In my view that depends on what you mean by literal. A literal water immersion Christ literally took the sins of his own upon himself, so we are buried with him in that sense. In the sense that he literally took our death upon himself. Further, he literally was raised from the dead. Born again believers take part in his resurrection literally as well, in the sense that since he was resurrected he can now give them of his Spirit to be born from above, so to speak. However, when one is born again, there is a change that various sects and denominations often try to pick apart as occurring separately. They focus on one aspect of the new birth that they notice in scripture and highlight that thing they think is important. In reality, everything kind of occurs together. One of the things that occurs is a person is washed free from the stain of sin. That is what baptism is; not a physical ceremony that washes dirt from the body.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved", meaning he that believes and has been washed free from the stain of sin; not he that believes and has undergone a physical water dunking ceremony.
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved", meaning he that believes and has been washed free from the stain of sin; not he that believes and has undergone a physical water dunking ceremony.
Romans 6:4,5 KJV
4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:”
Holy Spirit baptism doesn’t involve physical death or spiritual death because prior to that baptism the person was already dead in their trespasses. Therefore this must be referring to a literal water immersion which is the likeness of His death in the sense when we go below the water it’s like being buried.
“that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
Christ’s body was literally resurrected. Meaning He died and His physical body was brought back to life. When we are are baptized we don’t literally become resurrected because that would involve dying first. That means this is for a future literal resurrection like Christ’s resurrection. There’s no comparison between Christ’s resurrection and a symbolic resurrection. Therefore this verse must be literal.
“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”
Legwork here is likeness. Christ didn’t die spiritually or was born again during His water baptism or His Spirit baptism because He’s perfect sinless God. He was not resurrected during His baptism either. This passage is for the church, for repentant sinners, who have been water baptized and will therefore for share in the likeness of His resurrection which was a literally bodily raising from the dead.
There’s no other rational way to understand this passage unless it’s literal and no symbolic.