Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

We are buried ... refers to immersion as the action known as baptism in the apostolic age. The fact that baptism, as administered by people today, differs from the rite as taught and administered by the apostles of Christ, is due to the unwillingness of people to abide in the teachings of the word of God. It is futile to appeal to the testimony of lexicons and histories, for all people already know that New Testament baptism was by immersion in water, the futility deriving from this, that people have arrogantly removed the entire ordinance from having, in their views, any significant utility in the scheme of redemption. This single verse of the holy scriptures is alone sufficient to show immersion as the original Christian baptism; and no man can misunderstand it without extensive help; but, lest there be any doubt regarding the testimony available, a few typical comments are here presented:

Chrysostom:

When we sink our heads in the water, as in a tomb, the old man is buried, and going down, is wholly hid once for all.

Tholuck:

In the early days of the church, persons, when baptized, were first plunged below, and then raised above the water.

Macknight:

For are you ignorant, that so many of you as have, by baptism, become Christ's disciples, have been baptized into the likeness of his death, having been buried under the water, as persons who, like Christ, have been killed by sin.

Conybeare and Howson:

This passage cannot be understood unless it is borne in mind that the primitive baptism was by immersion.

Barnes:

It is altogether probable that the apostle has allusions to the custom of baptism by immersion.

Bloomfield:

There is a plain allusion to the ancient mode of baptism by immersion.[16]

Wuest:

The word "baptized" is not the translation of the Greek word here, but its transliteration, its spelling in English letters. The word is used in the classics of a smith who dips a piece of hot iron in the water.[17]

Thayer:

Definition of [@baptisma]: immersion, submersion.[18]

Mosheim:

In this century (the first) baptism was administered in convenient places, without the public assemblies; and by immersing the candidate wholly in water.

Barrett:

Paul here makes use of the picture suggested by the practice of baptism by immersion.[19]

One hundred other concurring citations might easily be brought forward; but these are more than enough to show what is easily visible in the verse itself, that baptism in the age that knew the Lord was by immersion.

Paul's mention of the "burial" in baptism cannot refer to the interment of one already dead to sin, as affirmed by Godet, but to the action which constitutes baptism, this being true because one cannot be "dead to sin" unless and until he is in the body of Christ, which state is entered through baptism. The error of Godet and many others in this misunderstanding sprang from a failure to determine the true meaning of Paul's phrase "dead to sin" which must not be confused with being "dead in sin." The person dead in sin is yet unsaved; the person dead to sin (through being in Christ) is saved. Therefore, baptism is not merely some kind of symbolical proof of our already being dead to sin, but is the divinely imposed condition of our becoming so. The scriptures do not teach that Christians are baptized to prove that they are dead to sin, but in order to bo `in Christ," and therefore truly dead to sin "in him."

That like as Christ was raised from the dead ... Having shown that the baptized believer, upon his being thereby united with Christ, is then dead unto sin, Paul at once went a step further by pointing out that Christ rose from the dead to a higher type of life, and appealed to this as an analogy of the Christian's rising from the watery grave of baptism to "walk in newness of life."

In newness of life ... is a reference, not merely to the upright morality and integrity of the Christian pilgrimage, but also to an entirely new status that pertains to him following his union with Christ in baptism. The old man has been renounced, the old identity repudiated, self having been slain; and the Christian is, in a sense, no longer his old self, but "is Christ" (Galatians 2:20).

The newness of life mentioned here is such a wonderful thing as to justify the opinions of those who hold this to be the first resurrection, a view certainly permissible in the light of Jesus' teaching in John 5:25.

The newness of life is made possible by the reception of the Holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13), imparted after the believer's repentance and baptism (Acts 2:38f), and as a consequence thereof. Does this newness of life mean that the possessor of it cannot sin? No. The evil nature of man, his old self, is dethroned through conversion to Christ, and the rightful sovereign of the soul, who is Christ, is enthroned instead of the old man. The will of man, however, still free, can reverse the decision. As Wuest explained:

When the believer sins, the dethroned king, the evil nature mounts to the throne, with the consequent dethronement of the Lord Jesus. Such a procedure cannot go on often, nor indefinitely, for God puts a curb upon such a thing by sending suffering, chastening, and the Christian is made miserable by a guilty conscience and the indwelling Spirit who is grieved at such conduct. ... God has so adjusted things in the Christian's life that, while he remains a free moral agent capable of choosing between obeying the divine nature or the evil nature, yet the preponderance of his choices are Godward. ... Hence the impossibility of the Christian's sustaining habitually the same relationship to the evil nature which he sustained before he was saved.[20]

Wuest's analysis is a good explanation of why the Christian cannot continue in sin that grace may abound. To be alive spiritually in Christ Jesus is to "walk in newness of life"; and what a difference there really is. Prior to their salvation, people are without hope or promise, alienated from God, children of wrath, walking in darkness, hateful, and hating one another; but in Christ, one is part of an utterly new creation. He is truly born again. Old things have passed away; behold all things are made new!

[16] This and the five preceding quotations are from Moses E. Lard, Commentary on Paul's Letter to Romans (Cincinnati, Ohio: Christian Board of Publication, 1914), p. 200.

[17] Kenneth S. Wuest, op. cit., p. 96.

[18] R. L. Whiteside, A New Commentary on Paul's Letter to the Saints at Rome (Denton, Texas: Miss Inys Whiteside, 1945), p. 130. The quote from Mosheim is also found here.

[19] C. K. Barrett, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (New York and London: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1957), p. 123.

[20] Kenneth Wuest, op. cit., p. 95.