Rom. 6 deals with the power that sin had over me. Because I have died in Christ (in His death), the issue of power is settled, for sin has no more dominion over me.
Having died with Christ, sin can have no dominion over me. Did Christ go down into death? Yes! So in chapter 6 we have baptism, which is a figure of death.
Baptism will never save anyone, but if you and I lay hold of the truth of baptism, we will be delivered practically from the power of sin in our lives and will see the old man dead, just as Christ died. Is the power of sin attached to me any longer? No! It is His death that delivers me and I have the happy privilege of seeing myself dead in that death which He died on the cross.
Romans does not present a man seated in heavenly places; that is the teaching of Ephesians. In Rom. 6 we see a man coming up out of death where he had been buried (baptism). We are not taught here about the resurrection of life; that we will find in the epistle to the Colossians.
Rom. 6 shows a man on earth who has come through death spiritually, his guilt having been removed. We are taught the truth of deliverance from the power of sin. How can a man be delivered from the power of sin? Only by the death of the old man, and life in the new man who has come out of death.
The place belonging to the first man (the old man) is death. If we do not leave the old man in the place of death we shall never understand the place that the new man has in Christ.
Coming out of death, we are in a condition of newness of life. All guilt is gone. It is entirely a new start. All that has gone before is to be forgotten. All that we were lies in the death of Christ, removed forever.
Here the subject is the power of sin in the flesh. If Christ has died, that life in the flesh has gone. He arose in newness of life. In Christ we have that new life.