It seems to us the only true explanation of the text lies in the context. The whole chapter itself abounds in an argument that there is a resurrection of the dead, and all that is centered in our Lord Jesus Christ, so that if Christ is not raised from the dead, there is no resurrection; preaching is vain, faith is vain, and they that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. Christ is forever dead, if there is no resurrection; and all who trusted in Him are also forever dead. But Christ rose again. The three great facts of redemption are, as stated in the first verses of the chapter, He died, He was buried, He rose again. Baptism sets that forth — death, burial, resurrection (Rom. 6:4-6). Now those who are baptized are baptized with the hope of the resurrection. They are baptized with the hope that they themselves shall rise from the dead in Christ, with all who are Christ's. Bingham, in his "Christian Antiquities," volume 3, pages 447 and 448, says that later in the church an absurd practice prevailed among certain heretics, called "vicarious baptism." It was that when any one died without baptism, another was baptized in his stead; and it is said that when one died unbaptized, a living man was hid under the bed. Then coming to the dead man, they asked him whether he would receive baptism, and the man under the bed answered that he would be baptized in his stead. "And so they baptized the living for the dead, as if they were acting a comedy upon the stage; so great was the power of Satan in the minds of those vain men." Afterward, when challenged regarding the practice, they pleaded the apostle's authority for it in 1 Cor. 15:29. Chrysostom shows the foolishness of pleading that authority by saying, "If this were allowed, in vain had God threatened those that died unbaptized. For, by this means, any Jew or Gentile might easily be made a Christian, by having another, after his death, baptized for him." And Tertullian declares that "they did but in vain allege the apostle's authority for this practice, as if he had argued from it for the truth and confirmation of the resurrection. For the apostle speaks of but one baptism, and that was of the living for themselves." Bingham also tells us that none of the worthy ancients interpreted the passage of the apostle to have reference to vicarious baptism. Chrysostom declares that it referred to the custom of every candidate "at his baptism, with his own mouth" declaring "his belief of the resurrection of the dead," "and so being baptized into that faith, or hope, of the resurrection of the dead." "So that 'baptizing for the dead' is an elliptical expression for 'being baptized into the faith or belief of the resurrection of the dead.'" The expression of the apostle is an emphatic declaration that all those who have been baptized into Christ are without hope, if the dead rise not.