Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with him by means of baptism unto death (sunetaphmen oun autwi dia tou baptismato ei ton qanaton). Second aorist passive indicative of sunqaptw, old verb to bury together with, in N.T. only here and Colossians 2:12 . With associative instrumental case (autwi) and "by means of baptism unto death" as in verse Colossians 3 . In newness of life (en kainothti zwh). The picture in baptism points two ways, backwards to Christ's death and burial and to our death to sin (verse Colossians 1 ), forwards to Christ's resurrection from the dead and to our new life pledged by the coming out of the watery grave to walk on the other side of the baptismal grave (F. B. Meyer). There is the further picture of our own resurrection from the grave. It is a tragedy that Paul's majestic picture here has been so blurred by controversy that some refuse to see it. It should be said also that a symbol is not the reality, but the picture of the reality.