Baptized Into His Death
Romans 6:1-11, dead to sin and alive to God, as the early church read it
Why can't a Christian go on sinning so that grace may abound? Because, Paul says, we died. In baptism we were joined to Christ's death and burial, and raised with Him to "walk in newness of life." Chrysostom puts it sharply: "Baptism is the Cross", what the cross and tomb were to Christ in the flesh, baptism is to us in respect of sin. And he insists the new life is a real resurrection happening now, every time a vice gives way to a virtue. The Father in his own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Chrysostom, Homilies on Romans, NPNF, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
Romans 6:2-3 · KJVHow shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
"What does being 'baptized into His Death' mean? That it is with a view to our dying as He did. For Baptism is the Cross. What the Cross then, and Burial, is to Christ, that Baptism hath been to us, even if not in the same respects. For He died Himself and was buried in the Flesh, but we have done both to sin."
St. John ChrysostomTo be "dead to sin" is not a feeling; it is a fact that happened to you in baptism, where you were joined to Christ's own death. "Baptism is the Cross", in it you died and were buried, not in the flesh as He was, but to sin. So sin may still bark out its orders, but a dead man does not obey. The Christian's freedom from sin's tyranny rests on a death already died with Christ.
Romans 6:4 · KJVTherefore 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 Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.'… Do you believe… that Christ died, and that He was raised again? Believe then the same of thyself… if thou hast shared in Death and Burial, much more wilt thou in Resurrection and Life."
St. John ChrysostomThe logic runs both ways. Because you were joined to His death and burial, you are also joined to His resurrection, and that means a new way of living, "newness of life," is not optional but the very point. And it carries a promise: if God has already done the harder thing (killing your sin), you can trust Him for the lesser (raising your body). Your union with Christ guarantees both.
Romans 6:6-11 · KJVKnowing this, that our old man is crucified with him… reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
"When then the fornicator becomes chaste, the covetous man merciful, the harsh subdued, even here a resurrection has taken place, the prelude to the other… because sin is mortified, and righteousness hath risen again, and the old life hath [passed away]."
St. John ChrysostomAnd the resurrection is not only future. Every time the old self loses and Christ's life wins, when the greedy man turns generous, the harsh man gentle, "even here a resurrection has taken place," a small first installment of the great one to come. To "reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God" is to live now out of the death and life you already share with Christ.
Where this stands among the traditions
This is mostly shared ground, with one familiar fault line. All the traditions, Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant, read Romans 6 as Paul's answer to cheap grace: union with Christ's death and resurrection in baptism means a real break with sin and a new life. The one divergence is the same as at John 3: whether baptism effects this union (the historic and sacramental view) or signifies a union given through faith (much of evangelical Protestantism). But on the heart of the passage there is no dispute, and the early church states it plainly: the baptized have died with Christ to sin and are raised to walk in newness of life, and grace is therefore never a license to keep sinning. (See also Hyper-Grace.)
Patristic text from Chrysostom's Homilies on Romans (NPNF, public domain), selected from the running prose with footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. This passage in the Study Bible; Romans 6 at BibleHub.