Romans 6:5, commentary and pictures

To be planted together with Christ means to be joined to Him in His death through baptism into Him, with the assurance that those so joined will also share His resurrection life. Baptism by immersion pictures this union, for going down under the water is burial in the likeness of His death and burial, and rising from the water is rising in the likeness of His resurrection to begin a new life and not return to the old life of sin. Likeness to His death means the old self and sinful character is crucified with Him and the body of sin destroyed, so that death to sin and selfishness breaks Satan's power and frees believers from continuing in sin and serving sin. Likeness to His resurrection means rising now to walk in newness of life by daily faith, with life hid with Christ in God and set on things above, which is not an improvement of the old life but death to self and a complete transformation of nature by the Holy Spirit with no thread of selfishness left. Those so baptized must remain dead to the world and alive in Christ, putting off the old life of impurity and evil temper and speech and putting on mercy, humility, forgiveness and charity, and by the strength of Father, Son and Holy Ghost they have power to overcome and at last to be with Christ and behold His glory.

Baptism's Union with Christ

Baptism by immersion pictures being planted together with Christ, for going down under the water is burial in the likeness of His death and burial, and rising from the water is rising in the likeness of His resurrection to begin a new life and not return to the old life of sin. It is a thorough burial under water with Christ followed by rising to dedicate oneself to God, to walk in newness of life, and to keep ever seeking those things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Being planted together means those joined to Christ in His death through baptism into Him will also share the likeness of His resurrection, so baptism is a step in conversion that assures the believer of resurrection life. Those dead to sin and baptized into Jesus Christ are buried with Him by baptism into death, planted together in the likeness of His death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father they also walk in newness of life and shall share the likeness of His resurrection, which is something to strive for by not continuing in sin but living the risen life. Because they are united with Him in His death they are to regard themselves as dead to sin, and because they share His risen life they are to yield themselves to God as instruments of righteousness, with the old sinful life put to death so they no longer serve sin.

The rite is performed in full faith in Jesus Christ in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, with God pledging Himself to be Father to the baptized and the three great heavenly powers pledging to be with the believer to keep baptismal vows and give power and grace to honor God and resist every temptation to dishonor Him. Going down in baptism submits to the solemn rite with the approval of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who pledge their power to help the baptized person honor God, while the raised life is a changed heart from stone to flesh by the Spirit after the divine similitude. By that act the person professes to be dead unto the world and to sin and to be buried in the watery grave, since Christ's burial was His death, and to be raised up out of the water in the likeness of Christ's resurrection. To be buried in the likeness of Christ's death is to come out from the world and separate from the enemy and its fashions, customs, evil and idolatrous practices, taking a stand on the Lord's side under the Lord's covenant. It is pledging before angels and men to live for Christ and serve God, with God placing His sign upon the baptized and making them members of the royal family, dead to the world but alive unto God, in whom there is for them the power of life.

That union requires coming to Jesus Christ in simplicity, humility, surrender and full faith and being converted from Satan's discipline, with self unreservedly given to God and following on step by step to know the Lord, with the powers of heaven attending. It means acting as raised from the dead as a new creature, revealing a mind changed into conformity with the mind of Christ. Being baptized into the likeness of Christ's death means dying to self, and those baptized without dying to self are buried alive. They remain far from God, cringing and bowing before some earthly idol and living in spiritual adultery without knowing it. As Christ came forth from Joseph's rent sepulcher never to lie in the grave again, He is to every believer the resurrection and the life, so those buried with Him are not left in the grave but are brought to new life now. Christ who declared Himself the resurrection and the life will keep His pledge for all who keep their pledge to remain dead to sin and alive in Him, a new life that leads at last to entrance through the portals of the city of God to be with Him where He is and behold His glory.

Walking in Newness of Life

To be in the likeness of His death is to have the old self and the old sinful, self-indulgent character crucified with Him and the body of sin destroyed, so that dying to sin and to the life of selfishness breaks Satan's power off the mind and frees the believer to no longer serve sin and not continue in it. Baptism joins to Christ in that likeness of death and therefore joins to the likeness of His resurrection, calling the baptized to walk in newness of life with the old sinful life put to death. Rising from the water is rising to live that new life unto Jesus Christ in His love, testified before angels and men.

Those thus united are to reckon themselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ, freed from sin as those dead to it. They are not to let sin reign in the mortal body nor yield its members as instruments of unrighteousness, but to yield themselves to God as those alive from the dead with their members as instruments of righteousness. Sin shall not have dominion over them because they are not under law but under grace, for sin ends in death while God gives eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and this union calls the baptized to reject sin's rule and live as one alive to God.

To be in the likeness of His resurrection is to rise now to walk in newness of life, a pledged, sanctified life lived daily by genuine faith in Jesus. The life is dead and hid with Christ in God, with affections set on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, ever seeking those things above and dead to earthly things, to appear with Him in glory when He appears. This lays responsibility to walk worthy of the high calling and to obtain help and grace from Christ to represent the faith, with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost pledged to be with the believer to keep baptismal vows and with power and grace to resist every temptation to dishonor God. God places His sign upon the baptized, making them members of the royal family who have come out from the world and separated from its idolatrous practices and from the enemy, pledging before angels and men to live for Christ.

This new life is not an improvement of the old life but death to self and sin and a complete transformation of nature, brought about only by the effective working of the Holy Spirit. At conversion self dies and a new life of heavenly origin is imparted, with changed life purposes and not one thread of selfishness drawn into the pattern of life, lived by the principles of the new life brought into daily experience. Grace subdues the natural sinful desires and fills the heart with divine love, so that fallen people find heaven and holy company desirable, and the renewed life brings joy and knowledge and the light of life.

True sanctification as given in the Sermon on the Mount is sharing this death and resurrection. Being in the likeness of His death means being crucified with Christ and buried with Him, and being in the likeness of His resurrection means being quickened by His Spirit and then filled with His life. It is looking to Jesus and accepting His holiness as the pattern, learning His meekness and lowliness of heart, copying the holy life He lived as the object lesson, partaking of the divine nature and forming the pattern life of Christ within, which is regeneration and the constant aim of spiritual life and the representation of redemption.

Through living faith this union joins believers to His death and resurrection so that they are crucified and dead with Him, raised with Him, and walk with Him in newness of life. This union gives them the virtue and efficacy of His mediation for sanctification as they are conformed to Him in will, temper, spirit, thought and mind into conformity with the mind of Christ. The mind and character are shaped after Christ, self-exaltation and ambition to be first are quenched, and humility makes room to value other people's gifts and abilities. The stony heart becomes flesh by the Spirit through partaking of the Word of God and eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood, with Christ abiding in the heart by faith and formed within as the hope of glory, so that the Christian becomes the temple of God and a representative of His righteousness.

The baptized must remain dead to the world and alive in Christ, with life bound up with His life and sanctified in mind and heart, discerning weak points of character and guarding against them with rigor under the Lord's covenant to live in newness of life. They are to seek heavenly things and put off the old life of fornication, uncleanness, evil desire, covetousness, anger, malice, blasphemy, evil speech and lying, and to put on the new man renewed after God's image in mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, charity, peace, thankfulness and obedience in word and deed. If obedient since those vows none of those sins clings to him. By the blended strength of Father, Son and Holy Ghost he has power to be an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony, to do the personal work for the Master that no one else can do for him, to wear the crown of life, and at last to enter through the portals of the city of God to be with Christ where He is and behold His glory, for as Christ came forth from Joseph's rent sepulcher never to lie in the grave again He is to every believer the resurrection and the life, so those buried with Him are not left in the grave but brought to new life now, and He will keep His pledge for all who keep their pledge to remain dead to sin and alive in Him.