in His death, rousing and seating is the
element. The result is our union with Christ in all this made possible by the operation of the Father. Operation=energy. This baptism was by the active power of God and has no
reference to anything performed by man. This was done long ago by the Father when the Lord was crucified. The whole panorama of events surrounding that tragic moment in time followed a
pattern in which God made us a participant, Co-crucified, co-dying, co-entombment, co-rousing, co-seating and co-glorified with Christ.
THE BAPTISM OF EPHESIANS 4:5
Of the many and diverse baptisms of the Old and New Testaments there is a baptism that is singularly unique, inasmuch as it stands alone historically, a grim monument, a
Colossus bridging the gulf between God and man, and man and God, a synapsis of time in which the ages past had run their course and the on-coming ages begun their dawning, a lonely timber of a
skull-like hill whereupon the BEST of heaven and earth died to absorb sin's penalty, died to expiate God's broken laws, died a propitiatory offering as a satisfaction for all of man's
imperfections:
Yet a BAPTISM have I to be BAPTIZED with, and how am I pressed till it should be accomplished. Luke 12:50
Concordant Version
But I have a BAPTISM to be BAPTIZED with; and how oppressed I feel until it be effected! Luke 12:50 Ferrar Fenton
Was any water involved in the event Christ prophesied in Luke 12:50? There is no effort to be facetious when words implying "water" are substituted for
"baptism" in the following texts. Substituting the word will either confirm a watery view of the text or show the folly of trying to read "water" into the account.
A sprinkling have I to be sprinkled with, and how am I pressed till this sprinkling is accomplished.
A dipping (once, twice, or three times) in water have I to be dipped, how am I pressed until this dipping is accomplished.
An immersion in water (under, backwards or forwards) have I to be immersed, and how I am pressed until this immersion takes place.
Or, did Christ mean:
I have a literal death to die, and how am I pressed till this death is accomplished!
This last is borne out by Christ's statement to the dubious crowd:
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall attract all toward Myself. He said this, however, illustrative of the death He was about to die. John 12:32,33 Ferrar Fenton.
When troops have faced enemy fire, this was their BAPTISM. When ships come under bombardment, this was their BAPTISM. When Job of old was
mired in the filth of his draining sores, this was his BAPTISM. When Christ set His face to go to Jerusalem and Golgotha, He was soon to experience His BAPTISM OF SUFFERING and DEATH. In
view of this the Ephesian text (4:5) states unequivocally that there is ONE BAPTISM.
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Scripture Research - The Baptism Edition 
