A reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans.

Do you not know that when we were baptized into Christ Jesus we were baptized in the death of Christ?  We have been buried with Jesus through baptism, and we joined with Jesus in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by God’s glory, we too might live a new life.

But we believe that having died with Christ, we will also live with Christ – knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again: death is now powerless over our Savior.  When Christ died, Christ died to sin, once for all, so that this life now is life with God. In this way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The Word of God recorded in the letter of Paul to the Romans.