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Paul here is talking about the actual, historical death of Jesus Christ. The day that Christ died on the cross for our sins. Christ's death become our own when we confess to Jesus our sinful nature and ask Him to help us to become like Him, to start striving to live a life that is pleasing to God. This is not just mumbo-jumbo to the saved. When we see the change that the union that we have with Christ in His death and resurrection brings about in our lives, THAT IS REALITY TO US

Buried in 4a means that we have put to death and buried our old sinful nature. This is spiritual, symbolized by a physical act. Christ was raised from the dead means we can also rise from baptism (spiritually) and have newness of life, live a life (with struggles) pleasing to God.

Baptism brings about our union with Christ in that when we are submerged in the water we join Christ in His death for the sacrifice that he made for us on the Cross. It also symbolizes our emerging or rising out of the water the same way that Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God; for us it means we are rising to live a new life in Christ. We are living under grace but it does not give us license to keep sinning or living our old life. We cannot be both dead to sin and alive in Christ at the same time. The death of Christ is applied to kill sin in your life; while the resurrection of Christ is applied to give you

Christ became our (believers) Head when we died to sin, that is we buried our old selves and stopped intentionally pursuing an ungodly way of life. There is nothing we can do except have faith and trust Jesus that He will bring about what He has promised us-to be with Him forever. All the other work is Christ's. When we died with Christ that means that we as believers are now redeemed; we have been bought or ransomed from the life of sin and we have been made holy by the torturous sacrifice that Jesus made on Calvary.

Adam was formed out of the dust of the ground therefore he was earthy. All mankind descend from Adam therefore we are earthy. Adam committed the first sin thereby passing that characteristic down to every human being born. He is our earthy representative. Jesus when He died on Calvary became our representative and our Godhead. He came to rescue mankind and restore our friendship and harmony to God. Christ's death can be effective ONLY for those who believe in Him.

Paul is saying that people were sinning even before the law was given. After Adam committed that first sin everyone from him until the time of Moses was sinning, even though it was not counted as sin because the Mosaic Law had not been given to Moses yet and and without any law there is no sin to break even though people were sinning because of our part or union with Adam who committed that first sin. Yes there could be sin without law as Paul said in verse 13 but it was not defined to the people until after the law was given which is what Paul says in verse 20. Paul is saying the law was given so that the people could see how sinful they were(trespass increased) and as people sinned more and more God's free gift of grace increased.

Let's go to the business world, in this example a restaurant. The manager of the restaurant gets a request to cater a meal for a customer. He accepts that request thereby causing his employees to have to do the actual work to provide the service for this patron by cooking the meal and probably serving it as well at the event, and any other services that would involve in the manager providing this service.

Reconciled means to have friendship restored. Reconciled means to exchange hostility for friendliness. To restore a relationship that had been severed or broken. There is now harmony with God, peace, access to God because Jesus made it possible. Reconciliation is necessary because that is the only way we can be assured of our salvation. It is the only way we will be saved from the wrath of God in the future. It is the only way we can have access to God now as He sanctifies us and help us develop the character of Jesus Christ in us. WE are being saved in the present tense now for just that reason. That is what Jesus is doing in us now as He is using whatever is happening in our lives to build that righteous, holy character that He is in us.

It is of the utmost importance that we understand and grasp the truth about Jesus dying for the ungodly that He died for sinners. If Jesus had laid down His life for righteous people it would not be a sacrifice; He would not be the Savior. He died for sinners because that was all we could be; our human nature would not let us be anything else. (Romans 8:7) He died for us because we could not be anything else unless He made a way for us to be able to become children of God. He died for us while we were still sinners at our worst. Satan wants us to believe that we can do things that God will not forgive. He torments people with the mistaken knowledge that they have committed the unpardonable sin. We must remember that Satan is a liar. (John 8:44) And Satan wants our destiny to be his own--separation from God forever. Because of God's love for us that He died for us at our worst we can have assurance that since He as made it possible for us to be forgiven He is not going to hang us out there when we make mistakes and sin, God says He will never leave or forsake us. Hebrews 13:5-6.

We should rejoice because God is giving us an opportunity to become more like Him when we develop these traits. Our goal is to be with God forever and we have assurance that we will through our faith in the sacrifice that Jesus did for us on Calvary. But these things, patience, experience and hope helps us to become more like Christ. And the hope that we have, the expectation of being with God forever keeps us going, keeps us persevering, and we can rejoice when we past these tests and trials becuse we know we are pleasing God and that is what God wants from us. Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.(NIV)

For Abraham and us the relationship between faith and justification is we can be justified only when we have faith, belief, trust in God and His promises to us. Jusified means to be declared righteous because of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the Cross, that He died for us while we were still sinners and we are righteous only because He dwells in our hearts and minds.