3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
| John 1:4; 6:56; 15:5; Acts 17:8 |
Rom. 6:23; 8:1; 12:5; 1 Cor. 1:2, 30; 15:22; 2 Cor. 2:14; 5:17, 19 |
Col 3:3; | John 14:20; 15:4, 11; 17:21; 8:9-11; 1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 4:12; 13:5 |
| 2 Cor.5:21; Eph. 1:7; Phil. 3:9; Col. 2:6, 7, 10; 2 Thess. 1:12 |
Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:10, 13; Col. 1:28 |
- | Gal. 4:19; Col. 1:27; 2 Thess. 1:12 |
| 1 John 3:6, 9, 24; 4:13, 15; 5:20 | 1 Thess. 4:16; 2 Tim. 1:1, 9; 2:10 |
- | 1 Pet. 3:15; 1 John 2:24, 27; 4:4 |
V. 3 - “Do you not know” - The writer of Hebrews says almost the same thing: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Heb. 5:12) You should know and understand the following:
“all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus” - This verse gave me pause. A cursory reading could lead us to think that only by water baptism are we added to or included in Jesus’ family and church. I do not believe that baptism is a prerequisite for salvation. Baptism is an outward demonstration of your commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
(See note 1, below)
This verse emphasizes that being a Christian is not a spectator event. We don’t just know information about Jesus. We don’t gather data. It is more than a friendship, more than a relationship - it is all of those and more. Jesus is in us, each one. We, each one, are in Jesus. (See: John 14:18-21; 17:20-23). In this case, ‘baptized’ means or implies ‘total immersion’. That we are in Jesus, or that Jesus is in us, is throughout Jesus’ teachings, and throughout the teachings of the apostles. I did a search of the NT for the word combinations “in Him”, “in Christ”, “in Jesus”, and “in you” - looking for scripture showing believers are joined with Christ and God. There many other verses which refer to ‘believing in Jesus’ or Him or Christ, and several that are ‘faith in Jesus’. The phrase “in Christ” is first mentioned in Acts, and then throughout the letters by the apostles - about 60+ times; “in you” about 80+ times.
“have been baptized into His death” - I want eternal life with Jesus. Being in heaven, worshipping God and Jesus, walking the streets of gold in New Jerusalem on this new earth, is more wonderful than I can completely imagine. I want to be there.
But this - immersed in His death - this sound serious. It does not mean, as far as I can tell, that I will have to suffer a death like Jesus for salvation to count. It does mean just as Jesus physical human body died, His new resurrected body is now alive in Heaven.
Jesus said we must be born again (See: John 3:3-8).
This body we live in, beset and infected with sin cannot be part of eternal life. (See: 2 Cor. 4:16)
We must receive new perfect, unblemished bodies. We will receive bodies just like His. (See: 1 John 3:1-2)
Jesus died to or for sin. We also must die to sin. When we accept Jesus as Savior, we become “dead man walking”. Supposedly, in some prisons, a convicted criminal slated for execution, would be designated ‘dead man walking’ when he moved outside his cell. These bodies are condemned, they will not be allowed in Heaven. When we worship at the throne of God, when we are displayed as the bride of Christ, or children of God it will be in our new incorruptible bodies.These are given to us by God, through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Watchman Nee explains this quite well. “When the Lord Jesus was on the Cross all of us died - not individually, for we had not yet been born - but, being in Him, we died in HIm. ‘One died for all, therefore all died’ (2 Cor. 5:14). When He was crucified all of us were crucified with Him... All references to it [His crucifixion, death] are in the Greek aorist, which is all the ‘once-for-all’ tense, the ‘eternal past tense’... That we have died in Christ is not merely a doctrinal position, it is an eternal and indisputable fact.” (See note 2, below).
V. 4 - "Therefore we have been buried with Him” - This may be read “since” we have been buried with Him. We are immersed with Christ in His death. Our bodies die, just as His body died. We will be raised in new bodies, just as He was raised to new life.
In Romans 6:4-11, Paul presents a case for believers to know that if they share in Christ’s death, they will also share in Christ’s life. This is a magnificent passage, almost a prayer song, a celebration song. For me it ranks up there with 1 Corinthians 13. When you confess that you believe in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, you have been immersed into His death. (Confession is more than just saying, “I believe.” Saying you believe is important, but making the commitment, turning over your self and life to Him, that you will be His, and He will be yours is the key.) There are eight key statements in these verses showing that when you have Jesus’ death you also have Jesus’ life eternal.
Paul states that when you are baptized, after confessing Jesus as Lord in your life, you have died to this present existence, and raised to new life, a new existence in Christ. Although you do not physically die when baptized, that moment of immersion is a sign to the spiritual realms you no longer are what you once were, you are a new person. It is physical point in time to which you can anchor yourself. You can know you are Christ’s because you can look back at the baptism. It is a physical act that cannot be imagined, it really happened. On that day you became a child of God. If you do not get baptized, it is too easy to deny anything changed in your life. You could tell yourself you just imagined it. Baptism gives a starting point for our new life - we died with Christ, we are raised up to new life with Christ.
The following chart summarizes Paul paean to life in Christ Jesus our Lord:
***| Baptized into His Death | V. 4 | Raised to walk in His Life |
| United in His Death | V. 5 | United in His Resurrection |
| Crucified with Him | V. 6 | No longer Slaves to Sin |
| Died, therefore - | V. 7 | Free from Sin |
| Died with Him | V. 8 | Live with Him |
| Raised from Dead | V. 9 | Never Die Again |
| Christ Died to Sin | V. 10 | Christ Lives to God |
| Dead to Sin | V. 11 | Live to God in Christ Jesus |
Note 1: Norman Geisler; “Systematic Theology, Vol. 4, Church, Last Things”; (Bethany House; 2005).
Note 2: Watchman Nee; “The Normal Christian Life”; (Gospel Literature Service; 1957).
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