According to Romans 6, a person who is baptized
is united with Christ. Just as Christ was “buried” in death, so too the person
goes “under the water” and is symbolically buried. But for Paul this is not simply symbolism. It is a real mystical
experience, a participation with Christ in his death. When Christ died, he
died for the sins of the world. In a sense, he put sin to death. Those who are
baptized in Christ also “die to sin.” Sin no longer has any control over them. Hey
therefore will not be subject to the destruction of sin and sinners on the day
of God’s wrath—or, as Paul puts it just as they have already died with Christ
in baptism, they will also “be made alive with him” (Romans 6:8). For Paul this
is the key to the future resurrection of the dead. Yes, in theory, as he says
in Romans 2, it comes to those who “do good.” But that means only those who
believe in the messiah Jesus and have participated with him in his death. They
are the ones who are dead to sin and therefore can actually do the will of God,
and so will be saved when the divine wrath of God bursts forth at the end of
the age. At that time they will be raised from the dead. (Bart D. Ehrman, Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife [New
York: Simon and Schuster, 2020], 174, emphasis in bold added)
Further Reading
