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Romans 6 presents the Christ who died and resurrected for our experience and enjoyment. We may experience and enjoy Christ in His death and resurrection. The result of such an enjoyment is the free gift in Christ, that is, eternal life. Verse 23 thus says, “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Here eternal life is not merely a life we receive once and for all; it implies and involves many matters for our daily experience and enjoyment of Christ.
Romans 6:3 says, “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death.” The believers have been baptized into Christ, even into His death. Baptism is not a form or a ritual; it signifies our identification with Christ. Through baptism we are immersed into Christ, taking Him as our realm, that we may be united with Him as one in His death and resurrection.
Romans 6:3, which speaks of our having been baptized into Christ, is the strongest support for the thought of the organic union in Christ, the organic union we have with Christ. We can never enjoy and experience Christ without being baptized into Christ. We were born in one person, Adam, but when we believed and were baptized, we entered into another person, Christ. Whether we were good or bad, we were born in Adam. By being baptized into Christ, we entered into Christ and became a part of Him. The meaning of baptism is to put the believers into Christ. Baptism, therefore, is an extremely significant experience, for in it a transfer takes place. Baptism is an act in which we put the members of Adam into death, thereby transferring them out of Adam into Christ. This means that we have been baptized out of one realm, one sphere, into another realm, another sphere, that is, out of Adam, the first man (1 Cor. 15:45a, 47a), into Christ (1:30; Gal. 3:27), the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). Even the King James Version uses the word into in Romans 6:3. Christ is a realm, a sphere, into which we have been baptized. Now we are in Him, He is our enjoyment, and He is the very One whom we can experience.
We should praise the Lord that we have been baptized into Christ. Although we were born in Adam, by baptism we have been identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. Through death and resurrection Christ was transfigured from the flesh into the Spirit. Even Christ Himself needed death and resurrection to be transformed from the flesh to the Spirit. Likewise, through identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, we have been transferred out of Adam into Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, we were transferred from being a part of Adam into being a part of Christ. Now we are no longer in Adam — we are absolutely in Christ.
In 6:3 we see that when we were baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized also into the death of Christ. On the one hand, we have been baptized into Christ’s person; on the other hand, we have been baptized into His death. His death has separated us from the world and the satanic power of darkness and has terminated our natural life, our old nature, our self, our flesh, and even our entire history.
It is significant that in 6:3 Paul says that we have been baptized not into Christ’s resurrection but into His death. The resurrected Christ still bears in Himself the effectiveness of His death. Otherwise, we could not be baptized into His death by being baptized into Him. The fact that we are baptized into Christ and into His death indicates that Christ and His death are one. The resurrection of Christ carries the element of His effective death. Thus, when a believer is baptized into Christ, he is spontaneously baptized into the death of Christ. It is impossible to separate Christ’s death from Christ Himself. The being of the resurrected Christ includes the element of His effective death. The effectiveness of Christ’s death is one of the ingredients of His all-inclusive being. Therefore, to be baptized into Christ is to be baptized into His death.
There is a tremendous difference between death in Adam and the death of Christ. We loathe death in Adam, but we appreciate the sweetness of Christ’s death. Christ’s death is dear and lovable, and we may abide restfully in it. How wonderful that a believer baptized into the all-inclusive Christ is also placed into the death of Christ! In the words of a hymn written by A. B. Simpson, “It is so sweet to die with Christ” (Hymns, #482). Rest and victory are found in Christ’s death.
Every candidate for baptism is a person in the process of dying. Through baptism such a person is put to death. Having been identified with Christ and His death, he is immersed in water and is buried. Through baptism he enters into the actual experience of death with Christ.
The Christian life is a life of baptism. On the one hand, baptism has been accomplished; on the other hand, baptism continues until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. Hence, until this goal has been attained, we continue to live a life of baptism. This means that we are daily under the application of the death of Christ as we experience the effectiveness of His death, which is now one of the ingredients, the elements, in the all-inclusive Spirit. In our daily life we may experience the putting to death of the negative elements within us. This takes place not by doctrine or by a particular practice but by the killing element in the death of Christ included in the all-inclusive Spirit.
The believers have been buried with Christ through baptism into death. Romans 6:4 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death.” Here Paul introduces the thought of burial, indicating that we may experience Christ in His burial. In the natural realm death always comes before burial, but in the spiritual realm burial comes before death. When we were baptized, we were buried with Christ. When we were buried with Him, we entered into His death. We do not die directly; we enter into Christ’s death through baptism.
Suppose a certain person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus. He should then be baptized into Christ. To baptize this new believer into Christ is to put him into the death of Christ. When he is baptized, he is actually buried. This burial results in death. This is what it means to be buried with Christ through baptism into His death.
Furthermore, the believers, having been resurrected as Christ was, should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4 continues, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” We were buried with Christ into His death, and now we have been resurrected as He was. Hence, we should walk in newness of life. This newness of life is very much related to the life-giving Spirit, who is Christ Himself in His resurrection. The way to walk in newness of life is the Spirit.
When we are immersed in the water, we enter into death, but when we come out of the water, we enter into resurrection. We all need to have such a wonderful realization and understanding of baptism. After baptism we become a new person in resurrection. Resurrection is not only a future state; it is also a present process. To walk in newness of life means to live today in the realm of resurrection and to reign in life. This kind of living deals with all that is of Adam in us until we are fully transformed and conformed to the image of Christ (8:29).
In fact, the newness of life mentioned in 6:4 is the likeness of His resurrection mentioned in verse 5. We all should walk in this newness of life. We must see that we have grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, that is, in baptism, and that we will grow together with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, in the newness of His resurrected life. This means that we must see that we have died with Him and that we are now growing with Him. We were buried with Him in baptism, and we are now growing with Him in His resurrection, in His divine life. We must walk according to this vision; that is, we must walk in newness of life. In our daily life and our meetings, we need to live, behave, act, work, and do everything in newness of life.
Romans 6:5 reveals a crucial point of truth: the believers, having grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, will grow together with Him also in the likeness of His resurrection. This verse includes two steps of our growth in Christ. The first step has already taken place, whereas the second step is progressive. On the one hand, we have grown together with Christ in baptism; on the other hand, we will be growing together with Him in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, in the newness of life.
Verse 5 says, “For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” The phrase likeness of His death in this verse refers to the baptism mentioned in the previous verse. Baptism is the likeness of the death of Christ. In baptism, we have grown together with Christ. The phrase growntogether has presented a challenge to many translators. However, if we adhere to the meaning of the Greek word, there will be no difficulty. The Greek word translated as “grown together” is used in Luke 8:7 to speak of the thorns that grew up together with the wheat. Similarly, we have grown together with Christ. When we were baptized into Christ, in one sense we were put to death; in another sense we began to grow. This very much resembles the sowing of a seed into the earth. Apparently, the seed is sown; actually, it begins to grow. When we were placed in the water, we were like a seed planted in soil. Baptism is the best soil for spiritual growth. By being baptized into Christ we have all grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death.
According to Romans 6:5, Paul regards baptism as a step in our growth in life. In baptism we were not only buried into death, but we also began to grow. This is a fact, even though we cannot adequately understand it with our human mind. The important point is that to be baptized is to grow together with Christ.
The growth of Christ in the believers is a mystery, just as matters related to life are always a mystery. Baptism is a process of growth similar to the process of human growth in the mother’s womb, which is initiated with human conception, continues for nine months, and consummates with delivery. It is marvelous that just as in human conception fetuses grow into the likeness of their parents, in baptism the believers grow with Christ in the likeness of His death. We should not despise that moment when the believers are put into and pass through water, for at that moment they are growing with Christ in the likeness of His death. After their baptism is completed, they have grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death. Baptism is not an insignificant matter. Regardless of how formal a baptism might be, baptizing people into Jesus Christ results in a great change — the Spirit causes the growth of Christ in the baptized believer.
When we preach Christ Jesus, we have to realize that in the word we preach, there is the Spirit. The Spirit accompanies our preaching of the word. When we preach the word, we must have faith that we are preaching the word of Jehovah, the word of the living God, and the word of Jesus Christ. Moreover, the word is the Spirit (John 6:63). When we preach the word to others, lead them to salvation, and baptize them into the water, the Holy Spirit will honor this baptism by causing the growth of Christ within them. When a sinner hears the gospel, believes, prays, and acknowledges salvation by recognizing that he is a saved person, we should put him into the water of baptism. Being baptized into the water is a sign indicating that he is being baptized into the processed Triune God, that is, immersed into the union with the Triune God. For him to be put into the Triune God in this way is for him to grow with Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God (Col. 2:19). Therefore, after a new convert believes in the Lord Jesus, we should baptize him immediately, believing in the effectiveness of baptism.
Although the significance of baptism is quite meaningful, very few who are baptized today truly appreciate its significance. When we go to contact people to preach the gospel, we must have the faith that the gospel we are preaching is the living word. The living Spirit goes with us. The living word of God and the living Spirit of Christ are one, and they are one with us. We must exercise our faith to believe that when we open our mouth to preach the word of God, the Spirit of Christ will work along with this word. Then we follow the Lord’s instruction to baptize the new believers into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). Through baptism, these believers will grow together with Christ in the likeness of His death.
Romans 6:5 also indicates that we will grow with Christ also in the likeness of His resurrection. This does not refer to a future, objective resurrection but to the present process of growth. When we were baptized, we grew together with Christ in the likeness of His death; now, through His death we are growing into His resurrection. Just as the element of Christ’s death is found only in Him, so the element of Christ’s resurrection is found only in Christ Himself. He Himself is resurrection (John 11:25). After experiencing a proper baptism, we continue to grow in and with Christ in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, to walk in newness of life.
Although the deep aspects of this truth have been lost to many Christians, Frederic Louis Godet, a famous expositor of the New Testament, has suggested in his Commentary on Romans that the growth revealed in Romans 6:5 is related to the notion of grafting. He translated this verse: “For if we have become one and the same plant [with Him] through the likeness of His death, we shall be also partakers of His resurrection.” According to Godet, the word grown denotes “the organic union in virtue of which one being shares the life, growth, and phases of existence belonging to another.” Through the organic union of two trees, accomplished by grafting, the one tree partakes of the life and characteristic of the other tree. Applying this understanding to our spiritual experience, we may say that we have been grafted into the “tree” of Christ, the Son of God, as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Having become one with Him through grafting, we now partake of the life and characteristics of Him as the all-inclusive One, and in this way we grow in Him.
In this grafting, that is, in the organic union with Christ, whatever Christ passed through has become our history. His death and resurrection are now ours because we are in Him and are organically joined to Him. Such a grafting discharges all our negative elements, resurrects our God-created faculties, uplifts our faculties, enriches our faculties, and saturates our entire being to transform us.
We need to see the two aspects of grafting and growing together revealed in Romans 6:5: “For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” The first aspect is “in the likeness of His death” and refers to our being grafted into Him. The second is “in the likeness of His resurrection” and refers to His coming into us to grow in us. In order for grafting to take place, both trees must experience cutting. This cutting signifies the experience of being put to death. The initial grafting is related to the Lord’s death. He is the true vine. In His crucifixion Christ was thoroughly cut, and He still bears the marks of this cutting. This means that within the being of the resurrected Christ, there is an opening into which we can be grafted. Now His cut wound is waiting for the repentant sinners; His side has been pierced and His blood has been shed. However, if we would be grafted into Him, we too must be cut. Hence, we were cut on the cross as well. We experience this cutting when we repent and receive the Lord. Now Christ as the life-giving Spirit moves in us, searching our inner being, enlightening us so that we repent. Our grief and tears are the “cut” we receive. We have no choice but to believe in the Lord and ask Him to save us. Then we are joined to Him at the very place where both He and we have been cut. In a sense, the two cuts embrace each other. Through such an embrace, the grafting is accomplished, and the two trees — the crucified and resurrected Christ and the repentant sinners — become one tree. When we believe and are baptized, we are grafted into Him and grow together with Him in the likeness of His death. This grafting is the growing. It is not that we are grafted first, and then we begin to grow. Rather, we are grafted into Him in the likeness of His death and grow together with Him at the same time.
Once we are thus grafted into Him, His resurrection life comes into us and removes all the negative elements within. His life becomes ours in resurrection. He uplifts the original functions given to us at creation, and enriches, strengthens, and even saturates our whole being. This new life is a life of two lives grafted into one. In this union are victory, life, light, power, and all the other divine attributes. All these are ours by virtue of being grafted into Him. In this grafting we grow together with Him. Then in resurrection His life grows in us. The divine life is in us, supplying us. This is the Christian life.
In summary, grafting is the growing. Apparently grafting is a kind of cutting; actually this cutting is a kind of growth. When a tree is cut off and grafted into another tree, in this tree that is grafted we see both the cutting and the growing, that is, its growth through being cut. This is a picture of our growth in Christ by being buried into the death of Christ through baptism. This is to grow together with Christ in the likeness of His death, that is, to grow together with Christ in baptism. Therefore, to be baptized is to be grafted into Christ. This baptism involves growth.
After a person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus, he grows with Christ first in baptism, in the likeness of His death, and then in the likeness of His resurrection, in the newness of life. As a believer experiences a proper baptism, the divine Spirit within him puts to death the old man with his worldly, sinful elements. After he comes out of the water of baptism a new person, he begins to live and walk in the newness of life, in the newness of His resurrection. Therefore, he grows daily in the likeness of His resurrection and walks in newness of life. This is certainly the wonderful experience and enjoyment of the Christ who died and resurrected.
Romans 6:6 tells us that the believers’ old man has been crucified with Christ that the body of sin might be annulled, that they should no longer serve sin as slaves. The believers’ old man has been crucified with Him, that is, buried with Him into His death. Certainly we may participate in His death, which has annulled our old man and everything related to our old man, including our thinking, our likes, our dislikes, and our temper. Here our old man refers to the natural life in our soul. The old man is our very being, which was created by God but became fallen through sin; it is the same as the first “I” in Galatians 2:20. It is not the soul itself but the life of the soul which has been counted by God as hopeless and has been put on the cross and crucified with Christ. Formerly, our soul acted as an independent person, with the old man as its life and personality; now, since the old man has been crucified, our soul should act only as an organ of Christ and should be under the control of our spirit, having Christ as its life.
Our old man has been crucified by His death that our body of sin might be annulled. Because of the fall, our body is a body of sin. It is the body indwelt, occupied, corrupted, possessed, utilized, and enslaved by sin so that it does sinful things. This body of sin is very active and full of strength to commit sins. As such a fallen body, it is good only for committing sins. In this body there is nothing but sin. The sin dwelling in our body makes it the body of sin (Rom. 7:19-20). When a person dies, immediately his body loses its job. Likewise, because our old man has been crucified with Christ, the body of sin has lost its job of sinning. It has become of no effect because the sinning person, the old man, has been crucified. The body of sin is not the sinning person but the sinning instrument utilized by the old man to express himself by committing sins; it is the means by which the person does sinful things. However, now that the person, the old man, has been crucified, the body of sin is unemployed. Christ’s death made the body of sin jobless and therefore of no effect. Because the body of sin has lost its job, we no longer need to serve sin as slaves. This means that we have been freed from sin. Since our old man has been crucified and buried with Christ, we have been freed from sin (6:18-22) and no longer need to be under the bondage of sin to serve sin as slaves.
The believers’ old man has been crucified with Him that the body of sin might be of no effect, that they should no longer serve sin as slaves. Suppose that you are a slave. If you die, your body would be annulled. Spontaneously, you would no longer be under slavery; death would end your slavery. This is the way that we are freed from sin. The Bible never tells us to try to overcome sin by our striving, struggling, and endeavoring. Rather, it reveals that we are free from sin by the death of Christ. By being buried into the death of Christ, we die and our body of sin is annulled. Then we are no longer under slavery to serve sin as slaves; thus, we are freed from sin.
Romans 6:10 says, “For the death which He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life which He lives, He lives to God.” The believers, having died to sin in Christ, should live, as Christ lives, to God. To live to God means that we are under His direction and control and that we desire to fulfill His requirements, satisfy His desires, and complete what He intends.
Death in and of itself is terrible, but the positive side of death is that it leads to resurrection. The death of Christ led Him to resurrection. Our experience is the same. Once we die in Christ, His death leads us to His resurrection. For this reason, when we baptize people, we do not leave them under the water; rather, after we put them into the water, we immediately raise them up from the water, showing that they have been not only buried with Christ into His death but also raised together with Christ in His resurrection.
When we go into the water to be baptized, we enter into the death of Christ by faith, allowing ourselves, everything that belongs to us, and everything that is related to us to be buried in the tomb of the water of baptism, that is, in the burial of Christ. Then by faith we come out of the water, and in resurrection we allow the resurrected Christ to live in us that we may live by Him and with Him. Therefore, through baptism we have been identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. His death and burial, on the negative side, terminated us and everything that is of us that we may be delivered from the self, sin, the world, and everything that is of the old creation, everything that is of Satan, and everything that is outside of God. His resurrection, on the positive side, has made us a new creation to partake of God’s life and all its riches in Christ, and has brought us into a new realm of resurrection in which the old things have passed away and have become new. This is our experience and enjoyment of the Christ who died and resurrected.
