Baptism for the Dead

In First Corinthians, Paul finds himself in an interesting position. The church at Corinth was apparently in a sorry state, they were calling themselves Christians, and worshipping together, but somehow had missed a great deal of what makes a Christian a Christian. Paul admonished them about many things, not the least of which was the fact that many of the Corinthians did not believe in the resurrection.
There are some who refer to Paul’s question, “Why are they then baptized for the dead?” as evidence that, in the early church, people were sometimes baptized by proxy. In other words, one could go to their pastor and say, I just know that if my Aunt Sally were alive today, if I could show her what I’ve been shown, then she would want to get baptized. Can I get baptized for her?” and presumably, the pastor of the church at Corinth would say, “Why, sure, just step on up into this tank and we’ll take good care of Aunt Sally.” I don’t think that is what Paul is suggesting at all. I think that he is reminding the people of Corinth that they were baptized into Christ, and if Christ did not rise from the dead, then their faith is useless. If Jesus wasn’t resurrected, then what hope do the rest of us have of a life to come? What is the point of living the life that we live, if we have no hope of a better life to come?
If you read the whole chapter, it becomes fairly clear that they had an argument with the idea of resurrection from the dead. Paul reminds them that they have been taught the resurrection story; they know that Peter saw Christ (the Aramaic equivalent of the name Peter is Cephas), and then the rest of the disciples, and then others. For whatever reason, these people have decided that this can’t be true. The whole chapter is devoted to the idea that Jesus rose from the dead to show us the way. It wasn’t about getting baptized for the sake of someone else.