1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, 9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! 10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13Also, do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14For sin will not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Don’t you know that when you present yourselves as servants and obey someone, you are the servants of whomever you obey, whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered. 18Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.
19I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification. 20For when you were servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. 21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22But now, being made free from sin and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification and the result of eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Gk. βαπτίζω, baptidzo). (Matt 28:19; Rom 6:1-5; 1 Cor 12:13) Strong’s 907
The English words “baptize” and “baptism” are transliterations of the Greek word βαπτίζω and βαπτίσμα rather than translations. That is, they simply repeat the Greek verb or noun using English characters. The Greek verb would translate something like “plunge,” “dip,” “wash,” or “immerse,” depending on its context. The –ίζω (idzo) ending of the word is causative, consistent with the idea of causing someone or something to be immersed. Notwithstanding opinion from a diversity of theological perspectives, the word itself connotes dipping, so that justification for modes of baptism other than immersion should not be sought in the meaning of this Greek word. Baptism is a symbol of a believer's identification with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Rom 6:1-5), as well as a symbol of Jesus' identification with His people and a picture of the baptism in the Spirit (Acts 10:47; 1 Cor 12:13). Baptism is an important part of disciple-making, and should naturally come without delay for believers (Acts 8:36-38).