"Buried with Christ"

by Stephen Bastin

“Buried with Christ” is one of those expressions used in the Bible that requires some thinking to understand.  It is not that the words are difficult.  It is just an unusual way of saying things that makes it necessary to think it through to a correct understanding.

Yet it is not a difficult concept to understand when you apply yourself to the matter.  People from very different religious backgrounds have come to the same conclusion as to what it means to be “buried with Christ.”

The phrase is found twice in the New Testament letters written by the apostle, Paul.  One occurrence is in Romans, chapter six, verse four and the other is in Colossians, chapter two, verse twelve.  (In Colossians and Romans, it is “buried with Him” referring to Christ.)

I have read comments in the Confraternity translation of the New Testament, a Catholic translation and comments by Albert Barnes, a noted Presbyterian writer, that agree with my understanding of the passage.  There is no problem in understanding the passage.

Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) that the most important part of the message he preached was that Christ died for our sins, was buried and was raised again on the third day.

Twice in the New Testament, once by Paul, once by Peter, we find the expression “do not obey the gospel.”  Dire results are predicted for those who do not obey the gospel.

In the passage in which Paul says we are “buried with Christ,” he speaks of dying to sin, before being buried and he speaks of a new life after being buried.

To die means that our soul is separated from our body.  The body returns to dust and the soul returns to God.  To die to sin then means that we are separated from sin.  We have decided to quit sinning in order to please God.

The new life that follows being “buried with Christ” is compared to Jesus being “raised from the dead through the glory of the Father.”  The new life is a result of a spiritual resurrection or rebirth.

When Paul wrote chapter 6 in Romans, he was encouraging Christians (in Rome) to leave sin behind.  They could not continue in sin because they had “died to sin,” been “buried with Christ” in baptism and were now supposed to be living a new life.

In becoming Christians they had obeyed the gospel.  As Jesus died on the cross, they had died to sin.  As Jesus had been buried in the tomb, they had been buried in baptism.  As Jesus had been raised by the glory of the Father, they had been given a new life in Christ.  What they had done in becoming Christians was parallel with what Christ had done so that they could be Christians.

We return now to the expression, “buried with Him through baptism.”  In burial a person is put under the ground.  Or, at the least, the body is put inside a container.  In baptism the person is put in the water.  In sprinkling the water is put on the person.

In the Bible, people were put in the water, the water was not put on the person.  Putting a body in the water is a “watery” burial.  Putting water on a person would more resemble watering your yard or your garden.  We are not watered.  We are buried in water.  That is baptism in the Bible.

Jesus was baptized “in the Jordan.”  He was not baptized with “holy water.”  He was not baptized with water from the Jordan.  He was not baptized beside the Jordan.  He was baptized in the Jordan River.  He was buried in water.

Likewise, the Ethiopian, described in the latter part of the eighth chapter of Acts, “went down into the water.”  Both the Ethiopian and Philip, who baptized him, went down into the water.

No scholar of whom I am aware would argue that in the New Testament, people were immersed in baptism.  That is the common understanding of Paul’s language in Romans where he says they were “buried with Him through baptism.”  The Greek word that Paul used means to dip, to plunge, to immerse.  No one argues otherwise.

The argument comes about whether it is necessary that we do what they did.  The argument is whether one must follow precisely the New Testament commands of Jesus.  The argument is whether we may substitute a sprinkling for a burial.  The argument is not about what is taught in the New Testament.  It is not the Bible that is confusing people, but the doctrines of churches.

Consider also the order of events as Paul speaks of them in the sixth chapter of Romans.  In becoming Christians they had died to sin, been buried in baptism and had been given a new life by God.  Does it matter in what order these events occur?

For example, would it be appropriate to baptize, then have the person die to sin?  For Paul that would mean that the person is buried before they died!  And where would you then fit in the new life of which Paul speaks?

Or could one argue that the burial in baptism is not necessary?  Could there be a new life without a burial?  Would it be appropriate to bury the person after they had been given a new life?

Paul’s words only make sense if one understands the order of events exactly as Paul states them.  The person must first die to sin.  Second, they must be buried through baptism.  Third, they receive a new life.  No other order will work.  Not only are the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus important.  It is also important that there be a death, a burial and a resurrection for the one who truly wants to be a follower of Jesus.

Baptizing babies will not fit Paul’s teaching in Romans, chapter six.  Neither will the teaching that one is saved and has a new life without baptism fit what Paul teaches.

God has said what He means and means what He says.  One sets aside the teaching of God as revealed in the New Testament only at their personal peril.  Changing the doctrine of the apostles is not a good idea!

Let me conclude with a quotation from God’s prophet Samuel as he confronted King Saul, “Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry.”  Saul’s offer to sacrifice the animals he had brought back from battle was rejected.  Sin did not become righteousness by offering a sacrifice.  God wants obedience.