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Transcript 585A — What Does "Baptized for the Dead" Mean? [1 Cor 15:29]
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum
CALLER: Hi. My question is concerning I Corinthians 15:29. It says, "Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?" What exactly does that mean, baptizing for the dead? And is it mentioned anywhere else in the Bible?
HC: The question is, what does I Corinthians 15:29 relate to, where it talks about being baptized on behalf of the dead? The word for here really means on behalf of the dead.
Now nowhere in the Bible does it teach that we are ever baptized on behalf of someone else. Therefore we know that in trying to understand what God is saying here we cannot go in that direction. However, when we understand the nature of salvation, then we can see what God means.
You see, before we are saved, both in body and soul we are spiritually dead. We are estranged from God and we're heading for hell. When we are saved, in our spirit existence, or in our soul, we are born again. We experience the resurrection. And of course our baptism, which is an outward action of water, is pointing to the cleansing that has taken place within our soul, the fact that we are a new creature, that we have become saved.
But we're more than just a soul. We're also a body. And that body is as real a part of us as our soul. Our body, however, was not saved at the moment we became born again. Our body still lusts after sin, our body is still going into the grave to return to the dust, at the time we separate our soul from our body, that is, at the time of physical death. Our soul doesn't go down into a place of silence. It goes into Heaven, to be with Christ, because it already experienced the resurrection when we were saved. But in our body we still must be saved. We still must experience the resurrection. So our body is still dead, spiritually, in that sense.
So therefore our baptism not only is recognizing that in our soul or in our spirit essence we have become saved, but it also recognizes that our dead bodies will also become saved, that is, will experience the resurrection from the dead. And so we are being baptized on behalf of our own dead body. And if there were no resurrection from the dead, then that all also would be vain. That would be futile. That is of course the context of I Corinthians 15 right here, where God is giving various reasons why it is important that Christ rose. Otherwise there could be no resurrection of the dead.
CALLER: OK then. Thank you very much.
HC: You're welcome. Good night.