Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?  (4) Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (8) Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, (9) knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  (10) For the death that he died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  (11) Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

The letter to the Romans was written by the apostle Paul.  In chapter 6 of Romans, Paul addresses grace apart from the new life we have in the risen Christ – justification by faith is accompanied by grace to empower us to live a holy life.  Christ died on account of sin as a perfect ransom/sacrifice acceptable to God and God justifies sinners by grace alone through faith alone with no merit on our part at all.

At the moment of faith we receive salvation and our sins are covered by Christ as the old depraved nature is transformed – we begin the lifelong process of sanctification and are baptized as a public affirmation of this reality.  In ancient days baptism followed/accompanied conversion and was a physical act symbolic of our union with Christ.   Baptism is the spiritual reality of our new nature (which happened at the moment of faith) and water baptism symbolizes this today.  If we died to sin in Christ we cannot still live in sin. This does not mean we are immune to temptation or acts of sin.

If we partake of the union with Christ in death through faith, it follows that we shall partake in eternal life in union with the risen Christ.  In faith there is a decisive break with sin and a new life in God.  Christ paid the penalty for sin and provides the power to overcome sin on a daily basis and we must live in this thought as free men and women.