Romans 6:4
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Context
Paul answers the question of whether believers should continue in sin so that grace may abound. He grounds his "no" in the meaning of baptism as union with Christ's death and resurrection.
What Does Romans 6:4 Mean?
Paul says that through baptism we are buried with Christ into death, so that we may rise to live a new kind of life. He is answering whether grace gives license to keep sinning, and his answer is rooted in what baptism signifies. To be "buried with him" pictures a decisive break with the old way of living. As Christ went into the grave, the believer's old life is laid to rest, marked by this act of identification with His death.
But burial is not the end of the picture. Paul draws the parallel: "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The believer is united not only with Christ's death but with His resurrection. The purpose is transformation -- a new walk, a changed manner of living. Baptism dramatizes a passage from death to life: the old self buried, a new life begun. Paul's point is that union with Christ makes ongoing slavery to sin unthinkable for the believer. Having shared in His death and resurrection, the Christian is called to live accordingly, in the freshness and freedom of life made new by the power that raised Christ from the dead.
In the Original Language
"Buried with" translates the Greek "synthaptō," to bury together with. "Newness" renders "kainotēs," freshness of a new kind, and "walk" comes from "peripateō," to conduct one's daily life.
Cross References
“Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.”
- Colossians 2:12
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
- Romans 6:11
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:17
Application
Believers can live out the meaning of their baptism by leaving the old life behind and walking in the new life made possible through union with the risen Christ.