Romans 6:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore the Apostle added: "That, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Here, together with concern for life, the Apostle also speaks covertly of the resurrection. How so? You believed, he asks, that Christ died and rose again. Therefore believe also in your own resurrection, since in this too you are made like Christ. A cross and a tomb lie before you as well.

If you shared in His death and burial, much more will you share in His resurrection and life. When you have been freed from the greater thing, that is, from sin, you must not doubt the lesser thing, the destruction of death.

Yet for the present the Apostle leaves his hearers to consider this by their own understanding. While awaiting the future resurrection, he requires of us another resurrection, namely a new life, consisting in a change of the habits of our present life.

When the fornicator becomes chaste, the lover of gain merciful, and the cruel man meek, this too is a resurrection, serving as the beginning of the future one. In what sense is it a resurrection? In this sense: sin has been put to death, and righteousness has risen. The old life has been abolished, and a new, evangelical life has begun.

Whenever you hear of new life, understand a great change and a mighty transformation. Yet I must weep and groan bitterly when I consider two things. On the one hand, what great philosophy Paul requires of us. On the other, what negligence we have given ourselves over to, returning after baptism to our former old age, turning back again to Egypt, and after manna remembering the garlic of Egypt.

Ten or twenty days after receiving baptism, we already change and take up our former works again. Paul requires good conduct from us not for a fixed number of days, but for our whole life. Yet we return to our former vomit. Even after the youth received from grace, we prepare for ourselves the former old age that comes from sins.

For love of money, service to shameful passions, and every sin generally make old the man who commits them. What is old and aged is near destruction. It is truly impossible, utterly impossible, to see the body so weakened by time as the soul is corrupted and enfeebled by many sins.

It falls into extreme babbling and speaks indistinctly, like the aged or the insane. It suffers dullness of the outward senses, paralysis of bodily members, forgetfulness, and discharge from the eyes. It becomes loathsome to men and altogether suited to the devil. Such are the souls of sinners.

But the souls of the righteous are not such. They are young and vigorous, always remaining in the full bloom of age. They are always ready for every contest and battle. But the souls of sinners, when exposed even to a slight assault, usually fall at once and perish.

The prophet expressed this when he said that "they are like dust which the wind drives away" (Ps 1:4). So unstable and exposed to every attack are those who live in sins. They do not see well, hear rightly, or speak distinctly. They stammer continually, and their mouth is always full of spittle.

Would that it were only spittle, for that would not be so loathsome. But they pour forth words more foul-smelling than any filth. Worst of all, they prove unable to spit out the spittle of such words. With great shamelessness they draw it out by hand and rub it again, because it has become thick and hard to separate.

You are probably disgusted as you hear my description. The reality itself is more disgusting. If this is unpleasant to see in the body, it is far more unpleasant in the soul. Such was that young man who squandered all his property and came to the last degree of vice. He became weaker than any sick man or deranged person.

But as soon as he willed it, he at once became young through disposition alone and a change of thoughts. As soon as he said, "I will return to my father" (Lk 15:18), that word alone, or rather not only the word, but the deed that followed the words, brought him every good thing.

He did not say, "I will go," and remain where he was. He said, "I will go," and he went, and completed his whole journey. Let us do the same. If we have been carried away to a foreign land, let us return to the Father's house and not fear the length of the road.

If only we will, our return will be easy and very swift. Only let us leave the foreign land that is alien to us, that is, sin, which leads us far away from the Father's house. Therefore let us leave sin, that we may return more quickly beneath the Father's roof.

The Father is loving. He will not love us less, but even more, when we repent than when we pleased Him. So also the father deemed the prodigal son worthy of great honor then, and he himself rejoiced more greatly when he found his son.

But how shall I return? you say. Only make a beginning of the work, and everything has already been done. Stop living viciously and go no farther, and you have already received everything.

So it is with the sick. It is already the beginning of improvement if they do not grow worse. The same happens with evil. Go no farther, and your evil deeds will come to an end.

If you do this for two days, on the third it will be easier for you to abstain. To the three days you will then add ten, afterward twenty, then a hundred, and then your whole life.

The farther you advance, the easier your road will seem. At last you will reach the very summit and then at once enjoy many good things.

For when the prodigal son returned, pipes, harps, choruses, banquets, and festivities appeared. The one who should have demanded an account from his son for his untimely extravagance and such a long flight did nothing of the kind. He met him as one deserving praise.

He spoke not a single word of reproach to him. He did not even show that he remembered his former life. He embraced him, kissed him, killed the calf, clothed him in a robe, and adorned him greatly.

Since we have such examples, let us be bold and not despair. God does not rejoice so much when He is called Master as when He is called Father. He does not rejoice so much when He gains a slave as when He gains a son. It is more pleasing to Him to have a son than a slave.

Whatever He did, He did for this very purpose. He did not spare His Only-begotten, so that we might receive adoption. He did this so that we might love Him not only as Master, but also as Father.

If He obtains this from us, He exults, as does the one who glorifies Him. He proclaims this to all, though He has need of nothing from us. He did this also with Abraham, continually repeating, "I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

It would have been fitting for the servants to boast of this. Yet now the Master Himself openly does it. Therefore He also asks Peter, "Do you love Me more than these?" (Jn 21:15), showing that He requires nothing from us before love.

Therefore He commanded Abraham to offer his son in sacrifice, in order to show all how strongly the patriarch loved Him. The desire to be greatly loved comes from great love.

Therefore Christ also said to the Apostles: "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt 10:37). Therefore, although our own soul is closest to us, God places it second in relation to love for Himself, because He wishes us to love Him beyond all measure.

When we are not strongly disposed toward someone, we do not demand strong affection from him, even if he is great and famous. But when we love someone warmly and sincerely, even if the beloved person is simple and insignificant, we count his reciprocal love the greatest honor for ourselves.

So Christ counted it glory for Himself not only to be loved by us, but also to endure reproach for us. That was glory by His love alone. But what we endure for His sake can truly be called glory, and is glory in reality. It is so not by love alone, but also by the greatness and dignity of Him Whom we love.

Therefore, when we strive for the greatest crowns, let us not count as burdensome or unpleasant danger for His sake, poverty, illness, insult, slander, or even death itself, whenever we endure these things for Him.

If we keep watch, we shall receive the greatest profit from all this. If we do not keep watch, we shall receive no profit even from the opposite things. Consider: does someone harm you and act with hostility? He teaches you to keep watch and gives you occasion to become like God.

If you love the one who plots against you, you will become like Him Who "makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good" (Mt 5:45). Another takes away your property. If you bear this magnanimously, you will receive the same reward as those who distributed everything to the poor.

The Apostle says: "You accepted the plundering of your goods with joy, knowing that you have in heaven a better and abiding possession" (Heb 10:34). Has someone spoken evil of you and reproached you? Whether it is true or false, you have woven for yourself the greatest crown if you meekly endured the reproach.

The slanderer too will bring us a great reward, for it is said: "Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven... when they revile you" (Mt 5:11-12). And one who speaks the truth about us again brings us the greatest profit, if only we bear his words humbly.

Thus the Pharisee reviled the publican. Though he spoke the truth, he made the publican righteous. Why is it necessary to list every case individually, when one can learn all this exactly by remembering Job's struggles? Therefore Paul also said: "If God is for us, who is against us?" (Rom 8:31).

Therefore, if we are diligent, we receive profit even from what is unpleasant. If we are careless, we do not become better even from what is profitable. Tell me: did dwelling together with Christ profit Judas? Was the law profitable to the Jews? Was paradise profitable to Adam? Was Moses in the wilderness profitable to the Hebrews?

Therefore, leaving everything else, we must direct our attention to this alone: that we order ourselves well. If we do this, the devil himself will never be able to overcome us. Rather, he will bring us still greater profit by teaching us to keep watch.

Thus Paul also stirred the Ephesians to vigilance by depicting the devil's ferocity. But we sleep and snore, and this while we have so wicked an adversary. If we learned that a serpent was hiding by our bed, we would surely take every care to kill it.

But when the devil has hidden in our souls, we think that nothing bad is happening to us, though we have already fallen. The reason is that we do not see the devil with bodily eyes. Yet for this very reason we ought to keep watch and be more careful.

One can easily guard against a visible enemy. But from an invisible one we cannot quickly escape unless we are always armed. All the more is this so because the devil does not know how to fight openly, lest he at once be captured himself. Often, under the guise of friendship, he pours in his cruel poison.

So he acted with Job's wife, prompting her under the mask of tender love to offer her evil counsel (Job 2:9). So also, when conversing with Adam, he pretends to care and be concerned for him, saying: "In the day that you eat of them your eyes will be opened" (Gen 3:5).

So, under the guise of piety, he prompted Jephthah to kill his daughter and offer a lawless sacrifice (Judg 11:31, 39). Have you noticed his snares? Have you noticed his varied warfare?

Therefore be careful. Guard yourself on every side with spiritual weapons. Strive to know his designs exactly, so that you may not become his prisoner, but may easily seize him. Thus Paul, knowing all the devil's devices exactly, overcame him, as he himself says: "We are not ignorant of his designs" (2 Cor 2:11).

For what the Cross and tomb were for Christ, Baptism is for us, though in another respect. Christ died and rose in the flesh, while we die to sin and rise to virtue. As Christ rose in the flesh from the dead by the glory of the Father, that is, by His own Divinity, for the Son is the glory of the Father, so we also rise by another resurrection, namely, a new way of life. Thus, when a fornicator becomes chaste, he presents death and resurrection: the death of vice, and the resurrection and enlivening of virtue in man.

It is fitting for us, as those buried with Him, also to rise with Him intelligibly. Since to be buried with Christ means to die to sin, it is clear that resurrection with Him should rightly be understood only as life in righteousness.

“How, then, do we become in the likeness of His death? By being buried with Him through baptism (Rom 6:5, 4). In what consists the image of burial? And why is such imitation beneficial?

First, the order of the former life must be cut off. According to the word of the Lord, this is impossible for one ‘who is not born from above’ (Jn 3:7). For rebirth, as the very name shows, is the beginning of a new life.

Therefore, before the beginning of the new life, the preceding life must be brought to an end. When runners on a course run out and back, the two opposite movements are separated by a certain stop and rest. So also in the change of life, it proved necessary that death serve as a middle point between the two lives.

Therefore, since we suffered with Him through Baptism, then, as He rose from the dead through the glory of His Father, so let us also walk in newness of life after the enlivening that comes from Baptism itself.

Baptism is like death when you are immersed in the water. But without doubt it is also a likeness of resurrection when you rise. So also according to the Apostle's explanation: as Christ's rising is regeneration, so rising from the font is likewise regeneration.

First of all, this means that Christ raised His body from the dead, since He is the power of God the Father. As He Himself says: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (Jn 2:19, 21).

He rose to new life, which no longer knows death. It is called new because it is given by Christ, and it is the teaching of Christ. The Latin has disciplina Christiana.

We died together with Christ in baptism (Col 2:11-12), so that from then on we might live the life in which Christ rose. Therefore baptism is the sign and symbol of resurrection, so that we may remain in the commandments of Christ and not return to the past state in which we were.

The very mystery of baptism taught you to flee sin, because baptism bears the image of the Master’s death. In it you became a partaker of Christ’s death and Christ’s resurrection. Therefore you must live a certain new life, in accordance with Him in whom you became a partaker of His resurrection.

By “the glory of the Father” the Apostle means the Godhead of Christ. For in another epistle he also says: “The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” (Eph 1:17). And the Lord said in the Gospel: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19).

If the heretics do not accept this interpretation, even in that case they will not diminish the glory of the Only-begotten. For if the Father raised Him, He raised Him as man, because He also accepted suffering as man.

See verse 3.

As Jesus died, taking upon Himself the sins of the whole world, so that by putting sin to death He might restore you in righteousness, so you also descend into the water and are in a certain way buried in the water, as He was in the rock (Mt 27:60). Then you rise again in renewed life.

To live in newness means to begin a certain new and renewed life, having put off the old life that is in sin. For regeneration promises a certain new and renewed manner of life.

Symbolically, baptism served as a likeness of the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the primitive Church, as in our Orthodox Church to this day, baptism was performed through threefold immersion in water.

The Apostle points to this manner of celebrating the mystery. In the immersion, katadysis, he finds the image of burial: “We were buried with Him by baptism into death.” In the coming out of the water, anadysis, he finds the image of the Resurrection: “As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should begin to walk in newness of life.”

These words of Peter show that repentance is required of the one being baptized. The same is evident from other passages in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 3:19; Acts 20:21; Acts 26:20). It is also evident from the fact that in Scripture Baptism is called self-burial for sin (Rom 6:3-5; Heb 10:22-25).

"Therefore" points to a conclusion from what precedes. What conclusion does the apostle draw?

Thus, he says, we were buried together into Christ's death in order to live a new life.

But does this follow directly from what came before?

There it was said that when we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ's death. This means that we died to sin.

The direct conclusion would be this: therefore we were buried together into Christ's death in order to be dead to sin.

This would correspond directly to the self-answering question, "How shall we still live in it?"

But he says, "We were buried together" so that we might live a new life. Why did he say this?

Because it is another expression of one and the same thought. To live a new life means to live a life opposite to the former life.

Every soul remains in Adam until it is renewed in Christ. To the measure that it is filthy, to that measure it is cleansed.