4:4-6 What baptism is Paul referring to here?
4:4-6 What baptism is Paul referring to here?
A great many Christians believe that Paul is referring to water baptism here, but that is not correct.
This baptism is spiritual - the baptism of believers into Christ and into His body, the church. Paul is illustrating here the sevenfold spiritual unity of God and man: one body - the church; one Holy Spirit; one hope of our calling; one Lord; one faith; one baptism, and one God (CP V1-3).
Paul is exhorting believers in V1-3 to be unified in the Spirit, because, as he points out in V 4-6, there is only one body in Christ - the church - and we were all baptized into that one body (CP 1Cor 12:12-14).
Here the church is called "Christ" and is compared to a human body with its many members. This shows how the church is constituted: the Holy Spirit unites believers with Jesus as members of His body when they are converted to Christ (CP also Ro 6:3-4; Ga 3:26-27 and Col 2:10-13).
These scriptures all refer to the believer's baptism in Christ, not water, as so many Christians believe. (See comments on all Ro 6 questions, also Ro 3:9, 5:12-14, 7:4, 7:7-23, 8:1-2, 8:3-4; Ga 5:17; Jas 4:5 and 1 Jn 3:6-9 and author's studies Romans 6 - a Study on God's Empowering of Believers through Jesus Christ to Overcome Sin in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 1),
The Power of God in Christians to Overcome the Devil, The Doctrine of Grace and Regeneration and Sanctification Defined in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 2), and What being Born Again Means in his book Foundational Truths of the Christian Faith).