Romans 6:3 - Printer Friendly

ESV: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

NIV: Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

NASB: Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

CSB: Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

NLT: Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death?

KJV: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

NKJV: Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Paul has asked if Christians, those who have received God's free gift of the forgiveness of our sin through faith in Christ, should keep sinning. No, we should not, he has responded. He poses a counter-question to explain why: can those who have died to sin keep living in sin? His implied answer is again "no."

What does it mean that we have died to sin, though? Part of that answer is found in the question of this verse. All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

Paul does not seem to be talking about water baptism here. From the context of the chapter, we take him to mean a kind of baptism that happens when the Holy Spirit comes into a person at the time he or she becomes a Christian. In that "spirit baptism," a new believer is spiritually baptized into Christ's body (1 Corinthians 12:13). We enter into Christ's identity, in a sense, becoming so closely attached to Him that God gives us credit for Christ's righteousness and accepts Christ's payment for our sin. That baptism places us, our whole self, in Christ. Water baptism, on the other hand, is an outward sign of that spirit baptism. For those who practice believer's baptism, it is a public declaration to the world around us that we belong to Christ and to belong with all the others who belong to Him, as well (Acts 10:44–48).

So, then, Paul says here that when a person trusts in Christ for salvation, that person is baptized in the Holy Spirit into Christ's death. We die with Him. This death somehow breaks sin's rule over us and frees us from our need to obey our sinful desires. Those urges do not entirely vanish, however.

Romans 6:1–14 explores how Christians should think about and respond to sin now that we are in Christ and our sins are forgiven. In explaining this, Paul reveals new information about what happened when we put our faith in Christ. In a spiritual sense, we died with Him, and to our sin. We were then resurrected to a new spiritual life. Now Paul instructs us to continue remembering that we are no longer slaves to sin. We must not offer our bodies to be used for sin, but we must offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness, instead.

In Romans 6, Paul answers the question of whether Christians should continue to sin. His answer is emphatic: we absolutely should not. First, when we came to God by faith in Jesus, we died to sin. We are not slaves to it any more. Second, what did living for sin ever get us? It led to shame and death. The righteousness given to us for free by God in Christ Jesus leads to becoming like Jesus and to eternal life. We should serve righteousness instead of sin.

After comparing Adam and Christ and what their choices brought into the world, Paul now turns to ask if Christians should continue in sin once they have been saved. He gives several reasons why we must not: we died to sin's power over us; we are now servants to righteousness; and what good did sin ever bring to you, anyway? Paul will transition in Romans 7 to a discussion of what it means to be released from the law of Moses.

The book of Romans is the New Testament's longest, most structured, and most detailed description of Christian theology. Paul lays out the core of the gospel message: salvation by grace alone through faith alone. His intent is to explain the good news of Jesus Christ in accurate and clear terms. As part of this effort, Paul addresses the conflicts between law and grace, between Jews and Gentiles, and between sin and righteousness. As is common in his writing, Paul closes out his letter with a series of practical applications.