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.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) We are buried with him.—Burial, is the consequence of death. It is the seal set upon it, as it were, which shows that no revival is possible. Besides, it is the one step which separates it from resurrection. The idea of “buried with Christ” is therefore introduced, on the one hand, to show that the ethical death with Him was final and decisive, and on the other, to prepare the way for an ethical (as well as physical) resurrection with Him.

Into death.—The ideas of physical and moral death and resurrection and life are inextricably blended in the thought of the Apostle.

By the glory of the Father.—The resurrection of Christ is more usually and more naturally ascribed to the power or Omnipotence of God. The word “Glory” is here to be taken as standing for the sum of the divine perfections, power being included among them, “the Majesty on High.”

Even so.—It is to be observed that the mysticism is here resolved into a relation of resemblance. The resurrection of Christ, and the new life of the Christian, are compared instead of being identified. The Apostle does not say “being dead with Christ, let us rise with Him;” but, “as Christ rose again, so we also should walk in newness of life.” The mystical expression for this is given in the next verse.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:3-10 Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore we are buried ... - It is altogether probable that the apostle in this place had allusion to the custom of baptizing by immersion. This cannot, indeed, be proved, so as to be liable to no objection; but I presume that this is the idea which would strike the great mass of unprejudiced readers. But while this is admitted, it is also certain that his main scope and intention was not to describe the mode of baptism; nor to affirm that that mode was to be universal. The design was very different. It was to show that by the solemn profession made at our baptism, we had become dead to sin, as Christ was dead to the living world around him when he was buried; and that as he was raised up to life, so we should also rise to a new life. A similar expression occurs in Colossians 2:12, "Buried with him in baptism," etc. See the Editors' Notes at Matthew 3:6, Matthew 3:16.

Into death - εἰς eis. Unto death; that is, with a solemn purpose to be dead to sin and to the world. Grotius and Doddridge, however, understand this as referring to the death of Christ - in order to represent the death of Christ - or to bring us into a kind of fellowship with his death.

That like as - In a similar manner. Christ rose from death in the sepulchre; and so we are bound by our vows at baptism to rise to a holy life.

By the glory of the Father - Perhaps this means, amidst the glory, the majesty and wonders evinced by the Father when he raised him up; Matthew 28:2-3. Or possibly the word "glory" is used here to denote simply his power, as the resurrection was a signal and glorious display of his omnipotence.

Even so - As he rose to new life, so should we. As he rose from death, so we, being made dead to sin and the world by that religion whose profession is expressed by baptism, should rise to a new life, a life of holiness.

Should walk - Should live, or conduct. The word "walk" is often used to express the course of a man's life, or the tenor of his conduct; Romans 4:12; Romans 8:1 notes; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Corinthians 10:3 notes; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 4:1 notes, etc.

In newness of life - This is a Hebraism to denote new life. We should rise with Christ to a new life; and having been made dead to sin, as he was dead in the grave, so should we rise to a holy life, as he rose from the grave. The argument in this verse is, therefore, drawn from the nature of the Christian profession. By our very baptism, by our very profession, we have become dead to sin, as Christ became dead; and being devoted to him by that baptism, we are bound to rise, as he did, to a new life.

While it is admitted that the allusion here was probably to the custom of immersion in baptism, yet the passage cannot be adduced as an argument that that is the only mode, or that it is binding on all Christians in all places and ages, for the following reasons:

(1) The scope or design of the apostle is not to discuss the mode of baptism, Or to state any doctrine on the subject. It is an incidental allusion in the course of an argument, without stating or implying that this was the universal mode even then, still less that it was the only possible mode. His main design was to state the obligation of Christians to be holy, from the nature of their profession at baptism - an obligation just as impressive, and as forcible, from the application of water in any other mode as by immersion. It arises from the fact of baptism, not from the mode. It is just as true that they who are baptized by affusion, or by sprinkling, are baptised into his death; become professedly dead to sin and the world, and under obligations to live to God, as those who are immersed. It results from the nature of the ordinance, not from the mode.

(2) if this was the mode commonly, it does not follow that it was the only mode, nor that it was to be universally observed; There is no command that this should be the only mode. And the simple fact that it was usually practiced in a warm climate, where ablutions were common, does not prove that it is to be observed amidst polar snows and ice, and in infancy, and age, and feebleness, and sickness; see the note at Acts 8:38-39.

(3) if this is to be pressed literally as a matter of obligation, why should not also the following expression, "If we have been planted together," etc., be pressed literally, and it be demanded that Christians should somehow be "planted" as well as "buried?" Such an interpretation only shows the absurdity of insisting on a literal interpretation of the Scriptures in cases of simple allusion, or where the main scope is illustration by figurative language.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Therefore we are—rather, "were" (it being a past act, completed at once).

buried with him, by baptism into death—(The comma we have placed after "him" will show what the sense is. It is not, "By baptism we are buried with Him into death," which makes no sense at all; but, "By baptism with Him into death we are buried with Him"; in other words, "By the same baptism which publicly enters us into His death, we are made partakers of His burial also"). To leave a dead body unburied is represented, alike in heathen authors as in Scripture, as the greatest indignity (Re 11:8, 9). It was fitting, therefore, that Christ, after "dying for our sins according to the Scriptures," should "descend into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph 4:9). As this was the last and lowest step of His humiliation, so it was the honorable dissolution of His last link of connection with that life which He laid down for us; and we, in being "buried with Him by our baptism into His death," have by this public act severed our last link of connection with that whole sinful condition and life which Christ brought to an end in His death.

that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father—that is, by such a forth-putting of the Father's power as was the effulgence of His whole glory.

even so we also—as risen to a new life with Him.

should walk in newness of life—But what is that "newness?" Surely if our old life, now dead and buried with Christ, was wholly sinful, the new, to which we rise with the risen Saviour, must be altogether a holy life; so that every time we go back to "those things whereof we are now ashamed" (Ro 6:21), we belie our resurrection with Christ to newness of life, and "forget that we have been purged from our old sins" (2Pe 1:9). (Whether the mode of baptism by immersion be alluded to in this verse, as a kind of symbolical burial and resurrection, does not seem to us of much consequence. Many interpreters think it is, and it may be so. But as it is not clear that baptism in apostolic times was exclusively by immersion [see on [2202]Ac 2:41], so sprinkling and washing are indifferently used in the New Testament to express the cleansing efficacy of the blood of Jesus. And just as the woman with the issue of blood got virtue out of Christ by simply touching Him, so the essence of baptism seems to lie in the simple contact of the element with the body, symbolizing living contact with Christ crucified; the mode and extent of suffusion being indifferent and variable with climate and circumstances).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore: q.d. Because we are thus dead with Christ, therefore, & c.

We are buried with him; i.e. we have communion with him in his burial also, which represents a farther degree of the destruction of sin, by putting it, as it were, out of our sight, Genesis 23:4, and having no more to do with it.

By baptism into death: he seems here to allude to the manner of baptizing in those warm Eastern countries, which was to dip or plunge the party baptized, and as it were to bury him for a while under water. See the like phrase, Colossians 2:12. Baptism doth not only represent our mortification and death to sin, but our progress and perseverance therein. Burial implies a continuing under death; so is mortification a continual dying unto sin.

That like as Christ was raised up from the dead; look as, after the death and burial of Christ, there followed his resurrection, so it must be with us; we must have communion with, and conformity to, the Lord Jesus Christ in his resurrection as well as in his death; both these are represented and sealed to us by the sacrament of baptism.

By the glory of the Father; i.e. by the power of the Father, which is called, Colossians 1:11, his glorious power. God is said elsewhere to have raised him by his power, 1 Corinthians 6:14; and in 2 Corinthians 13:4, he is said to live by the power of God. Some read it thus, he was raised from the dead, to the glory of the Father.

The preposition dia is sometimes rendered to: see 1 Peter 1:3.

Walk in newness of life; i.e. live a new life, being actuated by new principles, aiming at new ends, and bringing forth new fruits of holiness: see Romans 7:6.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death,.... The nature and end of baptism are here expressed; the nature of it, it is a "burial"; and when the apostle so calls it, he manifestly refers to the ancient and only way of administering this ordinance, by immersion; when a person is covered, and as it were buried in water, as a corpse is when laid the earth, and covered with it: and it is a burial with Christ; it is a representation of the burial of Christ, and of our burial with him as our head and representative, and that "into death"; meaning either the death of Christ as before, that is, so as to partake of the benefits of his death; or the death of sin, of which baptism is also a token; for believers, whilst under water, are as persons buried, and so dead; which signifies not only their being dead with Christ, and their communion with him in his death, but also their being dead to sin by the grace of Christ, and therefore ought not to live in it: for the apostle is still pursuing his argument, and is showing, from the nature, use, and end of baptism, that believers are dead to sin, and therefore cannot, and ought not, to live in it; as more fully appears from the end of baptism next mentioned;

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; for the end of baptism is not only to represent the death and burial, but also the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which is here said to be "by the glory of the Father", some read the words, "unto the glory of the Father"; meaning either, that the Father might be glorified hereby; or that Christ, being raised from the dead, might enjoy glory with the Father, as he does in human nature; but rather the phrase expresses the means by which, and not the end to which, Christ was raised from the dead: and by the "glory of the Father" is meant, the glorious power of the Father, which was eminently displayed in raising Christ from the dead; and as baptism is designed to represent the resurrection of Christ, which is done by raising the person out of the water, so likewise to represent our resurrection from the death of sin, to a life of grace: whence it must be greatly incumbent on baptized believers, who are raised from the graves of sin by the power of Christ, to "walk in newness of life"; for since they are become new creatures, and have new hearts and new spirits given them, new principles of light, life, grace, and holiness implanted in them, and have entered into a new profession of religion, of which baptism is the badge and symbol, they ought to live a new life and conversation.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead {d} by the glory of the Father, even so {e} we also should walk in newness of life.

(d) So that Christ himself, being released of his infirmity and weakness, might live in glory with God forever.

(e) And we who are his members rise for this purpose, that being made partakers of the very same power, we should begin to lead a new life, as though we were already in heaven.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 6:4. An inference from Romans 6:3, by which the impossibility indicated in Romans 6:2 is now made completely evident.

Buried with Him therefore (not merely dead with Him, but, as the dead Christ was buried in order to rise again, buried with Him also) were we, in that we were baptized into His death. The recipient of baptism, who by his baptism enters into the fellowship of death with Christ, is necessarily also in the act of baptism ethically buried with Him (1 Corinthians 15:4), because after baptism he is spiritually risen with Him. In reality this burial with Him is not a moral fact distinct from the having died with Him, as actual burial is distinct from actual dying; but it sets forth the fulness and completeness of the relation, of which the recipient, in accordance with the form of baptism, so far as the latter takes place through κατάδυσις and ἀνάδυσις (see Suicer, Thes.), becomes conscious successively. The recipient—thus has Paul figuratively represented the process—is conscious, (a) in the baptism generally: now am I entering into fellowship with the death of Christ, εἰς τὸν θάνατον αὐτοῦ βαπτίζομαι; (b) in the immersion in particular: now am I becoming buried with Christ; (c) and then, in the emergence: now I rise to the new life with Christ. Comp on Colossians 2:12.

εἰς τὸν θάνατον] is necessarily, after Romans 6:3, to be joined with διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσμ., in which case, since one can say βαπτίζεσθαι εἰς τι, the connecting article was not required (comp on Galatians 3:26; Ephesians 3:13); consequently: through baptism unto death. It is not however specially the death of Christ that is again meant, as if αὐτοῦ were again annexed; but the description is generalised, agreeably to the context, in a way that could not be misunderstood. Whosoever, namely, as Paul has just set forth in Romans 6:3, has been baptized unto the death of Christ, has in fact thereby received baptism unto death; i.e. such a baptism that, taken away by it from his previous vital activity, he has become one belonging to death, one who has fallen under its sway. This however is just that relation of moral death, which, in the concrete, is the fellowship of the death of Christ. The connection with συνετάφ., in which εἰς τ. θάνατον is sometimes referred to the death of Christ (Grotius, Baumgarten-Crusius), and sometimes to the death of sin (Calovius, Wolf, Winzer, Progr. 1831), is erroneous, for this reason, that whosoever is buried does not come into death, but is in it already; and hence “the becoming buried into death” would yield quite an incongruous conception. This also applies against the expedient tried by Hofmann of making θάνατος here the death-state of Christ, unto which we were given up. Even in this view that incongruity continues:[1394] but after Romans 6:3 θάνατος can only be again death simply, not state of death (as if Paul could not have conveyed that sense by εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον, or ΕἸς ΤΟῪς ΝΕΚΡΟΎς, or in some other suitable way). Observe, moreover, how Paul here also, since he has the bodily resurrection of Christ in view,[1395] mentions specially the correlative of the burial that preceded it. Comp on 1 Corinthians 15:4.

ἽΝΑ] purpose of the συνετάφημεν.… θάνατον, and this statement of purpose has the chief importance, corresponding to the Πῶς ἜΤΙ ΖΉΣΟΜΕΝ ἘΝ ΑὐΤῇ in Romans 6:2.

ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ΔΌΞ. Τ. ΠΑΤΡΌς] through the majesty of the Father was the resurrection of Christ brought about. The δόξα, כָּבוֹד, the glorious collective perfection of God, certainly effected the raising of Jesus chiefly as omnipotence (1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Ephesians 1:19 f.); but the comprehensive significance of the word—selected with conscious solemnity, and in highest accordance with the glorious victory of the Son—is not to be curtailed on that account (in opposition to Koppe, Baumgarten-Crusius, and earlier expositors). According to the invariable representation of the N. T. God is the raiser of Jesus (Romans 4:24, Romans 8:11; Acts 2:24; Acts 2:31 ff. et al[1397]; see on John 1:19); but yet the δόξα of God does not in this case any more than elsewhere in the N. T. denote God Himself (Langer, Judenth. in Paläst. p. 210 ff.). Erroneously however Theodoret, Theophylact, and several Fathers explain: διὰ τ. δόξ. τ. πατρ., τουτέστι διὰ τῆς οἰεκίας θεότητος. Linguistic usage admits as in itself allowable the view of Castalio and Carpzov: “in paterna gloria resurrexit,” so that διά would be used of the state; to which also van Hengel inclines. But, had Paul desired to express a relation corresponding to the ἐν καιν. ζ. in the apodosis, he must have inserted ἐν also; since the conception of the raising of Jesus through the Father was one of so solemn importance, and all the more appropriate here, since believers also owe their moral resurrection-life to the Father of Christ (Ephesians 2:10 al[1398]); it is in fact the life of regeneration. Besides, the paterna gloria was attained by Christ only through His ascension. See on Luke 24:26.

ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς] in a new (moral) constitution of life;[1399] a stronger way of bringing out the idea of ΚΑΙΝΌΤΗς, than ἘΝ ΖΩῇ ΚΑΙΝῇ would be, for which it does not stand (in opposition to Grotius, Koppe, Reiche, and others). See Winer, p. 221 [E. T. 309]. Comp Romans 7:6. According to van Hengel ΖΩῆς is the genitive of apposition: “in novo rerum statu, qui vita est.” But this qui vita est is self-evident; and therefore the emphasis must remain upon καινότητι. This newness is the ethical analogue of the new estate in which Christ was alive from the dead, conceived in contrast to the ΠΑΛΑΙΌΤΗς which prevailed prior to baptism. Comp Romans 6:8.

[1394] This cannot be got rid of by any artificial turns (like that of Hofmann: “His burial removed Him from the sphere of sin expiated through His death.… whereby His existence in the world of sin came to a complete close”). Certainly the θάνατος of the Lord, even regarded as a state, occurred at that great moment when He cries His τετέλεσται and departs; and in nowise has He been translated into the θάνατος through His burial.

[1395] i.e. His resurrection as respects the buried body; so that the latter no longer remained in the grave, but came forth thence living and immortal. That the body of Christ “vanished” and “made room” for a new pneumatic body (Holsten, z. Ev. d. Paul u. Petr. p. 133), is an unsuitable conception, seeing that the pneumatic body must necessarily have been assumed even in death, and independently of the burial of the old body. Thus the resurrection of Jesus would be nothing else than the change of body that took place in death.

[1397] t al. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[1398] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.

[1399] τὴν καινὴν πολιτείαν τὴν κατὰ τὸν παρόντα βίον, ἐκ τῆς τῶν τρόπων γινομένην. Ὃπου γὰρ ὁ πόρνος γένηται σώφρων καὶ ὁ πλεονέκτης ἐλεήμων καὶ ὁ τραχύς ἥμερος, καὶ ἐνταῦθα ἀνάστασις γέγονεν, Chrysostom.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Romans 6:4. This symbolism interpreted. συνετάφημεν οὖν αὐτῷ κ.τ.λ.: Therefore we were buried with Him (in the act of immersion) through that baptism into His death—burial being regarded as the natural sequence of death, and a kind of seal set to its reality. Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:3 f. It introduces a false abstraction to say (with Meyer) that εἰς τὸν θάνατον means “unto death,” not “unto His death”: death in the whole context is perfectly definite. διὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ πατρός: in nothing was the splendour of God’s power revealed so much as in the resurrection of Jesus, Ephesians 1:19 f. ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς: in life of a new quality; cf. Romans 7:6, 1 Timothy 6:17 : the construction makes the new quality of the life prominent. Winer, p. 296.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. we are buried with him] Better, we were buried, &c.; the reference being to the past fact of baptism. Burial is the final token of death, and so the strongest expression of death as a fact. Perhaps there is an allusion to the immersion of baptism, as a quasi-burial. (The only parallel passage is Colossians 2:12.) But the significance of the rite would not depend on such a form of it: the essential is that every true baptism is the ratification of covenant connexion with Christ and His Death. It thus lays the baptized Christian, as it were, with the Lord in that grave where He lay as the slain Propitiation; i.e. it ratifies our share in the Justification of the Cross.

by baptism] by means of baptism, i.e., of course, not by the mere act, but by all that is involved in a true baptism. Baptism is not an isolated thing, but a summary and seal.

into death] Better, into the death, the Lord’s Death. Connect these words with “we were buried.” The whole idea is a union with Christ as the Slain One, so real that it is expressed by the figure of a share in His grave.

that, &c.] The sequence indicated is as follows:—Our new position and conduct as Christians was both to be, and to seem, radically new; as new as resurrection-life after death. Therefore our admission to the covenant was by a rite essentially connected with the Lord’s Death, and thus intended both to remind us of the price of justification, and of the totally new position, principles, and conduct, of the justified.

by the glory of the Father] By the majestic harmony of His Power, Holiness, and Love; all consenting in the great miracle. Perhaps the thought is suggested here that the same “glory” shall be exercised in the “new life” of the justified.

walk in newness of life] i.e. move and act with the new principles and powers of those who, as the justified, are “born again to a living hope.”—“Newness:”—the Gr. word expresses not so much youth as novelty; a condition without precedent in our experience.—“Life:”—in the sense not of a course of life, but of the principle of life. Through the Death of Christ, the justified “live;” in the “newness” of that condition they are to “walk.”—Here again (as in Romans 6:2) note the transition of ideas; from a “death to sin” (with Christ) in respect of penalty, to a “life” (with Christ) in respect not merely of remission but of new principles and acts; i.e. from Justification simply to Justification as resulting in Sanctification. The “life” is not merely the extension of existence to a pardoned man, but the condition and use of that existence where the pardoned are also, as such, accepted among the “brethren” of Christ.

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 6:4. Συνετάφημεν, we were buried with Him) The fruits of the burial of Christ. Immersion in baptism, or at least the sprinkling of water upon the person, represents burial, burial is a confirmation of [facit ratam] death.—εἰς, into) Construed with baptism, with which comp. Romans 6:3.—ὥσπερ—οὕτω, as—so) An abbreviated expression for,[56] As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we should also rise, and as Christ reigns for ever in the glory of the Father, and in that life to which He has risen, so we also should walk in newness of life.—διὰ, by) By concerning the Father is also found at 1 Corinthians 1:9.—τῆς δόξης, the glory) Δόξα is the glory of the divine life, of incorruptibility, ch. Romans 1:23, of the power and virtue, by which both Christ was raised, and we are restored to a new life, and are conformed to God, Ephesians 1:19, etc.—ἐν καινότητι, in newness) Ch. Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 5:15, etc. This newness consists in life.

[56] See App., under the title Concisa Locutio.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Therefore we were buried (not are, as in the Authorized Version) with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life. The mention here of burial as well as death does not appear to be meant as a further carrying out of the idea of a fulfilment in us of the whole of Christ's experience, in the sense - As he died and was buried, so we die and are even buried too. Such a conception of burial being in our case a further process subsequent to our death in baptism, is indeed well expressed in our Collect for Easter Eve: but the form of expression, "buried into death," does not suit it here. The reference rather is to the form of baptism, viz. by immersion, which was understood to signify burial, and therefore death. So Chrysostom, on John 3, Καθάπερ γὰρ ἐν τινι τάφῳ τῷ ὕδατι καταδύοντων ἡμῶν τᾶς κεφαλὰς ὁ παλαὶος ἄνθρωπος θάπτεται καὶ καταδὺς κάτω κρύπτεται ὅλος καθάπαξ. The main intention of the verse is to bring out the idea of resurrection following death in our case as in Christ's. The sense, therefore, is - As our burial (or total immersion) in the baptismal water was followed by entire emergence, so our death with Christ to sin, which that immersion symbolized, is to be followed by our resurrection with him to a new life. As to the δόξα τοῦ πατρὸς, through which Christ is here said to have been raised, see what was said under Romans 3:23. "Δόξα est gloria divinae vitae, incorruptiblitatis, potentiae, et virtutis, per quam et Christus resuscitatus est, et nos vitae novas restituimur, Deoque conformamur. Ephesians 1:19, seqq." (Bengel). In some passages our Lord is regarded as having been raised from the dead in virtue of the Divine life that was in himself, whereby it was impossible that he should be holden of death. (see under Romans 1:4). And he said of his own ψυχή, "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (John 10:18). But . here as most commonly elsewhere, his resurrection is attributed to the operation of the glory of the Father - the same Divine power that regenerates us in him (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Ephesians 1:19, etc.; Colossians 2:12; also our Lord's own prayers to the Father previously to his suffering, as given by St. John). The two views are not inconsistent, and may serve to show Christ's oneness with the Father as touching his Godhead. The marked association here and elsewhere of union with Christ, so as to die and rise again with him, with the rite of baptism, supports the orthodox view of that sacrament being not only a signum significans, but a signum efficax; as not only representing, but being "a means whereby we receive" regeneration. The beginning of the new life of believers, with the power as well as the obligation to lead such a life, is ever regarded as dating from their baptism (cf. Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12). It is true, however, that in all such passages in the New Testament the baptism of adults is referred to; that is, of persons who at the time of baptism were capable of actual repentance and faith, and hence of actual moral regeneration, and they are supposed to have understood the significance of the rite, and to have been sincere in seeking it. Hence what is said or implied cannot fairly be pressed as applicable in all respects to infant baptism. This, however, is not the place for discussing the propriety of infant baptism, or the sense in which all baptized persons are regarded by the Church as in their very baptism regenerate. Romans 6:4

Vincent's Word Studies

We are buried with (συνετάφημεν)

Rev., more accurately, were buried. Therefore, as a natural consequence of death. There is probably an allusion to the immersion of baptism. Compare Colossians 3:3.

Into death

Through the baptism into death referred to in Romans 6:3. Both A.V. and Rev. omit the article, which is important for the avoidance of the error buried into death.

Glory (δόξης)

The glorious collective perfection of God. See on Romans 3:23. Here the element of power is emphasized, which is closely related to the idea of divine glory. See Colossians 1:11. All the perfections of God contribute to the resurrection of Christ - righteousness, mercy, wisdom, holiness.

We might walk (περιπατήσωμεν)

Lit., walk about, implying habitual conduct. See on John 11:9; see on 1 John 1:6; see on 3 John 1:4; see on Luke 11:44.

In newness of life (ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς)

A stronger expression than new life. It gives more prominence to the main idea, newness, than would be given by the adjective. Thus 1 Timothy 6:17, uncertainty of riches; not uncertain riches, as A.V.