For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:27-28).
The church is an egalitarian community. Baptism is the bath of new creation in which the Holy Spirit washes away the stain of sin, renews the believer, signifies adoption into the family of God (Galatians 3:26), and unites the believer with Christ (Acts 22:16; Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5).
Because baptism is to be united with Christ, in baptism the dividing wall and enmity that has separated humans is washed away. Richard Longenecker has written that in Christ “old divisions and inequalities have come to an end and new relationships have been established.” Therefore, baptism should be a signpost that points the way toward a more Christian personal and social ethic.[1] In this “old” age – the age of the flesh – Gentiles, slaves, and women are of an inferior status. Jews, freemen, and males are assumed to have priority. However, in new creation – the age of the Spirit signified by water baptism – Gentiles, slaves, and women inherit a new status.
The apostolic church certainly understood the significance of baptism for men and women. When many Samaritans responded in faith to the preaching of Philip, Luke records that “they were being baptized, men and women alike” (Acts 8:12, emphasis mine). This demonstrates that baptism for men and women was the paradigm of Christian initiation in the apostolic church. This is a significant event when we remember that the covenant sign of Abraham was circumcision. The rite of circumcision could only be performed upon males, therefore women were ontologically restricted. The correspondence between the Jewish ritual of circumcision and Christian water baptism was significant in the mind of Paul.
. . . and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead (Col. 2:11-12).
“The circumcision of Christ” is a metaphorical reference to his violent death on the cross. The phrase “a circumcision made without hands” refers to the work of the Holy Spirit in the transformation of humanity. Christian baptism is to share in the death and resurrection of Christ, and is associated with reception of the Holy Spirit.[2] Many of the errors and heresies that proliferated in the apostolic church concerned circumcision. In fact, the circumcision of Gentile believers was the primary issue discussed at the Jerusalem conference (Acts 15). If the leaders of the apostolic church had affirmed the necessity of circumcision, then women would have been restricted from full participation in the church. Long after the matter was settled at Jerusalem the issue continued to trouble the early church. Regarding the issue of circumcision, Paul was adamant that water baptism is the all-sufficient sign of being “in Christ.” Therefore, women are full participants in Christ and in Christ’s church. As co-heirs of grace and full participants in the church women are included in the kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6; 5:10) and therefore are qualified to serve as deacons, presbyters, and bishops.
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[1] Richard N. Longenecker, Galatians (Dallas: Word, 2002), 156.
[2] F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians to Philemon and to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984) 103-106; Margaret Y. MacDonald, Colossians, Ephesians (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2000) 99-100, 106-107. Everett Ferguson, Baptism in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2009) 158-160.
*This post is adapted from Pentecostal Sacraments – Revised Edition, pp. 144ff.
