Isaac Watts’s hymn draws directly from Romans 6, picturing baptism as a spiritual burial. The opening lines challenge believers to remember what their baptism means: they have been placed into Christ’s death and, through that, have shed their old sinful nature. The mood is both solemn and deeply hopeful. There is a sense of awe—this is a sacred mystery the speaker assumes the congregation already knows. As the hymn unfolds, the tone lifts. The second verse describes a divine in-breathing, a resurrection from guilt and decay that mirrors Christ’s own rising from the tomb. The final stanza becomes a firm, almost triumphant declaration: sin and Satan have lost their claim. The old desires that once enslaved them are no longer in charge. The speaker isn’t pleading or speculating; it’s a confident pronouncement of freedom, meant to embolden worshippers to live out the new identity they received in the waters of baptism.
Hymn 122 — Summary
Believers buried with Christ in baptism.
Rom. 6:3,4,etc.
Do we not know that solemn word, That we are buried with the Lord, Baptized into his death, and then Put off the body of our sin?
Our souls receive diviner breath, Raised from corruption, guilt, and death; So from the grave did Christ arise, And lives to God above the skies.
No more let sin or Satan reign Over our mortal flesh again; The various lusts we served before Shall have dominion now no more.