Covenant Reformed News – August 2023 • Volume XIX, Issue 16
This article defends the Reformed understanding of Galatians 3:27 against the doctrine of baptismal regeneration held by Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Lutheranism. The author argues that spiritual baptism by the Holy Spirit—signified and sealed by water baptism—is restricted to God's elect, and demonstrates how this interpretation coheres with the doctrines of sovereign election and limited atonement rather than the universal salvific efficacy claimed by sacramentalist theology.
Clothed With Christ (3) “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” declares Galatians 3:27. Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, high Anglicanism and other groups claim this text refers to the ritual or ceremony of baptism: Everyone baptized with water has personally and truly “put on Christ.” According to this view, Galatians 3:27 teaches the baptismal regeneration of all who receive the first sacrament: “For as many of you as have been baptized...