Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into
death
The nature and end of baptism are here expressed; the nature of
it, it is a "burial"; and when the apostle so calls it, he
manifestly refers to the ancient and only way of administering
this ordinance, by immersion; when a person is covered, and as it
were buried in water, as a corpse is when laid the earth, and
covered with it: and it is a burial with Christ; it is a
representation of the burial of Christ, and of our burial with
him as our head and representative, and that "into death";
meaning either the death of Christ as before, that is, so as to
partake of the benefits of his death; or the death of sin, of
which baptism is also a token; for believers, whilst under water,
are as persons buried, and so dead; which signifies not only
their being dead with Christ, and their communion with him in his
death, but also their being dead to sin by the grace of Christ,
and therefore ought not to live in it: for the apostle is still
pursuing his argument, and is showing, from the nature, use, and
end of baptism, that believers are dead to sin, and therefore
cannot, and ought not, to live in it; as more fully appears from
the end of baptism next mentioned;
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;
for the end of baptism is not only to represent the death and
burial, but also the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which
is here said to be "by the glory of the Father", some read the
words, "unto the glory of the Father"; meaning either, that the
Father might be glorified hereby; or that Christ, being raised
from the dead, might enjoy glory with the Father, as he does in
human nature; but rather the phrase expresses the means by which,
and not the end to which, Christ was raised from the dead: and by
the "glory of the Father" is meant, the glorious power of the
Father, which was eminently displayed in raising Christ from the
dead; and as baptism is designed to represent the resurrection of
Christ, which is done by raising the person out of the water, so
likewise to represent our resurrection from the death of sin, to
a life of grace: whence it must be greatly incumbent on baptized
believers, who are raised from the graves of sin by the power of
Christ, to "walk in newness of life"; for since they are become
new creatures, and have new hearts and new spirits given them,
new principles of light, life, grace, and holiness implanted in
them, and have entered into a new profession of religion, of
which baptism is the badge and symbol, they ought to live a new
life and conversation.