98. BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD.
By Editor
Please explain 1 Cor. 15:29: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?" The argument of Paul is on the resurrection of Christ, in which the twenty-ninth verse immediately follows the twenty-second verse. The only hope of the Christian was in Christ's resurrection. If there were no resurrection, then Christ was not raised; and if Christ was not raised, those who had fallen asleep in him had perished. Christ by living again brings life to everyone. Verse 22. If this be not so, "what shall they do which are baptized for [in respect to, in the hope of, the resurrection from] the dead, if the dead rise not? Why are they then baptized for [or in respect to the resurrection of] the dead?" Those who had been baptized knew that they were doomed to death because of sin, that they were really dead so far as any power in themselves could benefit them. In Christ, his death and resurrection, they had found hope, and in that hope of the resurrection of the dead through him, they had been baptized. "The Greek expositors," says Vincent, "regarded 'the dead' as equivalent to 'the resurrection of the dead.'" There are about thirty different views taken, but we believe that the above is in harmony with the apostle's argument.