Buried With Christ in Baptism, That We Should Walk in Newness of Life (Romans 6:4–6)

Rom 6:4. We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

“Therefore” – indicates a conclusion from what precedes. What conclusion does the Apostle draw? He says: we were buried with Him in the death of Christ, so as to live a new life. But does this directly follow from what precedes? There it was said that, being baptized, we were baptized into the death of Christ, which means: we died to sin. The direct conclusion from this would be: thus, we were buried in the death of Christ, so as to be dead to sin. And this would directly correspond to the rhetorical question: “how can we still live in it?” But he says: we were buried, so as to live a new life. Why does he say it this way? Because this is another expression of the same thought; for to live a new life – means: to live a life opposite to the former; and if the former was sinful, a life in which we lived to sin – then this new one must be a life in which we ought not to live to sin, or must be dead to it. Or because – to indicate the second half of the action of holy baptism; for in it we not only die, but also come alive, or rise. We die to sin, and we rise to righteousness and holiness. And by the essence of moral and spiritual death this must be so. When the soul dies to something, the soul itself does not die: for it is ever-living; but only it turns away from what it dies to, and hatefully abhors it with mortal hatred. But hatred and turning away in the soul always so arrange themselves that, in turning away from one thing, it does not turn into emptiness, but toward something opposite to that from which it turns. By this law, hating sin and turning away from it, the soul at the same time turns to righteousness and holiness and loves them. This love of righteousness and holiness is the new life. – This renewal of life is accomplished in the same holy baptism in which sin dies. It is accomplished not mechanically, but through inner voluntary changes or decisions; it happens in baptism this way because beforehand the person to be baptized has chosen to live thus. Therefore, before submersion in the font, having renounced Satan and his works, we are united with Christ the Lord, that we might dedicate our whole life to Him. This disposition in the font is sealed by God’s grace and receives power to be effective. Coming out of the font with it, the baptized one thus appears completely new, renewed in his moral and spiritual life – he rises. Just as Christ the Lord died and rose, so the baptized one, submerging in the font, dies, and coming out of the font, rises: he dies to sin and rises to righteousness, to new and renewed life. It is about this mystical and at the same time freely willing change that Saint Paul speaks in this place: we were buried … so as to walk in renewed life.

“We were buried with him by baptism into death” – means the same as above: “we were baptized into his death”. The Apostle used such a word to express the most immediate likeness of submersion in the font to the death of Christ – and not merely likeness, but also essential participation in the cleansing and life-giving power of this death. “We were buried” as if we together with Christ are lifted onto the cross and placed in the tomb, in the action of baptism. Thus truly the power of the death of Christ passes to us in baptism, as if our death here were the same as His death, or inseparable and united with it.

When the Apostle says that the Lord Jesus “Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,” διὰ, he thereby means that He rose “by His own Godhead; for the radiance of the glory of the Father is the Son” (Blessed Theophylact). “By the glory of the Father the Apostle calls the Godhead of Christ” (Blessed Theodoret).

One should not overlook the words: “walk in newness of life”. The renewal of life is accomplished in holy baptism – graciously mystical and freely willing. What is before the one who came out of the font? To begin from this moment to walk in this renewed life. Life is the manifestation in visible deeds of what was created within. There was created in the moment of baptism: dying to sin and being brought to life for righteousness and holiness. If dying to sin is mortal hatred toward it, then being brought to life for righteousness is positive love toward it. To walk, consequently, in renewed life will be – to walk, while hating sin, in love for righteousness and holiness. And this is the goal of the entire life of a Christian who has received holy baptism.

Rom 6:5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

He proves that he correctly said before: “we were buried…” so as to walk in renewed life. For, he says, becoming conformed to His death, we must also be conformed to His resurrection. But if the former is accomplished through dying to sin, then the latter must be accomplished through new life in holiness and righteousness; and this is precisely to walk in renewed life, conforming ourselves to Christ the Lord, who rose from the dead in brightness and glory.

“United with”, σύμφυτοι, – grafted together, grown together, as a graft with a tree. He deepens more and more the thought of our participation in the death of Christ in baptism.

What does it mean: grafting into the death of Christ? Dying to sin, graciously accomplished mystically in the baptismal font and which must be preserved after baptism by our free will and our own diligence. Saint Chrysostom says: “Two mortifications does the Apostle have in mind here. One is accomplished by Christ in baptism, and another we ourselves are obliged to accomplish through our diligence after baptism. That in baptism our former sins are buried, this is Christ’s gift; but that after baptism we remain dead to sin, this must be the work of our own diligence, although in this struggle God helps us most greatly. For baptism has power not only to blot out former sins, but also protects from future ones. Just as on your side you employed faith for the blotting out of former sins; so, in order not to be defiled by sins after baptism, show a change in your disposition”.

Why did the Apostle not say: grafted into death – but: “into a death like his”? Saint Chrysostom answers thus: “because in you not the very essence died, but the sinful man died”. And further: “since we were buried in water, and Christ in earth, our buried is sin, and His is the body; therefore the Apostle did not say: ‘united with his death’, – but: ‘united with a death like his’. Although both are death, nevertheless, not the same thing is mortified by each.”

How to understand: “we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” – that is, will be grafted into a resurrection like His? According to the flow of speech, this should be understood the same way as the grafting into a death like His. “Certainly…will be,” in Greek: ἀλλὰ καί … ἐσόμεθα. Perhaps it is permissible to translate: we must also be. Judging from this, the Apostle proposes here an exhortation, or lays upon us an obligation, after baptism to make our life conform to the brightness of the risen Lord.

How then is it better to understand – according to the first or second indication? As one wishes. Only this should not be overlooked – that the Apostle’s intention in this discourse is to dispose believers to live holy and spotless after baptism.

Rom 6:6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be enslaved to sin.

“We know” – shows that the Apostle intends to propose a truth which will serve as confirmation of the truth of what has been said before (Saint Chrysostom). If you are convinced of what follows, you cannot doubt what precedes. Therefore one can conclude that the words: “We know that” – mean the same as: because, for.

“Our old self” – “not the nature, but an evil disposition of the spirit” (Blessed Theodoret), or “depravity” (Blessed Theophylact). “Old, that is, grown old in sins. The old self is the same as our life grown old in sins. He calls it a man as a sign that by this is meant a habit of sin many centuries old and inseparable from man. Before the coming of the Lord and the ordering of our salvation in Him, people were so possessed by sin that, according to the customs of those times, without a life of lust and foul deeds, a man was not a man. This life, because it was intertwined with us, merged with us, and we had it inseparably united with ourselves, he calls a man – as something we loved as ourselves, or even more than ourselves” (Photius and Oecumenius).

“Was crucified with him” – “brings baptism and the cross together” (Saint Chrysostom) and gives to understand that the old self “like the body of Christ is buried in baptism” (Blessed Theophylact) – in the sense that “our evil disposition is mortified in baptism” (Blessed Theodoret). The evil disposition, renounced before baptism willingly, by free will and decision of the will, and replaced by a good disposition, is by the grace of baptism completely weakened and yields its dominion to the new good disposition. This is the direct meaning of the crucifixion of the old self in baptism.

“That the body of sin might be done away with”. “By the body of sin the Apostle means not this our body, but all our vices. Just as by the name of the old self he means generally all that is evil in man; so by the body of the old self he again calls the evil, made up of different kinds of vice” (Saint Chrysostom). Similarly in present common speech one says: a body (corpus) of soldiers – a collection of soldiers; a body (corpus) of diplomats – a collection of diplomats. To do away with means to make inactive (Blessed Theodoret). “That the body of sin might be done away with” – will be the same as: all kinds of vice or sin in us should become inactive or should cease to act, should be rendered dead. He did not say: the old self will be crucified, and the body of sin will be done away – but: “might be done away”, – showing that in this latter we ourselves must also take a share through our free diligence – hereby pointing to the labor and struggle in cutting off the effectiveness of vices, sins, and passions.

But how is it that the old self is already crucified, that is, the evil disposition is already mortified, and yet there remains the task to do away with the body of sin, or the different kinds of vice? To this we say: sin, like virtue, appears in three forms: sin as a deed, and embraces the whole sum of sinful deeds; sin as a tendency, and embraces all kinds of sinful inclinations, passions, vices; sin as a general love of sin, means man’s root-like proneness to sin in general. Sin in this last sense is properly the old self. It dies and is crucified in baptism; for in it we receive mortal hatred toward sin and love for righteousness and good; and this is the death of love of sin, that is, the crucifixion of the old self. But while such a good disposition, attitude, decision is received, the particular kinds of sinfulness and wickedness – passions – still remain, and they must be overcome and brought to inactivity or done away with, through special efforts and struggles directed against them. Efforts and struggles, not allowing them to act, exhaust them, wear them out, starve them; and they become inactive. There is no moral possibility of raising these struggles against the passions while love of sin, or the old self, still resides in the heart. Therefore the Apostle said that in order that the body of sin might be done away with, or the vices and passions destroyed, the old self is crucified beforehand – hatred of sin and love of good are received. This change for the good, strengthened by God’s grace in baptism, proves mighty in overcoming the passions and doing them away.

We add to this that inasmuch as the passions have their principal seat in our body, then doing away with them will be the same as driving them out of the body. The body, so long as it remains the seat of passions, is a body of passions or a body of sin; but when it ceases to be such a seat, it becomes impassive and sinless. “That the body of sin might be done away with” – can therefore be paraphrased thus: all passions are driven out of the body, and it becomes clean and spotless, completely different from before, instead of sinful – sinless, instead of passionate – impassive. One can also add to this: it becomes worthy of the most radiant resurrection to eternal glory and blessedness.

“That we should no longer be enslaved to sin”. This indicates both the means by which the body of sin is done away with, or the passions are destroyed – and the result of this doing away. You wish the body of sin to be done away, or the passions – do not serve sin, that is, whenever an opportunity for sin presents itself or thoughts of it arise, do not submit to it – drive away the thought, avoid the temptations. Do not yield to sin, do not do it – do not give food to the passion. It will remain hungry this time. Do not yield to sin the next time, the third time, and at every time; the passion will completely lack food and die of hunger – it will be done away. Do the same with another, a third, and all passions; and they will all die and be done away.

Therefore, do not indulge yourself in any sin or do not commit any sinful deed, and the body of sin – the passions – will be done away. Thus not serving sin is the means of doing away with the body of sin, or the passions; but it is also the result of this latter. Only there it was an act of self-coercion, but here it is an established condition. When the body of sin is done away with, the passions are quenched and stifled; then there is no urge to sin at all, no hindrance in good any longer befalls man, he freely walks in his good undertakings, nothing contrary holds him back and draws him into slavery. This condition is the condition of impassivity – most radiant and much desired. And it seems that the holy Apostle, saying: “that we should no longer be enslaved to sin”, – wished to show the final goal to which the image of salvation given to us in Lord Jesus Christ leads. Such is the goal! Receive boldly both the faith and all its obligations. There is much reason to strive after this and to labor.