Baptism - A picture of New Life in Christ.
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· 6 viewsBaptism presents a beautiful picture of a new life in Jesus Christ.
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What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply?
Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
Introduction: French writer Henri Barbusse (1874-1935) tells of a conversation overheard in a trench full of wounded men during the First World War.
One of the men, who knew he only had minutes to live says to one of the other man,“Listen, Dominic, you’ve led a very bad life. Everywhere you are wanted by the police. But there are no convictions against me. My name is clear, so, here, take my wallet, take my papers, my identity, take my good name, my life and quickly, hand me your papers that I may carry all your crimes away with me in death.”
The Good News is that through Jesus, God makes a similar offer. Something wonderful happens to us when we are baptized. When we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We publicly declare our intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow God’s will for our lives. He takes our old life of sin and shame and nails it to the cross. Then we receive his new life, his righteousness, his good name, and we are identified with His church.
In baptism, we see an outward sign of an inward work that takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, we are going to look a little closer at this picture of baptism.
As Baptists, there are several things that we believe that differs from some other Christian denominations. It will be helpful to hit on a few of those before we dive into the passage today.
First of all, we believe the Bible teaches that baptism is a symbolic act and it does not confer salvation on the person being baptized. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. We also believe that Baptism is for those who believe in Jesus Christ and profess their faith publically. Therefore, we do not practice infant baptism or Christening. Finally, we believe that baptism is by full water immersion only. The word for baptism means to immerse completely or to overwhelm with water. So therefore, we do not practice other forms of baptism such as pouring or sprinkling.
Now, lets look at what this passage says about Baptism. Baptism is...
A Picture of Deliverance (vv. 1-3)
A Picture of Deliverance (vv. 1-3)
In order to understand what Paul is talking about in verses 1-3, we need to fall back to Romans 5:20
Now the Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Paul had already argued in this book that no one will be justified before God by the keeping of the law.
For we conclude that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
So now he is arguing that the law was given to man in order to expose the sinful acts of man.
illus. David Guzick, “The law makes man’s sin clearer and greater by clearly contrasting it with God’s holy standard.”
Illus. D.L. Moody, “The law brings out sin; grace covers it. The law wounds; the Gospel heals. One is a quiver of arrows; the other a cruise of oil.”
So grace rises up to overcome our sin. The more sin present the more grace that is given.
But there is a problem here. This leads us to ask the very question that Paul answers in Romans 6:1-2.
“Should we continue in sin so that Grace may abound?” Absolutely not! He condemns this idea in the strongest terms.
Paul is pretty much saying, don’t even think that way!
Should a person keep robbing banks because they heard that the judge was merciful and forgiving?
Paul gives us a very good reason - believers who are baptized into Christ have been baptized into his death and are therefore dead to sin.
Illus. If you tell a person, “You are dead to me.,” you are saying that your relationship to that person is no longer the same. You want nothing else to do with them.
The believers’s relationship to sin is no longer the same. Sin is dead to you - or at least it should be. It no longer rules over you.
By the way, Paul is not referring to the occasional sin that every believer inevitably commits. No, he is referring to the continual practice of sin. (The present active tense)
Baptism pictures the believers deliverance from the power of sin, and from the practice of sin. It also pictures the future deliverance of a believer from the presence of sin (in heaven).
Deliverance from the power of sin.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin.
Deliverance from the practice of sin.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires.
For sin will not rule over you, because you are not under the law but under grace.
Deliverance from the presence of sin in the future...
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I myself am serving the law of God, but with my flesh, the law of sin.
A Picture of Passing from Death to Life (v. 4)
A Picture of Passing from Death to Life (v. 4)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In my practice of baptizing people, I use this verse.
When I put the person under the water, I say, “buried with Him in Death…” and when I bring them back up, I say, “raised to walk in the newness of life.”
Not only have we been delivered from from the power and practice of sin, we have been called to walk in the new life provided by Christ.
It is characterized by holiness.
I believe it was A.W. Tozer who said, “The Holy man is not one who doesn’t sin but one who will not sin.”
“walking” implies continual or habitual practice
to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.
It is characterized by obedience.
Before Christ, we walk in a spirit of disobedience. But in Christ, we are given a new heart that longs to obey the Lord.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
Illus. “Believing and obeying always run side by side.”
Charles Spurgeon
Illus. Centuries ago, when missionaries went amongst the barbaric tribes of western Europe and converted whole nations, baptisms of thousands of people at one time was a common occurrence. One thing the missionaries found was that many of these barbarians insisted on keeping their right hand out of the baptismal water when they were plunged beneath its surface. They were willing to become Christians in every aspect except one; they wanted their strong right arm left free to kill enemies and to use as they please.
When we commit our lives to Christ, we commit fully and totally without reservation. No holding back. No keeping your sword hand above the water. Complete surrender.
A Picture of Our Dependance Upon Christ (v. 5)
A Picture of Our Dependance Upon Christ (v. 5)
Paul understood that it was the resurrection power of Christ that enabled him to live a live that was pleasing to God.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,
Christ died…but he didn’t stay dead…he was resurrected from the dead. So it makes sense that if we died with him, we will also be raised with him.
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I also want to consider a different translation of v. 5.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
The newer versions translate as united with Christ, but the original language translates as “Planted.”
Picture a field of grain being planted at the same time. The grain springs up and grows simultaneously and becomes intimately connected or joined together. So you would expect the grain sown at the same time to grow up together and resemble one another. So we are to resemble Christ.