Romans 6:5-7 – We Are Freed From Sin

In Romans 6:3–4 Paul brings up baptism, even though he hasn’t talked about it in the previous five chapters of Romans.

Many people think this is water baptism, but Paul explains it right here in Romans 6:3 saying,

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

 

This baptism is into Christ’s death, not water. Christ Himself had two baptisms—one in water by John, and one at the cross, His death. Paul’s talking about that death baptism. When we believe the gospel, we’re placed into Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. That’s the Ephesians 4:5 ,

One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

 

Romans 6:4 says

Therefore 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.

 

Should walk in newness of life. That word should matters.

Paul doesn’t say we automatically walk this way. We need to know something, reckon something, and yield something. The Christian walk doesn’t happen by accident.

Colossians 2:6 says the same thing:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

 

We received Him by faith in His death and resurrection, and now we walk in that same truth. Romans 6 is explaining how.

So in Romans 6:5 Paul says,

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

 

This is the answer to the question, “How do we live now?” We live the resurrected life. We live out what Christ already did for us.

Paul keeps using words like “like as” and “likeness” to show a comparison. He’s saying: the way Christ died and rose again is now the pattern for how we walk.

This helps us understand what baptism means in Romans 6.

It’s important we look hard at what the Bible actually says relating to baptism because it’s a key factor in the answer to the question, “How do we live now?” How do we live the resurrected life?

Baptism always identifies us with something. Here Paul says we’re baptised into Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection. That means we’re identified with what He did on the cross, not with water. There’s no likeness between water and Christ’s death. Our sins are washed by His blood, not by water.

This also shows that the baptism in Romans 6 cannot be the same as the baptisms in Matthew 3:11, where John preached water, Holy Ghost, and fire. John couldn’t preach “like as Christ died and rose again,” because Christ hadn’t died yet.

In John 4:1–2 Jesus’ disciples baptised with water, but they also didn’t know yet that Christ had to die and rise again. John 20:9 says,

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

 

So they couldn’t preach what Paul does in Romans 6. In Acts 2 Peter preached repentance and water baptism, but he didn’t preach walking in newness of life by being baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection because that truth wasn’t yet revealed to them.

In Acts 1:8 Jesus said the apostles would receive power after the Holy Ghost came. In Acts 2:33 the Holy Ghost was poured out, and people could see and hear that baptism with tongues, miracles and signs.

But Paul in Romans 6 is not talking about visible power. He’s talking about walking in newness of life, which starts in our mind, not in outward miracles.

It’s a renewed and different way of how we think.

So the Romans 6 baptism isn’t the Holy Ghost baptism either.

Our baptism is us being likened or identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. Not like Christ doing miracles, but like Christ dying to sin and rising to new life. How do we know this happened?

By trusting Christ’s work on the cross. And how do we walk it out? By thinking the way Paul teaches in Romans 6–8: like as Christ died, we live as dead to sin; like as Christ rose, we live as risen with Him.

Paul uses another phrase in Romans 6:5, “planted together.”

That means joined, united, put together with Christ. That’s baptism: being immersed into something so we take on its likeness.

Baptised into His death in Romans 6:4, planted together in His death Romans 6:5 it’s the same truth in two pictures.

Paul’s showing that because we’re identified with Christ, we now walk like Him in His death and resurrection.

That’s the point Paul’s making in Romans 6.

Some Bible versions change “planted together” to “united,” and yes, we are united with Christ. But “planted” is the better word, because when you plant something, something grows out of it. Paul’s saying that because we were planted together with Christ in His death, something should come out of that which is new life, the resurrected life.

Water can’t make us like Christ. Our sins are washed by His blood, not by water. So the likeness Paul talks about can’t be water baptism.

It also cannot be the baptisms of Matthew 3:11 where Jesus says,

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

 

John preached water, Holy Ghost, and fire, but he could not preach “like as Christ died and rose again,” because Christ hadn’t died yet.

In John 4:1–2 Jesus’ disciples baptised with water, John 20:9 says,

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

 

They also didn’t know yet that Christ must die and rise again.

In Acts 2 Peter preached repentance and water baptism, but he did not preach walking in newness of life by being baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection. That truth was not revealed to them at that point.

So let’s look briefly at this whole issue of water baptism. Does water baptism actually wash away sin and bring forgiveness and why do most churches teach that it does? This’s where history and tradition shaped doctrine not Scripture.

We should remember that for over 1,000 years, the Bible wasn’t the final authority for the church, so whatever the organised church taught about baptism became “the truth,” even though it didn’t come from Paul’s gospel.

When the Reformation happened, they corrected justification by faith — but they didn’t correct baptism theology. They kept the sacramental view.

The early church inherited Jewish, covenant, and kingdom practices.

John the Baptist preached water baptism for the remission of sins — but that was for Israel, under the kingdom gospel, before the cross, before the revelation of the Body of Christ.

Peter preached the same in Acts 2:38 — still Israel, still kingdom, still within the prophetic program before the mystery of the Body of Christ was revealed.

Most churches never separate Israel’s program and the kingdom gospel from the Body of Christ and Paul’s gospel of grace. They blend them together.

By the 300s–400s, the institutional church taught that water baptism regenerates and washes away sin and that its necessary for salvation.

This became official doctrine in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, Anglicanism and many other Protestant movements.

Even churches that claimed “salvation by faith alone” often kept the old baptismal tradition without re‑examining the Scriptures.

Most churches assume “baptism” always means water but the Bible speaks of multiple baptisms, and only one is for the Body of Christ today.

Below this recording we have a list the baptisms that the bible speaks of. Mathew 3:11 speaks of three different baptisms in the one verse when John says he baptizes with water but The One coming after him (Jesus) will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and He’ll baptize with fire.

No — water baptism does not wash away sin or bring forgiveness, and the reason most churches teach that it is a carrying on of these historical and traditional teachings, a mixing of Israel’s program with the church’s doctrine.

If water could wash away sin, then Christ’s blood wouldn’t be enough, faith wouldn’t be enough and Paul’s gospel wouldn’t be enough.

But Paul says the opposite: faith in Christ’s death and resurrection is the only means of forgiveness.

Our baptism is to be like Christ in His death and resurrection. That means we’re a new man, a new creation in Christ with a new life and a new identity.

In Adam we’re fallen, condemned, and headed for death. In Christ we’re forgiven, righteous by faith, and alive unto God.

So the question becomes: where do we think your life comes from now? From our old flesh, our dreams, and our desires—or from Christ Himself? Our life is now His life, and that’s a spiritual reality even if we don’t always feel like it or walk in it. Paul says we should walk in it because it’s true.

Romans 6:5 uses the word resurrection for the first time in Romans. The 4 Gospels talk about being “raised up,” but “resurrection” is a standing, a position.

In John 11:24 Martha, talking to Jesus, said Lazarus would rise again “in the resurrection at the last day.” That was the Jewish hope—resurrection after death, after corruption is gone.

But Jesus told her something greater in John 11:25: resurrection life can touch you now because I AM the resurrection and the life.

That’s exactly what Paul teaches.

Christ is risen today, glorified with the Father as John 17:4–5 says. He revealed the mystery to Paul from that glory that He’s now in.

And Romans 6 tells us that we can live now in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection.

Ephesians 1:17–20 says the same thing.

The same power that raised Christ and set Him in heavenly places is toward us who believe. That’s the life we have now: a glorious, eternal, resurrected life in Christ.

Paul talks about the “unfathomable power of God” in Ephesians, and often we hear that and think, “What power is he talking about?”

Some days I’m so short on power that even picking up my coffee mug feels like weight‑training.”

The power he means is the same power Romans 6–8 explains: the power that raised Christ from the dead and now keeps us in Him so strongly that nothing can separate you from the love of God as Romans 8:35–39 states. Just like nothing can separate Christ from the Father now that He’s glorified, nothing can separate us from Christ because we’re in Him.

Colossians 3:1–3 teaches the same thing Paul teaches in Romans.

IF ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

 

How do we know we’re risen with Him? Because we were baptised into His death and resurrection as we’ve now seen in Romans 6:3–5.

Colossians says to seek things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. It says we’re dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God. That’s the same teaching as Romans 6–8. You won’t find this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Acts 2.

They preach Christ’s resurrection, yes, but not us sharing in His death and resurrection life right now. That’s the fellowship of the mystery.

Colossians 1:27 says the riches of this mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Not just Christ dying for our sins, but Christ actually in us. How did He get in us?

The same way we got in Him—by His death and resurrection. We trusted the gospel, and God placed us in Christ, making us a new man with His life.

Ephesians 3:4–6 defines the mystery:

Whereby, when ye read (and that’s the words of the revelation Christ gave to Paul), Whereby, when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

 

How can we inherit with Christ? Because we’re identified with Him. How are we in His body? Because we’re baptised into Him. How do we partake of His promise? By the gospel—His death and resurrection. There’s no covenant here, no Israel here. This is mystery truth, and Paul’s teaching that same truth in Romans 6.

Romans 8:16-17 says

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

 

If we’re children, then we’re heirs of God and joint‑heirs with Christ.

That matches Ephesians 3:6.

Romans 8:18 says

For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

 

The glory that will be revealed in us is far greater than our sufferings. Why do we get glory? Not because we earned it, but because we share in the likeness of His resurrection as we’ve been at pains to see in Romans 6:5. God identified us with Christ by grace, not by any work of our hands.

Romans 6:6 says this and because it’s a continuation of Romans 6:5 we’ll read them together.

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

 

Do you get the “Knowing this…”?

This means that the fact that we’ve been planted together in the likeness of his death, and that we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection relies on us knowing something.

We’ve got to know some doctrine to live this new life.

The Christian life starts with knowing what God’s done. Our old man is crucified with Christ and that old man is the Adam identity Paul described in Romans 5. We were born in Adam—that was the old man. Now we’re in Christ—the new man.

Romans 6:4-5 already said we should walk in newness of life and that new life comes from being planted together with Christ in His death and resurrection.

Before Paul, most people thought resurrection life only came after death. But Paul says we can live in that standing now. That’s the new man, the resurrected man in Christ and we live it by knowing it!

The Bible always calls something “old” only after God brings in something “new.”

Moses’ law wasn’t called the Old Testament until Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 3.

Hebrews 8:13 says the old is old only because something new has come. It’s the same idea here: Paul calls our old man “old” because he’s already told us about our new man—our new life in Christ.

So when Paul says in Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,” he means we should already understand what the new man is. Our old man is who we were before we were baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection. Our old man was in Adam—sin‑cursed, condemned and dead. Romans 5 clearly showed that.

In Adam came death and judgment; in Christ comes life and righteousness. That old man is destroyed because of Christ’s death and resurrection. But even though he’s destroyed, he still tries to wake up in the morning. You know that old man by his lusts, his corruption, and his desire to walk in death.

Ephesians 2:1–3 describes that old man,

AND you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

 

We were dead in sins, walking according to the world, following the prince of the power of the air, living in the lusts of the flesh and mind, and by nature a child of wrath. That was all of us. That’s the old man. But Ephesians 2:4–5 says,

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

 

That’s the new man.

Ephesians 4:22 says the old man is “corrupt according to deceitful lusts.” We only know corruption because we know what truth looks like. The old man is everything opposite of the new life in Christ.

Now, we mustn’t confuse the old man with our mortal body.

Our body is not the old man.

God bought your body as 1 Corinthians 6:13–20 says.

Our body is for the Lord, and the Lord is for our body. God raised up Christ and will raise us up too. Our body will be resurrected because we’re already in the likeness of His resurrection as Romans 6:5 states.

So Romans 6 is teaching that we have a new life because we were planted together with Christ in His death and resurrection. We’re a new man. Our old man is crucified. And now we should live out what God’s already made true. The Christian life starts with knowing these truths. Paul keeps saying, “Know ye not… knowing this…” because maturity begins with knowing what God has done. Only then can we walk in it.

So, Romans 6:6 says our old man is crucified with Christ, and to understand that we need to see the difference between the old man and the body. As we said our body is not the old man.

Yes, we had our body when we were in Adam, but the “old man” is the sin‑cursed identity we had in Adam, We had condemnation, judgment, death, and the desires of the flesh. Paul uses the word flesh to describe that old Adam nature, not the physical body we live in.

However, our body still matters to God. He wants us to use it for Him. That’s why 1 Corinthians 6:19–20 says our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and we’re bought with a price.

God bought our body, but He killed the old man. It’s like He bought the car and killed the driver. The old driver was Adam. The new driver is Christ’s life in us. We now live by the knowledge of who we are in Christ.

So when Romans 6:6 says the old man is crucified with Christ, it means the death we inherited from Adam is gone. Adam’s death only kills. But Christ’s death kills the old man and gives us new life. That’s why Paul calls this the crucified life.

Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ…”—that’s the old man. “…nevertheless I live…”—that’s the new man. “…yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” That’s our identity now.

This’s why early believers were called Christians—because Paul taught them they were identified with Christ in His death and resurrection, not in His earthly flesh.

Romans 6:6 shows the purpose of Christ’s death according to the mystery. Yes, He died for our sins as Romans chapters 3–5 teaches, but He also died so our old man could be put to death and we could walk in newness of life.

Colossians 2:12–13 says you were buried with Him in baptism and risen with Him by faith. We were dead in sins, but God quickened us together with Christ, meaning God gave us life out of that death.

Colossians 3:3 says, “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” In Adam we were dead, and in Christ we’re also crucified—but now our life is found in Him, not in ourself.

Grace doesn’t tell the old man to run free.

Grace kills the old man and moves our life source from Adam to Christ in heavenly glory.

Romans 6:6 continues: “…that the body of sin might be destroyed.”

The “body of sin” is the condemned Adam identity we once had. Romans 7:24 calls it “the body of this death.” By Romans 7 Paul understands he’s a new man in Christ, but he still lives in a mortal body that struggles. That’s why he cries out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Romans 7:25 answers that question,

I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Romans 6:6 already gave the answer: the body of sin was destroyed by Christ’s death. Through Him this body of death was delivered, the old man crucified and resurrection life given to us.

Paul deals with the struggle in his body by knowing his old man is dead. The old man can’t condemn us or control us. It has no authority over us anymore. Yes it’s still hanging around, but it’s got no legal power over us as it did before.

Romans 8:13 says if we live after the flesh (that’s the old man), we will die. But if we, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, we will live. That’s our situation, our identity now, after we believe the gospel, and it doesn’t matter what we feel.

Walking after the Spirit means there’s now no condemnation. Grace doesn’t give us permission to sin. Grace doesn’t let the old man run free. Grace kills the old man. Grace nails him to the cross. The law could only condemn sin; grace destroys the source of sin.

Romans 6:6 says the old man is crucified so “the body of sin might be destroyed.” We’re not currently “in Adam” until we die. We’re in Christ now. Our old man is dead now. That’s why Paul says “henceforth”—from this moment forward—we shouldn’t serve sin. Not later. Not after death. Now.

If we read Romans 6 and feel condemned, we’re reading it wrong. Paul’s not saying, “Try harder.” He’s saying, “We don’t serve sin anymore.” The old man may scream, and tempt, and pull at us constantly, at every turn but we can say, “I don’t work for you anymore.”

We’re in a world full of sin, but we’re not under its authority. We’re free to say no.

This is why Paul calls it deliverance. We’re still in the prison of this world, but the chains are broken. We’re free from sin’s power, even though sin is still everywhere around us.

Romans 6:7 says,

For he that is dead is freed from sin.

 

How are we dead? We’re dead with Christ. Crucified with Him. That means we’re freed from sin’s rule. We’re not free of sin’s presence, but free from its power to condemn us to eternal death.

This is victory, liberty and redemption.

Galatians 5:1 says,

STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

 

We don’t go back under bondage—whether that’s the bondage of the law or the bondage of sin. We’re freed from both.

Grace gives you a new identity. God Himself declares us a new man. No other religion or philosophy can give us a new identity that’s real. Only God, the giver of life, can do that. He gives us eternal life, resurrection life, Christ’s life. That’s why we can say no to the old man. That’s why we can walk in newness of life.

Romans 6:6 ends by saying the old man is crucified “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” This is not a law command. It is a statement of freedom. We don’t serve sin anymore. We serve Christ. We’re dead with Him, risen with Him, and freed from sin’s power. That is the Christian life that Paul’s teaching.

Romans 3:24 first introduced the word redemption. Paul said we’re “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Redemption is more than paying for our sins. It means Christ delivered us and set us free and broke the power of sin, the law, and condemnation. That’s the same redemption Romans 6 is talking about—freedom from the old man and freedom from sin’s rule.

Colossians 1:13–14 says God delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His Son, “in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”

Redemption and forgiveness go together.

Titus 2:14 says,

Who (Christ) gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

 

The Peculiar people doesn’t mean an odd or strange people, but a people who belong to Him in a special way—not to the world or even to ourselves.

He didn’t just give us eternal life after death—He redeemed us now, freeing us from condemnation, judgment, and the sin of our old man, all of which Paul labours over telling us because of how critical it is to the way we think and the way we see ourselves while we’re still here in this body and still struggling in this world of sin.

Redemption means to release someone from the possession or the power of someone else. We’re no longer owned by sin. Yes, sin is still present in this world and in our flesh, but we’re not under its power. We’re redeemed today because the Spirit baptised us into Christ. That’s why baptism matters—not water, but the Spirit placing us into Christ’s death and resurrection.

Romans shows what you’re freed from.

Romans 3 shows we’re freed from the penalty of sin.

Romans 4 shows we’re freed from the imputation of sin.  Imputation means God counts something to our account that didn’t originally come from us.

Romans 5 shows we’re freed from the curse of sin.

Romans 6 shows we’re freed from the dominion and the power of sin.

Romans 7 shows we’re freed from the law, which gave sin its strength.

Romans 8 shows we’re freed from the condemnation of sin.

This’s why Romans 6 is so important. Being in Christ, baptised into His death and resurrection, means we’re free from, we have liberty from, and we have victory over sin. It no longer rules over us. We’re not waiting for freedom in heaven after this present body dies, we have it now. Christ destroyed the old man, broke sin’s power, and gave us new life in Him. That’s redemption.