“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? — Baptism is entry into Christ's death, understood not as mere symbol but as mystical participation (eis Christos, "into Christ"); the Greek eis conveys both direction and identity. Paul assumes the Roman readers understand the baptismal tradition: immersion into death, burial in the eschatological waters. This sacramental union is the foundation of all Christian ethics.
Church Fathers on Romans 6:3
“Do you not know,” he says, “my brethren, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into 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 has 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…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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