
78	Romans 6v4	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.

As we saw in the previous section – studying the verse immediately before this one – we are partakers of the death of Jesus through being baptised into Jesus Christ. This verse continues on to the conclusion of the thought – we are buried with Jesus through baptism.

When a dead body is buried, it is not merely sprinkled with a few grains of dirt, but completely immersed and buried under the earth. The tomb of Jesus was a “new tomb, which he (Joseph of Arimathaea) had hewn out in the rock” (Matthew 27v60) – in other words, completely underground. Likewise, we are to be buried under the water in baptism in order to identify with the death and burial of Jesus.

There is an exchange that takes place when we are baptised in the name of Jesus, as shown by this verse. So that we can start the life of a Christian – a person like Jesus Christ in every way possible – we start off by becoming dead to sin, and being buried “with” Jesus through baptism. Through baptism we take on the name of Jesus as a further way of identifying with him. At this point we receive the new life that comes from Jesus and all that He has won for us. Just as Jesus was raised up from the dead by the power of the Glory of God, we too are to become partakers of this newness of life.

Notice also the tense that Paul uses here – we should walk in our newness of life now – this is not merely for after our death. In a very real sense our salvation has many tenses or time-frames:

Our salvation is in the past, because Jesus already earned it for us on the cross. This is the distant past, which happened even before our own lifetime.
We identify with this through baptism in His name, and also the receiving of the promised Holy Spirit – the down payment or deposit on our salvation (Ephesians 1v13-14) . This is the start of our part in our own salvation. For those that are baptised already, it is now in the past of our own salvation experience, and only needs to happen once when done correctly.
Our salvation is a continuous process that we are going through. Notice that Paul’s talking of newness of life is not a one-time event but a way of walking and living a new life. We are to continually live in a different way, which continuously shows and renews our repentance and hence our salvation.
The final part of our salvation comes in the future, at either death or the return of Jesus (whichever comes first) and the judgement at the white throne (Revelation 20v11-15), where those whose names are “written in the book of life” are saved from being “cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20v15).

Of course it is obvious that we can’t get to the future without going through the present, and we did not get to the present without going through those things that have now passed. What might be less obvious is that we cannot get to baptism without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus that has already taken place – and we can’t live the continual newness of life without the baptism in water and the Holy Spirit – and ultimately if any of these are not in our past on judgement day, our permanent everlasting salvation will be missed also.

This might be a good time to clear up some misconceptions regarding some verses in the book of Romans regarding salvation. Let us firstly look at Romans 10v9-10:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Many like to quote these verses as talking about the start of our part in our own salvation. To do this however is to take them out of their context. Part of the context we have already mentioned in this section and the previous one. By chapter 10, Paul had already talked about what Jesus has done in the past to secure our salvation, and the fact that we partake of this through our baptism. These verses have now moved on to the third stage, and are talking about the continuous stage of our salvation – the present newness of life we are to walk in. We are to keep believing in Jesus, and to keep confessing Him as our saviour.

A study of the whole section that this passage is found in – Romans chapter 10 – will show that Paul starts off by talking about people that “have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.” (Romans 10v2) He was talking specifically about the Jews, and how he wished for them to be saved. In fact, Paul even had this zeal on his CV (curriculum vitae, also called resumé by some) even before he met Jesus. Unfortunately, the ones that preach that the entry point to salvation is the ‘believe and confess’ found in Romans 10v9-10 also fall into this category. This book is in no way to condemn people that are mistaken, but to encourage them to see the error of their ways and make the necessary changes – after all, the gospel is good news, and the good news in this case is that there is a way out of error and into truth. Indeed, in times past even I have had a zeal for God that was not according to knowledge – I can only thank the Holy Spirit, who is there to “guide you into all truth” (John 16v13) and is always doing His job exceedingly well.