We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father, so *we* also should walk in newness of life.
Romans 6 opens with a question: does grace leave us free to keep sinning? Paul answers with a fact, not a rule. The believer has died with Christ, and baptism pictures that burial. This verse then looks past the grave, to a resurrection by the Father's glory and a new way of living that matches it.
Grace and Continuing in Sin
The verse answers an objection raised at the start of the chapter.
Is this the conclusion to draw from the gospel of God? May we continue in sin, so that His grace may be displayed more richly? Away with such a thought. The apostle answers this wicked inference, not by showing how evil it is in itself, but by showing that it flatly contradicts Christianity in its first principles. He replies from the starting point of every believer in Christ. Christ did not merely die for our sins, laying us under an infinite obligation; we died to sin. How then shall we go on living in it? This is the meaning of our baptism. It is not some special blessing that only a few Christians have. It is the common property of all the baptized.
Notice how the apostle frames his answer.
He rejects the thought outright and puts it away with another question: "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" Asking it as a question shows how unanswerable he thinks it is. And unanswerable it is, if the premise is taken rightly. If we are dead to sin, then we cannot live in it. That consequence cannot be denied.
Buried With Him — What Baptism Pictures
One writer stresses what baptism points to, and what it does not do.
Notice, then, that deliverance from sin is not the improvement of self, or of an evil nature — the flesh. Instead, "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death." We are not baptised to the work of the Spirit in us. We are baptised to His death, who died for us and rose again. So the death that delivers from sin is not a death to sin that we reach by ourselves. It is the death of Christ on the cross, and our identification with it — "buried with him." And notice, there is no thought that baptism gives life. Baptism is to death, and life in the risen Christ is beyond it.
The meaning of this burial is for daily life.
A buried man has died to the scene where he once lived. Now suppose a man goes to his own funeral by his own choice. This is exactly what happens to the believer, and he surely believes he will gain by it. What a loss the believer suffers when he leaves the inner meaning of his baptism out of his daily life!
Raised by the Glory of the Father
The verse traces the resurrection to the Father's glory. One writer explains why glory is named.
In relation to God, every attribute of His has been perfectly glorified by the atoning death of our blessed Lord. So the resurrection is said to be "by the glory of the Father." It is as though that glory, which the Son had vindicated and displayed so perfectly, waited for the very first moment at the tomb on the first day of the week. It waited to call the perfect obedient One out from death.
Newness of Life
The verse ends by describing how the Christian now lives.
Let us notice the closing words of verse 4, "newness of life," for they give a brief answer to the question the chapter opened with. Instead of continuing in sin, which is in effect continuing to live the old life, we are to walk in a life which is new.
One writer draws out what this new walk aims at.
This suggests to me that there is a realm where everything matches the glory of the Father. That is the realm Christ is in. He has been raised from among the dead by the glory of the Father... It suggests to me that if I am walking in newness of life, the goal before me is the glory of the Father.
Buried, but Not Yet Risen
Romans speaks of burial with Christ, but not of rising with Him. One writer marks the difference.
He does not say we are risen with Him. That would in itself assume full redemption, with life, and a place and condition before God. Here it is practical — a new character of life. We are to walk in newness of life.
Summary
- Died — A fact answers the objection, not a warning: those who died to sin cannot go on living in it.
- Buried — Baptism points to Christ's death. It does not point to self-improvement, and it does not give life. Life lies beyond it, in the risen Christ.
- Raised — Christ came out of the tomb by the Father's glory, because His atoning death had glorified every attribute of God.
- Walking — The new life is practical and present. The glory that raised Christ is now the goal the believer walks towards.
- Not yet risen — Romans stays with burial and a new walk. To say we are risen with Christ would assume more: full redemption and a settled place before God.