Romans 6:1–4 Commentary – Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ
Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ
Key Passage: Romans 6:1–4
Romans VerseQuest Commentary Essay 36: Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ Text: Romans 6:1–4
Introduction
Romans 6:1–4 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Paul has just finished Romans 5 by magnifying grace until every religious legalist in the county starts sweating through his clerical collar. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” That is not weak language. Paul did not say grace barely caught up, grace tried its best, grace made a respectable showing, or grace reduced sin’s lead in the fourth quarter. He said grace did “much more abound.” Then he said grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Whenever grace is preached that strongly, the religious mind immediately files the same tired objection: “Well, if grace is that free, won’t people just keep sinning?” Paul answers before the objector can finish polishing his halo.
Romans 6 does not retract Romans 5. Paul does not apologize for grace. He does not say, “Perhaps I overstated the matter.” He does not drag the believer back under the law to calm down the nervous guardians of religious respectability. He answers the charge by showing that grace does not merely change the believer’s destination; it changes the believer’s relationship to sin. The justified believer is dead to sin, baptized into Jesus Christ, identified with His death, buried with Him, and raised to walk in newness of life. Grace is not a pardon slip handed to Adam so he can go back to the old plantation and keep serving Pharaoh. Grace takes the sinner out of Adam and places him into Christ. It does not leave him lounging in the graveyard with a Bible tucked under one arm and a license to rot under the other.
The question in Romans 6 is not whether a Christian can sin. He can, and the man who says he cannot is already proving he can by lying. The question is whether sin remains the believer’s rightful master, realm, identity, and manner of life. Paul’s answer is a thunderous no. The believer’s old relationship to sin has been broken by union with Christ. The cross did more than forgive sins committed; it dealt with the old man connected to sin’s reign. The resurrection did more than prove Jesus was alive; it established the pattern and power of a new walk. Grace never says, “Sin does not matter.” Grace says, “Sin mattered so much Christ died, and now that you are in Him, you have no business living like the old tyrant still owns you.”
Chapter One: The Foolish Charge Against Grace
Paul begins with a question: “What shall we say then?” He knows how the carnal mind and the religious mind will twist what he has taught. Romans 5:20 said, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” A foolish man hears that and says, “Then more sin must mean more grace, so let us continue in sin.” That is not logic; that is a pig looking at a clean fountain and asking whether it was installed to refill his mud hole. The charge is as old as grace preaching. Preach salvation by grace through faith without works, and someone will accuse you of encouraging wicked living. Preach eternal security, and someone will say you are giving people permission to sin. Preach justification apart from law, and the legalist will clutch his rulebook like a widow at a graveside.
Paul does not water down grace to answer the charge. That matters. He does not say, “Actually, grace is not as free as I made it sound.” He does not say, “To prevent abuse, let us add the law back as the believer’s governing covenant.” He does not say, “The believer is justified by faith, but kept justified by performance.” He says, “God forbid.” The problem is not grace. The problem is the wicked heart that tries to turn grace into an excuse for sin. You do not cure that heart by preaching less grace. You cure it by preaching what grace actually did in Christ. Grace is not a soft blanket placed over rebellion. Grace is a death certificate for the old relationship and a resurrection summons to a new walk.
The charge that grace encourages sin comes from two opposite ditches. The carnal professor wants to abuse grace so he can continue in sin without fear. The religious legalist wants to accuse grace so he can keep sinners under his control. Both misunderstand the gospel. The carnal man treats grace like a tavern tab God promised to pay. The legalist treats grace like a dangerous chemical that must be diluted with law before common people are allowed near it. Paul treats grace as the reigning power of God through righteousness unto eternal life. Grace is not weak on sin. Grace is the only thing in the passage strong enough to break sin’s dominion without lying about God’s holiness.
Chapter Two: Shall We Continue in Sin?
Paul asks, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The word “continue” is important. It speaks of abiding, remaining, staying on in the same old realm as though nothing changed. Paul is not asking whether the believer may commit an act of sin and need correction, confession, chastening, and cleansing in his walk. He is asking whether the justified believer should remain in sin as the sphere of his life because grace abounds. That is the perversion. Grace abounds over sin, but grace does not make sin a home address. A lifeboat may rescue a drowning man from the sea, but only a fool would ask whether rescue means he should dive back overboard and practice swallowing water.
Sin in Romans 6 is treated like a former master. It is not merely a list of isolated misbehaviors. Paul is dealing with sin as a power, a reign, and a dominion connected with Adam. In Romans 5, sin reigned unto death. In Romans 6, Paul shows that the believer has been removed from sin’s dominion by death with Christ. The Christian life is not merely learning to avoid a few scandalous habits so the church bulletin remains respectable. It is learning to reckon as true what God says about the believer’s new position in Christ. Sin no longer owns the believer. The old master may shout, threaten, tempt, and accuse, but the title deed has changed hands.
“Shall we continue in sin?” also exposes the rotten argument that holiness requires law as a threatening whip. The legalist assumes that if the believer is not terrified of losing salvation, he will plunge into wickedness. That assumption reveals how little the legalist knows about the new birth. A born-again believer has a new nature, the indwelling Holy Ghost, the word of God, the chastening of the Father, the love of Christ, and a new standing in grace. If all a man has to keep him from sin is the fear of hell, he may be religious, but he has not understood sonship. Grace produces obedience from life, gratitude, and identity. Law can restrain the hand; grace reaches deeper and changes the household.
Chapter Three: God Forbid
Paul’s answer is immediate: “God forbid.” That phrase is strong, sharp, and final. It is not a mild suggestion, a polite hesitation, or a theological shrug. It means perish the thought. Away with it. May it never be. Paul slams the door so hard the hinges rattle. The idea that abounding grace gives the believer a reason to continue in sin is not merely mistaken; it is monstrous. It turns the medicine into an excuse to love the disease. It treats the cross as though Jesus died to make rebellion safer. That is not gospel thinking. That is a serpent wearing a grace badge.
“God forbid” also shows that the right answer to the abuse of doctrine is not to abandon doctrine. Every truth in Scripture can be abused by wicked men. Election can be abused into fatalism. Eternal security can be abused into carelessness. Liberty can be abused into license. Separation can be abused into pride. Discipline can be abused into cruelty. The abuse does not cancel the truth. A man can cut himself with a good knife; that does not prove knives are evil. It proves fools need instruction. Paul does not stop preaching grace because some reprobate wants to twist it. He explains grace more fully.
The Holy Ghost does not answer sin’s abuse by weakening assurance. He answers it by strengthening identification. Paul does not say, “You had better live right or you may stop being justified.” He says, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” That is a higher argument. He does not drive the saint with the threat of losing life. He reasons from the fact of having died with Christ. The believer is not told to live holy so that he may become dead to sin. He is told that he is dead to sin, and therefore he should not live in it. Grace always puts position before practice and then demands that practice line up with position. Religion tells a man to act like something he is not. Grace makes him something in Christ and says, “Now walk like it.”
Chapter Four: Dead to Sin
Paul asks, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” This is the controlling truth of the passage. The believer is dead to sin. That does not mean sin is dead in the believer’s daily experience. Any Christian who has tried to pray, serve, witness, think cleanly, forgive quickly, or keep his mouth under control knows sin did not receive a funeral notice in practical experience. The flesh remains present. Temptation remains real. The world remains attractive to the old nature. The devil remains active. But the believer is dead to sin in relation to its condemning reign and rightful dominion. He has died with Christ to the old headship and old mastery.
To be dead to sin is not sinless perfection. If Romans 6 taught that believers could no longer commit sin, Romans 7 would be unnecessary, Romans 8 would not speak of mortifying the deeds of the body, and the rest of the New Testament would not contain warnings, rebukes, corrections, and commands to saints. Dead to sin means the believer’s old relationship to sin has been severed by union with Christ. A dead man is no longer under the authority of his former employer. You can send him bills, threats, notices, demands, and invitations, but he is dead to that realm. Sin may still knock, but it is knocking at the door of a man who died in Christ.
This truth must be believed before it is felt. Many Christians look inside, feel the pull of sin, and conclude they cannot be dead to sin. That is letting experience correct Scripture. The believer is not told to feel dead. He is told to know what God has done. Romans 6 will go on to say, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Reckoning is faith counting God’s statement true. The flesh says, “You still belong to me.” God says, “You died with Christ.” The Christian life begins to function properly when the believer stops taking identity lessons from a corpse named Adam.
Chapter Five: Baptized Into Jesus Christ
Paul asks, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” This is not a verse teaching that water regenerates the sinner or washes away sin. Water baptism in the Bible is important in its proper place, but water cannot place a sinner into Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” The baptism that unites the believer with Christ is the operation of God by the Spirit, placing him into Christ’s Body. Religion turns the verse into a baptistry and then pretends water can do what only the Holy Ghost can do. That is like trying to put a man into the moon by throwing him into a pond.
Paul says believers are baptized “into Jesus Christ.” That is identification, union, and placement. The saved man is no longer merely associated with Adam; he is in Christ. His standing has changed heads. His history has been joined to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Colossians 2:12 speaks of believers being “buried with him in baptism,” and then explains the power as “the operation of God.” That is not religious plumbing. It is divine operation. Water baptism pictures burial and resurrection, and it should follow salvation as a testimony of identification, but the spiritual reality is accomplished by God when the sinner believes the gospel.
This matters because Romans 6 is not building holiness on ceremony. It is building holiness on union with Christ. If Paul were merely saying, “You got wet, so behave,” the argument would be shallow. Plenty of wet sinners come out of baptistries still in Adam because they trusted the water instead of the blood. Paul’s point is deeper. The believer has been baptized into Christ Himself, and therefore into His death. The cross is not only something Christ did for the believer; it is something into which the believer has been placed by spiritual union. The believer’s old standing ended at Calvary. God does not reform the condemned man. He crucifies him with Christ and raises him in a new position.
Chapter Six: Buried With Him by Baptism Into Death
Paul says, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.” Burial confirms death. Men do not bury the healthy; they bury the dead. The believer’s burial with Christ shows that his old relationship in Adam has ended. Christ died for sins, and the believer is identified with that death. The old man belongs in the grave, not on the throne. The Christian who keeps dragging the old man back into daily life is like a widow propping a corpse at the dinner table and asking why the house smells wrong. God buried what religion keeps trying to improve.
“Buried with him” also shows the completeness of the break. Salvation is not God giving the old life a moral makeover. It is death and burial followed by resurrection. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The cross is not a motivational symbol hanging on a wall. It is God’s execution site for the old man. The flesh does not need encouragement, counselling, pampering, affirmation, or religious cosmetics. It needs to be reckoned where God placed it: crucified with Christ.
Burial also points toward separation from the former life. A buried man does not maintain memberships, hobbies, appetites, arguments, ambitions, and romances in the old world. He is removed from that sphere. The believer is called to live in agreement with that burial. Sin will try to dig up the old habits, old loves, old excuses, old grudges, old filth, old pride, and old appetites. The devil is a grave robber. He would love to convince the Christian that the buried life is still the real life. But God says the believer was buried with Christ by baptism into death. The old life is not a treasure chest. It is a coffin.
Chapter Seven: Raised to Walk in Newness of Life
Paul gives the purpose: “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” The believer is not merely dead and buried with Christ; he is raised with Him in order to walk differently. Grace does not leave the saint lying in a doctrinal tomb admiring his positional truths. It raises him to walk. The Christian life is not simply avoiding wrath, possessing assurance, and waiting for heaven while sin runs the schedule. The believer is called to a new walk because he has a new life.
Christ was raised “by the glory of the Father.” Resurrection is the Father’s public vindication of the Son and His finished work. Romans 4:25 says Christ “was raised again for our justification.” The resurrection proves the sacrifice was accepted, the debt was paid, death was defeated, and the Son was glorified. The believer’s new walk rests upon resurrection ground. He is not trying to live the Christian life by squeezing religious energy out of Adam. He walks in the power and reality of life in Christ. The old life was tied to sin and death. The new life is tied to the risen Lord.
“Newness of life” is not the same as turning over a new leaf. Adam can turn over leaves all day and still remain Adam. Newness of life comes from union with the risen Christ. It produces new desires, new direction, new convictions, new affections, new battles, new loyalties, and new power. The believer may not mature instantly, and he may still stumble, but his relationship to sin has changed. Before salvation, sin was home. After salvation, sin becomes foreign territory. Before salvation, the sinner could roll in sin and feel normal. After salvation, the believer may fall into sin, but he cannot belong there peacefully. Grace does not make sin impossible. It makes sin inconsistent with who the believer now is in Christ.
Conclusion
Romans 6:1–4 answers the foolish charge that grace encourages sin by showing what grace actually did. Grace did not merely cover the sinner while leaving him alive to the old dominion. Grace joined him to Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. The believer is dead to sin, baptized into Jesus Christ, baptized into His death, buried with Him, and raised to walk in newness of life. The gospel does not say, “Sin freely because grace abounds.” It says, “You died with Christ; why live like sin still owns you?” That is a stronger answer than legalism has ever produced.
The passage also separates biblical Christianity from religious ceremony. Water baptism is a proper testimony and picture, but it does not produce the spiritual union described here. The saving reality is baptism into Jesus Christ by the operation of God. A man can be dipped in every baptistry from Jerusalem to Jacksonville and still go to hell wet if he never trusts the blood of Christ. But the moment a sinner believes the gospel, God places him into Christ, identifies him with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and gives him a new standing. The picture should follow the reality, but the picture must never replace the reality.
Finally, the believer is raised to walk in newness of life. Grace is not a hiding place for rebellion; it is the power of a new life in Christ. The old man belongs in the grave. Sin is no longer the master. The believer’s identity is no longer Adam’s ruin but Christ’s resurrection. He does not fight sin to become dead to it; he fights because God says he already died with Christ. He does not walk new to earn life; he walks new because life has been given. The world, the flesh, and the devil will keep calling the believer back to the cemetery. Faith answers, “I have been buried with Christ, and I am not taking life lessons from a grave.”
Romans 6:1–4 Commentary – Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ
Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ
Key Passage: Romans 6:1–4
Romans VerseQuest Commentary
Essay 36: Dead to Sin and Buried With Christ
Text: Romans 6:1–4
Introduction
Romans 6:1–4 says, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Paul has just finished Romans 5 by magnifying grace until every religious legalist in the county starts sweating through his clerical collar. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” That is not weak language. Paul did not say grace barely caught up, grace tried its best, grace made a respectable showing, or grace reduced sin’s lead in the fourth quarter. He said grace did “much more abound.” Then he said grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Whenever grace is preached that strongly, the religious mind immediately files the same tired objection: “Well, if grace is that free, won’t people just keep sinning?” Paul answers before the objector can finish polishing his halo.
Romans 6 does not retract Romans 5. Paul does not apologize for grace. He does not say, “Perhaps I overstated the matter.” He does not drag the believer back under the law to calm down the nervous guardians of religious respectability. He answers the charge by showing that grace does not merely change the believer’s destination; it changes the believer’s relationship to sin. The justified believer is dead to sin, baptized into Jesus Christ, identified with His death, buried with Him, and raised to walk in newness of life. Grace is not a pardon slip handed to Adam so he can go back to the old plantation and keep serving Pharaoh. Grace takes the sinner out of Adam and places him into Christ. It does not leave him lounging in the graveyard with a Bible tucked under one arm and a license to rot under the other.
The question in Romans 6 is not whether a Christian can sin. He can, and the man who says he cannot is already proving he can by lying. The question is whether sin remains the believer’s rightful master, realm, identity, and manner of life. Paul’s answer is a thunderous no. The believer’s old relationship to sin has been broken by union with Christ. The cross did more than forgive sins committed; it dealt with the old man connected to sin’s reign. The resurrection did more than prove Jesus was alive; it established the pattern and power of a new walk. Grace never says, “Sin does not matter.” Grace says, “Sin mattered so much Christ died, and now that you are in Him, you have no business living like the old tyrant still owns you.”
Chapter One: The Foolish Charge Against Grace
Paul begins with a question: “What shall we say then?” He knows how the carnal mind and the religious mind will twist what he has taught. Romans 5:20 said, “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” A foolish man hears that and says, “Then more sin must mean more grace, so let us continue in sin.” That is not logic; that is a pig looking at a clean fountain and asking whether it was installed to refill his mud hole. The charge is as old as grace preaching. Preach salvation by grace through faith without works, and someone will accuse you of encouraging wicked living. Preach eternal security, and someone will say you are giving people permission to sin. Preach justification apart from law, and the legalist will clutch his rulebook like a widow at a graveside.
Paul does not water down grace to answer the charge. That matters. He does not say, “Actually, grace is not as free as I made it sound.” He does not say, “To prevent abuse, let us add the law back as the believer’s governing covenant.” He does not say, “The believer is justified by faith, but kept justified by performance.” He says, “God forbid.” The problem is not grace. The problem is the wicked heart that tries to turn grace into an excuse for sin. You do not cure that heart by preaching less grace. You cure it by preaching what grace actually did in Christ. Grace is not a soft blanket placed over rebellion. Grace is a death certificate for the old relationship and a resurrection summons to a new walk.
The charge that grace encourages sin comes from two opposite ditches. The carnal professor wants to abuse grace so he can continue in sin without fear. The religious legalist wants to accuse grace so he can keep sinners under his control. Both misunderstand the gospel. The carnal man treats grace like a tavern tab God promised to pay. The legalist treats grace like a dangerous chemical that must be diluted with law before common people are allowed near it. Paul treats grace as the reigning power of God through righteousness unto eternal life. Grace is not weak on sin. Grace is the only thing in the passage strong enough to break sin’s dominion without lying about God’s holiness.
Chapter Two: Shall We Continue in Sin?
Paul asks, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” The word “continue” is important. It speaks of abiding, remaining, staying on in the same old realm as though nothing changed. Paul is not asking whether the believer may commit an act of sin and need correction, confession, chastening, and cleansing in his walk. He is asking whether the justified believer should remain in sin as the sphere of his life because grace abounds. That is the perversion. Grace abounds over sin, but grace does not make sin a home address. A lifeboat may rescue a drowning man from the sea, but only a fool would ask whether rescue means he should dive back overboard and practice swallowing water.
Sin in Romans 6 is treated like a former master. It is not merely a list of isolated misbehaviors. Paul is dealing with sin as a power, a reign, and a dominion connected with Adam. In Romans 5, sin reigned unto death. In Romans 6, Paul shows that the believer has been removed from sin’s dominion by death with Christ. The Christian life is not merely learning to avoid a few scandalous habits so the church bulletin remains respectable. It is learning to reckon as true what God says about the believer’s new position in Christ. Sin no longer owns the believer. The old master may shout, threaten, tempt, and accuse, but the title deed has changed hands.
“Shall we continue in sin?” also exposes the rotten argument that holiness requires law as a threatening whip. The legalist assumes that if the believer is not terrified of losing salvation, he will plunge into wickedness. That assumption reveals how little the legalist knows about the new birth. A born-again believer has a new nature, the indwelling Holy Ghost, the word of God, the chastening of the Father, the love of Christ, and a new standing in grace. If all a man has to keep him from sin is the fear of hell, he may be religious, but he has not understood sonship. Grace produces obedience from life, gratitude, and identity. Law can restrain the hand; grace reaches deeper and changes the household.
Chapter Three: God Forbid
Paul’s answer is immediate: “God forbid.” That phrase is strong, sharp, and final. It is not a mild suggestion, a polite hesitation, or a theological shrug. It means perish the thought. Away with it. May it never be. Paul slams the door so hard the hinges rattle. The idea that abounding grace gives the believer a reason to continue in sin is not merely mistaken; it is monstrous. It turns the medicine into an excuse to love the disease. It treats the cross as though Jesus died to make rebellion safer. That is not gospel thinking. That is a serpent wearing a grace badge.
“God forbid” also shows that the right answer to the abuse of doctrine is not to abandon doctrine. Every truth in Scripture can be abused by wicked men. Election can be abused into fatalism. Eternal security can be abused into carelessness. Liberty can be abused into license. Separation can be abused into pride. Discipline can be abused into cruelty. The abuse does not cancel the truth. A man can cut himself with a good knife; that does not prove knives are evil. It proves fools need instruction. Paul does not stop preaching grace because some reprobate wants to twist it. He explains grace more fully.
The Holy Ghost does not answer sin’s abuse by weakening assurance. He answers it by strengthening identification. Paul does not say, “You had better live right or you may stop being justified.” He says, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” That is a higher argument. He does not drive the saint with the threat of losing life. He reasons from the fact of having died with Christ. The believer is not told to live holy so that he may become dead to sin. He is told that he is dead to sin, and therefore he should not live in it. Grace always puts position before practice and then demands that practice line up with position. Religion tells a man to act like something he is not. Grace makes him something in Christ and says, “Now walk like it.”
Chapter Four: Dead to Sin
Paul asks, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” This is the controlling truth of the passage. The believer is dead to sin. That does not mean sin is dead in the believer’s daily experience. Any Christian who has tried to pray, serve, witness, think cleanly, forgive quickly, or keep his mouth under control knows sin did not receive a funeral notice in practical experience. The flesh remains present. Temptation remains real. The world remains attractive to the old nature. The devil remains active. But the believer is dead to sin in relation to its condemning reign and rightful dominion. He has died with Christ to the old headship and old mastery.
To be dead to sin is not sinless perfection. If Romans 6 taught that believers could no longer commit sin, Romans 7 would be unnecessary, Romans 8 would not speak of mortifying the deeds of the body, and the rest of the New Testament would not contain warnings, rebukes, corrections, and commands to saints. Dead to sin means the believer’s old relationship to sin has been severed by union with Christ. A dead man is no longer under the authority of his former employer. You can send him bills, threats, notices, demands, and invitations, but he is dead to that realm. Sin may still knock, but it is knocking at the door of a man who died in Christ.
This truth must be believed before it is felt. Many Christians look inside, feel the pull of sin, and conclude they cannot be dead to sin. That is letting experience correct Scripture. The believer is not told to feel dead. He is told to know what God has done. Romans 6 will go on to say, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Reckoning is faith counting God’s statement true. The flesh says, “You still belong to me.” God says, “You died with Christ.” The Christian life begins to function properly when the believer stops taking identity lessons from a corpse named Adam.
Chapter Five: Baptized Into Jesus Christ
Paul asks, “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” This is not a verse teaching that water regenerates the sinner or washes away sin. Water baptism in the Bible is important in its proper place, but water cannot place a sinner into Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 12:13 says, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” The baptism that unites the believer with Christ is the operation of God by the Spirit, placing him into Christ’s Body. Religion turns the verse into a baptistry and then pretends water can do what only the Holy Ghost can do. That is like trying to put a man into the moon by throwing him into a pond.
Paul says believers are baptized “into Jesus Christ.” That is identification, union, and placement. The saved man is no longer merely associated with Adam; he is in Christ. His standing has changed heads. His history has been joined to Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Colossians 2:12 speaks of believers being “buried with him in baptism,” and then explains the power as “the operation of God.” That is not religious plumbing. It is divine operation. Water baptism pictures burial and resurrection, and it should follow salvation as a testimony of identification, but the spiritual reality is accomplished by God when the sinner believes the gospel.
This matters because Romans 6 is not building holiness on ceremony. It is building holiness on union with Christ. If Paul were merely saying, “You got wet, so behave,” the argument would be shallow. Plenty of wet sinners come out of baptistries still in Adam because they trusted the water instead of the blood. Paul’s point is deeper. The believer has been baptized into Christ Himself, and therefore into His death. The cross is not only something Christ did for the believer; it is something into which the believer has been placed by spiritual union. The believer’s old standing ended at Calvary. God does not reform the condemned man. He crucifies him with Christ and raises him in a new position.
Chapter Six: Buried With Him by Baptism Into Death
Paul says, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death.” Burial confirms death. Men do not bury the healthy; they bury the dead. The believer’s burial with Christ shows that his old relationship in Adam has ended. Christ died for sins, and the believer is identified with that death. The old man belongs in the grave, not on the throne. The Christian who keeps dragging the old man back into daily life is like a widow propping a corpse at the dinner table and asking why the house smells wrong. God buried what religion keeps trying to improve.
“Buried with him” also shows the completeness of the break. Salvation is not God giving the old life a moral makeover. It is death and burial followed by resurrection. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 5:24 says, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” The cross is not a motivational symbol hanging on a wall. It is God’s execution site for the old man. The flesh does not need encouragement, counselling, pampering, affirmation, or religious cosmetics. It needs to be reckoned where God placed it: crucified with Christ.
Burial also points toward separation from the former life. A buried man does not maintain memberships, hobbies, appetites, arguments, ambitions, and romances in the old world. He is removed from that sphere. The believer is called to live in agreement with that burial. Sin will try to dig up the old habits, old loves, old excuses, old grudges, old filth, old pride, and old appetites. The devil is a grave robber. He would love to convince the Christian that the buried life is still the real life. But God says the believer was buried with Christ by baptism into death. The old life is not a treasure chest. It is a coffin.
Chapter Seven: Raised to Walk in Newness of Life
Paul gives the purpose: “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” The believer is not merely dead and buried with Christ; he is raised with Him in order to walk differently. Grace does not leave the saint lying in a doctrinal tomb admiring his positional truths. It raises him to walk. The Christian life is not simply avoiding wrath, possessing assurance, and waiting for heaven while sin runs the schedule. The believer is called to a new walk because he has a new life.
Christ was raised “by the glory of the Father.” Resurrection is the Father’s public vindication of the Son and His finished work. Romans 4:25 says Christ “was raised again for our justification.” The resurrection proves the sacrifice was accepted, the debt was paid, death was defeated, and the Son was glorified. The believer’s new walk rests upon resurrection ground. He is not trying to live the Christian life by squeezing religious energy out of Adam. He walks in the power and reality of life in Christ. The old life was tied to sin and death. The new life is tied to the risen Lord.
“Newness of life” is not the same as turning over a new leaf. Adam can turn over leaves all day and still remain Adam. Newness of life comes from union with the risen Christ. It produces new desires, new direction, new convictions, new affections, new battles, new loyalties, and new power. The believer may not mature instantly, and he may still stumble, but his relationship to sin has changed. Before salvation, sin was home. After salvation, sin becomes foreign territory. Before salvation, the sinner could roll in sin and feel normal. After salvation, the believer may fall into sin, but he cannot belong there peacefully. Grace does not make sin impossible. It makes sin inconsistent with who the believer now is in Christ.
Conclusion
Romans 6:1–4 answers the foolish charge that grace encourages sin by showing what grace actually did. Grace did not merely cover the sinner while leaving him alive to the old dominion. Grace joined him to Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. The believer is dead to sin, baptized into Jesus Christ, baptized into His death, buried with Him, and raised to walk in newness of life. The gospel does not say, “Sin freely because grace abounds.” It says, “You died with Christ; why live like sin still owns you?” That is a stronger answer than legalism has ever produced.
The passage also separates biblical Christianity from religious ceremony. Water baptism is a proper testimony and picture, but it does not produce the spiritual union described here. The saving reality is baptism into Jesus Christ by the operation of God. A man can be dipped in every baptistry from Jerusalem to Jacksonville and still go to hell wet if he never trusts the blood of Christ. But the moment a sinner believes the gospel, God places him into Christ, identifies him with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, and gives him a new standing. The picture should follow the reality, but the picture must never replace the reality.
Finally, the believer is raised to walk in newness of life. Grace is not a hiding place for rebellion; it is the power of a new life in Christ. The old man belongs in the grave. Sin is no longer the master. The believer’s identity is no longer Adam’s ruin but Christ’s resurrection. He does not fight sin to become dead to it; he fights because God says he already died with Christ. He does not walk new to earn life; he walks new because life has been given. The world, the flesh, and the devil will keep calling the believer back to the cemetery. Faith answers, “I have been buried with Christ, and I am not taking life lessons from a grave.”
Romans Verse-by-Verse Commentary
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Romans 1:1 Commentary – Paul, a Servant of Jesus Christ
Romans 1:2-4 Commentary – The Gospel Promised Beforehand
Romans 1:5–7 Commentary – Grace, Apostleship, and Obedience to the Faith