BURIED AND RAISED WITH CHRIST
When Paul explains baptism, one of his strongest pictures is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. He writes: “Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3)
Then he continues: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead...we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)
Paul is not merely telling us that Christians were baptized. He is explaining what their baptism meant.
Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ was raised. And Paul uses those same events to describe what happens when a believer comes to Christ: The old life dies. It is buried. A new life begins.
That is why baptism is much more than simply getting wet. Its meaning comes entirely from what Jesus has already done.
GOING DEEPER
Start With Paul's Question
Romans 6 begins with an important question. If salvation is by grace, should Christians continue living in sin so that grace can increase?
Paul answers: “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2)
Then Paul reminds the Roman Christians of something they all shared: their baptism. He asks: “Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3)
Apparently Paul expected them to understand that baptism marked a decisive change in their relationship to sin. They had died to the old life. Now they were to live differently.
“Baptized Into Christ”
Notice Paul's wording carefully. He does not merely say they were baptized because they were already in Christ. He says they were “baptized into Christ Jesus.” Then he says they were “baptized into his death.”
Those are Paul's words, and we should allow them to carry their natural weight. Paul is connecting baptism directly with the believer's relationship to Christ and His saving death.
That does not mean the water itself has power. Christ has the power. Without Christ's death, baptism has no death into which we can be baptized. Without Christ's resurrection, there is no new life into which we can rise.
Baptism has meaning only because of Him.
“Buried With Him Through Baptism”
Paul continues: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death...” (Romans 6:4)
The picture is difficult to miss. Christ died and was buried. The believer dies to the old life and is buried with Christ. Then comes resurrection: “...just as Christ was raised from the dead...we too may live a new life.”
Baptism therefore looks backward and forward. It looks backward to the death and burial of Jesus. And it looks forward to a new life lived with Him.
Identification With Christ
There is another way to understand Paul's picture.
Under the Old Covenant, the worshiper identified himself with the sacrifice by laying his hands upon it. The sacrifice then died in connection with the sinner who brought it.
Under the New Covenant, Christ Himself is the sacrifice for sin.
Paul says that in baptism we are united with Christ in the likeness of His death, burial, and resurrection.
His death becomes the death of our old life.
His burial pictures the end of that old life.
And His resurrection becomes the beginning of our new life.
That is why Paul's attention is not really on the water.
His attention is on Christ.
His death.
His burial.
His resurrection.
Notice where the “newness of life” begins. The old life dies, is buried and we are raised to walk “in newness of life”.
Baptism has meaning because it identifies the believer with what Christ has done.
Is Paul Merely Describing a Symbol?
Baptism certainly pictures death, burial, and resurrection. But is that everything Paul says?
Paul does not say: “Baptism reminds us that we previously died with Christ.” He says: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death.”
That does not mean we should make baptism magical. But neither should we reduce Paul's words to something less than he says.
The power belongs to God. The saving event is Christ's death and resurrection. The believer responds in faith. And Paul places baptism directly inside that picture.
Colossians Gives Us Another Piece
Paul uses almost the same picture in Colossians: “Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Colossians 2:12)
This verse is especially helpful because Paul brings baptism and faith together in the same sentence. They were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with Him through faith in the working of God.
Who does the saving work? God does. Whom does the believer trust? God.
Paul does not describe baptism as a human achievement. He describes the believer as trusting the working of God.
Is Baptism a Work?
This helps us ask the question more carefully. If by work we mean something a person performs to earn God's favor, baptism does not fit Paul's description.
Nobody earns Christ's death. Nobody earns Christ's resurrection. Nobody earns forgiveness. Salvation is God's gift.
The person being baptized does not accomplish Christ's saving work. Christ has already accomplished it. The believer trusts God and responds to Him.
Colossians 2:12 makes that especially clear: “through your faith in the working of God.”
The believer has faith. God does the working.
That distinction matters.
What About Circumcision?
The context of Colossians 2 adds another important detail. Just before discussing baptism, Paul speaks of a circumcision “not performed by human hands.” (Colossians 2:11)
He describes it as the putting off of the sinful nature through Christ. Then he immediately speaks of being “buried with him in baptism.”
Paul's point is not that Christians have simply exchanged one physical ritual for another. His emphasis is on what Christ and God are doing. The old life is being put away. The believer is buried with Christ. The believer is raised with Christ. And all of this rests upon “faith in the working of God.”
Baptism and the New Life
Romans 6 does not end at the water. That may be one of the most important things in the entire passage.
Paul's purpose is not merely to explain how someone becomes a Christian. He is explaining how a Christian should live afterward.
He continues: “Our old self was crucified with him...” (Romans 6:6) And later: “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)
Baptism therefore carries an obligation. If I have died with Christ, I cannot casually return to the life I buried. If I have been raised with Christ, I am called to live like someone who has been given a new life.
That is why Paul brings up baptism in Romans 6 in the first place. He is saying, in effect: Remember what happened when you came to Christ. You died to the old life. You were buried. You were raised. Now live like it.
Put Romans and Colossians Together
Now place the two passages side by side.
Romans 6: baptized into Christ; baptized into His death; buried with Him through baptism; raised to walk in newness of life.
Colossians 2: buried with Him in baptism; raised with Him; through faith; in the working of God.
Together they give us a remarkably balanced picture.
Baptism is not presented as an accomplishment by which we save ourselves. Neither is it described merely as a ceremony performed after everything connected with conversion has already happened.
Paul places baptism within the believer's participation in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And he makes faith central: “through your faith in the working of God.”
Keep Christ at the Center
There is always a danger when discussing baptism that we begin talking so much about baptism that we lose sight of Christ. Paul does exactly the opposite.
Everything in these passages points to Jesus: His death. His burial. His resurrection. His new life.
Baptism matters because Christ matters. The water does not save apart from Christ. The physical act does not earn salvation. Without faith, getting wet accomplishes nothing.
The believer is trusting what God has done in Christ. That is Paul's picture.
We don't need to make it say more than that. But neither should we make it say less.
CONTINUE YOUR STUDY
Next Bible Study
Paul says: “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith.” Then, in his very next sentence, he says: “for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
How do faith and baptism fit together in Paul's argument? That is what we will examine next.
Related Bible Studies
What Does Baptism Mean?
Did the Apostles Preach the Same Message Everywhere?
The First Gospel Sermon
Read First. Conclude Later.