Romans 6:1-4
‘Shall we continue in sin, so that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Don’t you know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ has been raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father — even so we too should keep on walking in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection!’ Romans 6:1-5.
Calvin comments: “Christ…will prove to be the destruction of the ungodly. He will likewise be resurrection for the godly…. Believers are never reconciled to God, without the gift of regeneration…. We are justified for this very purpose, so that we may afterwards worship God in purity of life….
“Christ destroys sin in His people…. We are initiated into faith in Him…. We are baptized on this principle, so that we may be one with Him….
“We truly grow up into the body of Christ!… Fellowship with His death, is the focal centre of baptism…. The efficacy of Christ’s death appears from the moment when we are received into His grace….
“Baptism means that being dead to ourselves, we may become new creatures… Paul, because he is speaking to believers, connects the reality and the effect with the outward sign….
“Whatever the Lord offers by the visible symbol, is confirmed and ratified by their faith…. We never have naked and empty symbols, except when our ingratitude and wickedness hinder the working of the divine beneficence….
“It is of great importance that we should extol, by explicit mention of the incomparable power of God, not only our faith in the last resurrection which far surpasses the perception of the flesh. But also the other benefits which we receive from the resurrection of Christ…. We are ingrafted into the likeness of Christ’s death…. His death is inseparable from His resurrection. Our death will therefore be followed by our resurrection…. We die in ourselves, so that we may live in Him…. Notice the analogy between the death of this present life, and our spiritual renewal…. The Apostle desired to point…to…the efficacy of His resurrection, in renewing within us…the Spirit!”
Calvin also says in his Institutes IV:15:5 & 16:20-21: “Baptism…shows us our mortification in Christ, and new life in Him…. ‘As many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death’…. (Romans 6:3-4)…. We are admonished by baptism…to die to our lusts, and..to rise to righteousness…. Those who receive baptism with true faith, truly feel the efficacy of Christ’s death…and the efficacy of His resurrection in the quickening of the Spirit…. He calls it ‘the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit’ (Titus 3:5)…. Children are baptized for…repentance and faith… The seed of both lies hidden in them, by the secret operation of the Spirit!… We are buried with Christ by baptism (Romans 6:4).” Dead to sin, and alive unto righteousness!
