. . . some have suggested that Paul is not here
primarily referring to the actual event of water baptism, but only using the
language as a metaphor for Christian beginnings, conversion and initiation, in
general. As most commentators have
agreed, this is unlikely. First-century Christian beginnings included
water-baptism; the discussion in vv. 4-5 seems to allude to the physical rite;
Paul’s readers would naturally understand the passage in a literal sense. (N.
T. Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” in The New Interpreter’s Bible,
12 vols. [Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002], 10:533)