The meaning of this is given in the verses that follow, especially in vs. 10 and 11, where Paul explains that as Christ died to sin, so the Christian should regard himself as dead to sin. And if by baptism the believer has shown his participation in Christ’s death unto sin (v. 10) in his behalf, then surely he cannot continue living in the sin that made that death necessary (v. 2).

 In order for the sacrifice of Christ to accomplish salvation for the sinner, the individual believer must knowingly participate in the meaning and in the experience represented by the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for his sake. As a public confession of this experience the believer submits to the ceremony of immersion in harmony with the command of Jesus (Matt. 28:19).

 The phrase thus translated occurs also in 1 Cor. 10:2 (there translated “baptized unto”) with reference to the experience of the Israelites with Moses. As a result of their being under the cloud and passing through the waters of the Red Sea the Israelites were brought into close union with their leader. They “believed the Lord, and his servant Moses” (Ex. 14:31). They had greater confidence in Moses from then on. They trusted him as their deliverer and followed him as their commander. The union of the Christian believer with his divine Saviour is, of course, of a higher order than this. It implies a relationship of such love and implicit trust that the believer is actually changed into the same likeness of goodness and mercy as his Redeemer (see 2 Cor. 3:18; cf. CT 249). The phrase “into Jesus Christ” means into union with Jesus Christ. This does not mean that the ceremony of immersion alone actually effects this union; baptism is a public proclamation of a spiritual relation with Christ that is entered into before the outward ceremony takes place. Baptism represents the joining of the life of the believer in such close union with the life of Christ that the two become, as it were, one spiritual unity (see 1 Cor. 12:12, 13, 27; Gal. 3:27).

 Paul’s conception of union with Christ reveals that his conversion was more than an intellectual change. His personal acceptance of Christ as his Redeemer and Lord led to such a close and absorbing spiritual fellowship that it came to mean little less than an actual identification of will (Gal. 2:20). It is not uncommon in the case of ordinary friendship for two persons to share such unity of purpose that they seem to think and act almost as if they were one. Friendship with Christ is on an even higher level and bound by forces not only human but divine.

Literally, “Or are you ignorant?” In other words, “Do you admit the truth of what I am saying, or is it possible that you do not realize all that your baptism involves?”