Romans 6:5

‘For if we have been conjoined with him in the likeness of his death, we shall be also (in the likeness) of his resurrection,'

In Romans 6:4 our entering into Christ's death resulted in the fact that ‘like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.' This verse continues that thought and associates ‘walking in newness of life' with being partakers in Christ's resurrection. The use of the particular verb, which means being ‘conjoined with in the same way that one plant grows together with another', is particularly apposite. What is ‘foreign' is conjoined with the base plant so as to make it one with the base plant. (Compare Romans 11:16 where the Christian is conjoined with the Olive Tree of the Messiah). In this way are we, who are ‘foreign' to Him because of our sinfulness and imperfect humanity, made one with and conjoined with the One Who is sinless and perfect.

We are first conjoined with Him in the likeness of His death, something that is said to have been already demonstrated (‘if we have been'). The ‘ likeness  of His death' (and not just ‘in His death') may be intended to be an indication that our death and His are not quite the same. He died physically. We in contrast have died with Him by being spiritually conjoined to Him. Or it may be indicating the close association of our death with His (‘in the image of His death'). Or it may be stressing the reality of our death through His (‘in the form of His death'). The point in the end, however, is that we died as He died. Thus we have died to sin.

And in the same way we will be raised as He was raised. This may refer to our ‘walking in newness of life' with our spiritual resurrection being in mind (Romans 6:11; John 5:24; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12). Or, while including that, it may be adding to that the idea of the physical final resurrection. Compare the similar combination of the two in Romans 8:10 (compare John 5:24; John 5:28). But if so it is because the physical resurrection is the final evidence of the spiritual resurrection, bringing it to its perfection (Colossians 1:22; Ephesians 5:25), for it is the spiritual resurrection that is overall prominent in this passage, undergirding the arguments that follow.