Romans 6:4 and 5 deals with our baptism as an analogy of the ____ of Christ.

• A. death, burial, and resurrection
• B. birth, life, and death
• C. ascension, resurrection, and glory
• D. cleansing, renewal, and transformation

Answer: (C)

The passage uses baptism to picture our connection with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. The line that we are buried with him through baptism into death shows the death and burial side, while the following verse notes that Christ was raised from the dead, and we too may live a new life, pointing to the resurrection and the new life that follows. And the idea that we have been united with him in a death like his reinforces that this union includes both dying to sin and rising to a transformed life. So the best phrasing for what baptism symbolizes here is death, burial, and resurrection. The other options don’t match the imagery Paul uses: they miss one of the elements, or shift to a different theme not emphasized in these verses.