Romans 6 · a question people ask
"all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death" (6:3). What does baptism do here?
This question is only about 6:3-11. First, what the chapter says: "Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life." (6:3-4). The chapter says no more about baptism than its own verses do. Christians read these verses in more than one way, each reading resting on verses of Romans, and these notes choose none. All agree on what the chapter says: "our old man was crucified with him" (6:6), that "we also might walk in newness of life" (6:4). These notes take up only what these verses say, and apply neither reading to any church or person today.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Baptism joins the believer to Christ's death and rising
Those who read it this way read 6:3-5 as saying that in baptism the believer is joined to Christ's death and rising. They point to "We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death" (6:4), and to the next verse, "For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection" (6:5). On this reading, baptism is where the believer is buried with him and united with him.
Romans 6:3-5
Baptism pictures a union with Christ received by faith
Those who read it this way read baptism here as picturing a union with Christ's death and rising that is received by faith. They point to "the likeness of his death" (6:5), and to the chapter's call to believe and to consider it so: "we believe that we will also live with him" (6:8), and "Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (6:11). They set beside it the letter's words, "Being therefore justified by faith" (5:1). On this reading, baptism pictures the union that faith receives.
Romans 6:5 · Romans 6:8 · Romans 6:11 · Romans 5:1
The verses
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.”
“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.”