In Romans 6:4 Paul says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into death that as Christ was raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Here Paul introduces the thought of burial; he says that with Christ we have been buried through baptism into death. Which comes first, death or burial? In the natural realm, a person dies first and then is buried. But Paul’s word indicates that we are first buried, and then enter into death. According to the Bible, we, the believers, are buried into death. However, we are not buried into death directly; this takes place with Christ and through baptism.
Suppose a certain person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus. He should then be baptized into Christ. To baptize this new believer into Christ is to put him into the death of Christ. When he is baptized, he is actually buried. This burial results in death. This is what it means to be buried with Christ through baptism into death.
Every candidate for baptism is a person in the process of dying. Through baptism such a person is put to death. Having been identified with Christ and with His death, he is immersed in water and is buried. Through baptism, he enters into the actual experience of death with Christ.
This burial has a glorious consequence. As Christ was raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father, we also may walk in newness of life. This indicates that after baptism we become a new person in resurrection. When we are immersed in the water, we enter into death. But when we come out of the water, we enter into resurrection. We all need to have such a wonderful realization and understanding of baptism.
In Romans 6:5 Paul goes on to say, “For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection.” We have grown together with Christ in the likeness of His death, that is, in the baptism mentioned in verse 4. Now we see that we shall also grow in the likeness of His resurrection, that is, in the newness of life, also mentioned in verse 4. The important point is that to be baptized is to grow. One who has been baptized has grown in the likeness of Christ’s death and now is growing in the likeness of His resurrection.
The growth in Romans 6:5 can be illustrated by the grafting of a branch from one tree into another tree. Through grafting, two lives become one. Hence, the process of grafting signifies our spiritual identification with Christ. We are identified with Christ, made one with Him, by being grafted into Him.
In Romans 11 Paul uses the example of branches from a wild olive tree grafted into a cultivated olive tree (vv. 17, 24). In order for grafting to take place, both trees must experience cutting. This cutting signifies the experience of being put to death. Apart from this cutting, grafting cannot take place. In His crucifixion, Christ was cut, and He still bears the marks of this cutting. This means that within the being of the resurrected Christ, there is an opening into which we, the wild olive branches, can be grafted. However, if we would be grafted into Him, we also must be cut. Then we are joined to Him at the very place where both He and we have been cut. In a sense, the two cuts embrace each other. Through such an embrace, the grafting is accomplished, and the two trees become one.
Immediately after the process of grafting has been completed, the branch from the wild olive tree begins to grow in oneness with the cultivated olive tree. Furthermore, the cultivated olive tree grows with the branch from the wild olive tree. Both trees grow together as one tree with one life and one living. The life in this tree is a new life in which two natures have been mingled together.
To be baptized is to be grafted into Christ. This baptism involves growth. After a person repents and believes in the Lord Jesus, he grows with Christ first in the likeness of His death and then in the likeness of His resurrection. By the growth which takes place in baptism we get into Christ.
Now that we are in Christ, we are growing in Him. In Colossians 1:28 Paul speaks of presenting every man full-grown in Christ. By warning others and teaching them in all wisdom, Paul helped them to grow. We should do the same thing in the church life today. After a person has been baptized, he needs to be nourished in order to grow to maturity.
Because we are in Christ, Christ is also in us. This fact is also illustrated by grafting. After the branch from a wild olive tree is grafted into a cultivated olive tree, it is part of the cultivated olive tree, and it grows in it. The life juice from the cultivated olive tree enters into the branch from the wild olive tree. In this way, the cultivated olive tree grows in the branch from the wild olive tree. In like manner, since we have been grafted into Christ, He now dwells in us and is growing in us.
In 1:27 Paul says that Christ is in us and in 1:28, that we are in Christ. First we are put into Christ, then Christ is in us. The more we get into Christ, the more He comes into us; and the more He comes into us, the more we get into Him. This becomes a cycle by which we grow in life. When we grow in this way, spontaneously our culture, including philosophy, asceticism, and the elements of the world, fall away.
Baptism is the reality of circumcision in the Old Testament. According to 2:11-12, baptism was our experience of circumcision, a circumcision not made with hands “in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.” Through baptism, our whole being was circumcised. Since we have experienced such a circumcision, we have no need for asceticism. The more Christ grows in us and we grow in Him, the more asceticism and all aspects of culture will fade away. Then instead of living by our culture, we shall live by Christ.