Baptism as a Symbol of Death and Burial

Romans 6:3-4
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Baptism symbolizes believers' death and burial with Christ, signifying the old self's crucifixion and the emergence of a new life in Christ. Through baptism we are proclaiming our union and identification with Christ in his death and resurrection. We testify as individuals not only to the defeat of death cosmically, but the death of sin individually in our lives. A believer no longer identifies with sin and death but with Christ and new life. We have the power to walk in newness of life because he walked out of the grave. However, the reality for many of us is that we struggle to walk in this new life because we still live in what we died to. Sin. We do not grow into what God desires us to be because we are hanging on to our old identity and habits. Living the new life, we’ve been given in Christ demands the ceasing of our life we were living in sin.

To illustrate this, we look to the natural process of plant growth which is essentially universal. Every plant begins as a seed, undergoes a process of change, sprouts, and grows into a plant. But what happens to the seed? The seed ceases to exist. It can no longer find its identity in what it was but only in what it is now. Paul speaking of the believer’s future resurrection bodies in 1 Corinthians 15:35-36 says, “But someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.” The natural law is death will precede life. Death will precede our glorified bodies and eternal fellowship with Christ and to this hope we look forward to! However, even now we are called to begin living dead to sin and alive to God. In Christ, your old life of sin has ceased, and your new life in Christ has begun. Now walk in newness of life!

Are you embracing your new identity in Christ, recognizing through baptism, my old self has been crucified with Him, and I am called to live in newness of life?

What specific habits or aspect of your old life (associated with sin) are you struggling to let go of, hindering the growth and fruit in your Christian walk?


Father, you have given me a new identity in Christ. Thank you for your gift of new life and the death of my sin. Give me the courage to let my old habits of sin and self-centeredness die so that I may walk in newness of life and bear much fruit for your glory. Make me more like you. Amen.