Romans 6: 1-11 - Bishops Certificate Study Guide (Baptism, Life, Death, faith and Works!)
Romans 6:1–11 is one of those passages that can sound much more complicated than it actually is. Paul is wrestling with a very simple but profound question:
If God’s grace forgives us, does it matter how we live?
And his answer is: Yes …..because baptism means that something has happened to us. We have entered into the death and resurrection of Christ, and therefore we are called to live a new kind of life.
Let me try and unpack this:
1. First: what is Paul arguing about?
At the beginning of Romans, Paul has been saying that we are saved by grace through faith, rather than earning God’s favour by being good enough.
So someone could reasonably ask:
“Well, if God forgives us anyway, why bother trying to be good?”
Or even more cheekily:
“If grace is really that generous, couldn’t I just carry on sinning and let God keep forgiving me?”
Paul says: “Absolutely not!” And his reason is fascinating. He doesn’t simply say:
“Because God has given you a list of rules.” Instead, he says: Because in baptism, you have died and risen with Christ. That is the heart of the passage.
2. What does baptism have to do with it?
Paul says: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?” For Paul, baptism isn’t merely a ceremony saying: “I have decided to become a Christian.” Something actually happens. The imagery is wonderfully physical. You go down into the water. That represents going down into death. You come up out of the water. That represents coming into new life. So baptism becomes a kind of miniature version of Easter.
Christ dies ...and ... Christ rises.
And:
We die with Christ ...and ... we rise with Christ.
Obviously, we don’t physically die and rise during baptism. Paul is talking about a profound spiritual reality.
3. So what exactly “dies”?
This is important. Paul isn’t saying that your body dies. He’s talking about the old self, the person trapped in the old patterns of sin and separation from God. We can think of it as:
Old life ...to ... New life
Self-centredness...to...God-centredness
Sin...to .... freedom
Adam...to.... Christ
Baptism therefore isn’t simply about washing away a few naughty or bad things. It is about a change of identity. Paul says: “Our old self was crucified with him.” That’s quite dramatic. He’s saying: The person I once was does not have the final word about who I am.
4. Does that mean Christians never sin?
I’m afraid not (!) - and this is where it’s important not to misunderstand Paul.
Being baptised doesn’t mean: “Congratulations, you are now perfect.” It means:
You now belong to Christ, and you are learning to live out of that new identity.
We still fail. We still mess things up. We still hurt people. We still turn away from God.
But sin no longer has to be our master.
That’s the distinction. Paul isn’t saying: “You will never sin again.”
He’s saying: “You don’t have to live under sin’s rule anymore.”
5. Where do “works” come into this?
This is where Romans can get tangled up with the whole faith versus works debate.
Paul’s basic argument is: We don’t earn salvation by our works.
You cannot say: “I’ve been sufficiently good, therefore God owes me eternal life.”
Salvation is grace. It is God’s gift. But Paul certainly isn’t saying: “Works don’t matter.” Quite the opposite. The logic is something like this:
Grace changes us ...therefore our lives begin to change.
Good works aren’t the price of salvation. They are the fruit of salvation. A useful way of putting it is: We aren’t good in order to make God love us. We become capable of living differently because God already loves us. Or, perhaps even more simply (I doi like simple!): Works don’t buy the gift. Works are what begin to grow when we’ve received the gift.
6. So what does “faith” mean?
Faith isn’t simply believing that certain things about Jesus are factually true. Paul’s idea of faith is closer to: Trusting yourself to Christ. And baptism expresses that trust. It’s almost like saying: “My life belongs to Christ now.” Which is why baptism and faith are so closely connected.
Faith says: I trust Christ.
Baptism says: I belong to Christ.
And the Christian life then asks: What does belonging to Christ look like in the way I live?
7. And now we get to the really exciting bit: life after death
This is where Romans 6 becomes much bigger than simple “Try to be a nicer person.” Paul is talking about resurrection. He says: “Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead… so we too might walk in newness of life.” Notice something. Paul doesn’t only say: “Christ was raised, therefore one day you will be raised.” He says: “Christ was raised, therefore you begin living resurrection life now.” That’s really important. There are two dimensions.
Resurrection life now
Because Christ is risen, something of that resurrection life begins now.
We become capable of hope. Forgiveness. Love. Reconciliation. Generosity. Compassion. Freedom. A different way of seeing ourselves and other people.
Resurrection life then
But Paul also has his eyes firmly on the future. He says: “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” That’s the extraordinary Christian hope. Death isn’t the end of the story. Baptism points towards the ultimate reality: Christ died. Christ is risen. And because we belong to Christ, death will not finally have the last word over us either.
8. There’s a beautiful connection with the Eucharist
This is perhaps where the passage becomes particularly powerful from a sacramental perspective. Every time we celebrate the Eucharist at Mass, we’re not simply remembering something Jesus did a long time ago. We are being drawn again into his death and resurrection. Baptism is our entry into Christ’s death and resurrection. The Eucharist continually feeds us with that risen life. And Christian living is learning to embody that life in the world.
9. One particularly important phrase
For me, the key phrase in Romans 6 is: “We too might walk in newness of life.”
Notice Paul doesn’t say: “We might understand all the mysteries of Christianity.” Or:
“We might become morally perfect.” He says: Walk.
It’s an ordinary word. It means I think - to live...
Go about your ordinary life differently because Christ has died and risen.
Go to work differently. Love differently. Forgive differently. Treat the stranger differently. Treat the person who irritates you differently. Face suffering differently. Face your own death differently. Because death is no longer the ultimate reality.
10. Final Thoughts
If I had to reduce Romans 6:1–11 to something you could carry around in your head, I’d put it like this:
God’s grace isn’t permission to carry on living exactly as we did before. In baptism we are joined to Christ’s death and resurrection: the old life loses its claim over us and we are given a new identity in Christ. We don’t earn God’s love by doing good works; rather, God’s grace enables us to live differently. And this isn’t just about becoming nicer people now. Baptism points towards the ultimate Christian hope: because we are united with Christ, his resurrection becomes the promise of our resurrection. We begin to live resurrection life now, and we trust that one day we will share fully in Christ’s risen life.
Or how about...
Baptism tells us who we are. Faith teaches us to trust Christ. Works are the fruit of that new life. And resurrection tells us where that life is going.
That, I think, is Romans 6 in a nutshell...well its a start !
Hope it helps. Every blessing
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