The Joy of New Life

Baptism Makes You Alive in Christ

1.14.24 [Romans 6:1-11] River of Life (Baptism Of Our Lord)

Why are you here? Why do you live here? People move to Arizona for many reasons. Some for work. Others come here for the weather. Many move here because it’s such a wonderful place to get away from it all—to retire from their careers & leave their old lives behind.

I suppose you could say that’s what brought Salvatore to the Valley, too. He wanted to leave his old life behind. He got an apartment in Tempe. Eventually, his children followed him, too. Life for Salvatore here was good. He felt lucky to be able to say that. You’d agree if you knew about his former career, the old life he was trying to leave behind.

You probably already do, actually. Salvatore Gravano was not just an infamous man, he was a made man. Best known as Sammy the Bull, a mafia enforcer and underboss in the Gambino crime family. That’s a hard life to leave, especially after you turn informer and testify against the mob. But after a year in prison & nine months in witness protection, Mr. Gravano decided he was done running from the Mafia.

He stopped using his government issued alias and made a new life for himself here. He became a regular at a coffee shop near his apartment. On more than one occasion, he would tell the kind of stories that everyone clamors to hear from an ex-mafia underboss. Most of them were already in the biography that came out recently. While Sammy seemed to enjoy the spotlight, he had other interests. Mr. Gravano started a couple of businesses—a restaurant with his ex-wife, a construction company, and a pool business, too.

It seemed like Sammy had done the impossible. Not only had he flipped on the mafia and lived to tell about it, he went legit. He was now taking care of the right family.

But it only seemed that way. About five years after being released from prison, Sammy fell back into old habits. He connected with a small-time drug dealer who was originally from New York. With Sammy’s experience and intimidating reputation, the whole operation quickly became the biggest in the state. The new ring was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a week. Until the Phoenix PD busted him through wiretaps and, ironically, got Sammy’s criminal apprentice to flip on him. Sammy was given a second chance and he didn’t take it. Instead, he started one of the biggest drug rings in the country & got busted.

It’s hard to imagine how someone could be so foolish. After he got caught, Sammy said as much—in the kind of colorful ways that mobsters talk in interviews but pastors shouldn’t in their sermons. But it’s not just mobsters who squander their blessings and return to old ways of living. That’s one of the points Paul makes in Romans 6.

Speaking to and of believers, Paul writes: (Rom. 6:2) We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Our old selves were crucified with Jesus. Sin’s mastery over us has been broken. We have been set free from sin. Consider yourself dead to sin.

In our baptism, we have been given more than a clean slate or a fresh start. We have been made alive. We have been set free. We have received mercy instead of punishment. We live under grace—God’s undeserved and unconditional love in Christ Jesus.

But with that blessing comes a unique temptation. It’s one that nearly every new believer immediately discovers as they come to know God’s grace. If Jesus has already paid for all my sins, what difference does it make how I live? Can’t I just live however I want?

The way this can play out it is much like it did in the life of Sammy the Bull. Before we were given this new life in Christ, we sinned in flagrant ways. We cared little for God’s commands to love him or our neighbor. We lived for ourselves. We lived as if no one could or would judge us. We lied. We cheated. We stole. The only thing that curbed our appetite for sin was our fear of temporal punishment.

Your rap sheet might not match Sammy the Bull’s, but recall how his life shifted when he was given a clean slate. By comparison, his crimes are small stuff, right? That’s how we feel about our sins, too!

We trade in flagrant sins for more faint sins—sins that fly under our radar far more easily. Our anger doesn’t result in physical violence, just hateful thoughts. Our lust doesn’t develop into an affair, just hidden thoughts and actions. Our greed doesn’t spring into theft, just stinginess. Our laziness doesn’t give us bed sores or get us fired, we just fritter our days away and squander the strength God has given us. We don’t outwardly hate God or anything, but his Word isn’t the final word on anything significant. We still selfishly choose to sin.

And when we get little warnings along the way, that we’re falling into sinful habits, that we are straying from the side of our Savior, we are far too quick to point out immaterial things. What difference does it make if others are sinning more flagrantly? Why do we think that no one is getting hurt by our sins? How can we say we have no choice?

It’s shameful how we try to downplay our own sins. It’s foolish to tell ourselves that any sin is harmless or inconsequential. Evil desires only spawn sin and when sin is full grown it only gives birth to death.

Paul, in Romans 6, reminds us that sin is a big deal. It is not harmless. It is not inconsequential. Our sin is the reason that Christ died. (Rom. 6:3) Don’t you understand that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? When he was crucified it was our old self, our sinful nature that was being crucified with him. This was the price that God personally paid to set us free from our slavery to sin. How can we use the freedom that Christ has paid dearly for, with his holy, precious blood (Gal. 5:13) to indulge our sinful flesh?!? To live like that would be an insult to the One who has shown us kindness, patience, mercy, and unconditional love. Our sin doesn’t make God’s grace any more amazing! God’s grace is amazing enough on its own!

But God does not guilt or intimidate us into living a new life. It won’t work—Sammy the Bull is proof of that— and it’s not the way he works—Jesus is proof of that.. Throughout Jesus’ life, God’s love shines forth.

Love stimulated God the Father to send his beloved Son to earth to battle against the Devil, the great deceiver.

Love prompted Jesus to humble himself and take on flesh and blood and become our servant. Love moved him to the waters of the Jordan River, to be baptized by a sinner so that he might be connected with all baptized sinners.

Love for God’s Word led him to live a life of righteousness, holiness, and faithfulness. Love for sinners inspired him to seek out the sick—especially the spiritually ill—so that they might receive healing.

But love for sick sinners demands hatred for what infects us—sin. Sometimes, we try to make this overly simplistic and say that God hates the sin but loves the sinner. You see that distinction in moments when Jesus stands up for accused sinners like in John 8. When the self-righteous teachers of the law used a woman caught in adultery as a pawn in their power play against Jesus. He refused to take part in their farce but instead used the moment to expose their hidden sinfulness. All Jesus said to them was (Jn. 8:7) Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her. One by one, they all left without condemning her to death. Jesus saved her life with his wisdom. But he didn’t stop there. He turned to her and declared: (Jn. 8:7) I do not condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.

He says something very similar to a lame man that he had healed in Jerusalem. (Jn. 5:14) See you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you. Never and nowhere in the Bible do we find Jesus giving a wink and nod to sin in any form. God hates sin and he will condemn unrepentant sinners eternally.

The only reason we can say that God hates the sin and loves the sinners is because (2 Cor. 5:21) God made him who had no sin—Jesus—to be sin for us. When we see how God treated sin and sinner in his Son, we must recognize that God’s hatred of sin isn’t some abstract concept. God poured his wrath out upon his beloved Son, instead of upon us. The Son in whom he was well-pleased was (Is. 53) punished by God, stricken by him, pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our wickedness. Only because of his wounds are we healed. Only because he was punished do we have peace. When he died on the cross, he was doing so in our place. He paid our debt.

But he did not remain dead. Christ was raised from the dead and cannot die again. He lives to the glory of God. And so, too, shall we!

Because of God’s great love, we are called to count ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The will of our old self has been put to death. It’s no longer in charge. Christ is. He is ruling in your heart. He has shown you the devastation that sin brings. He has blessed you with a new life and new strength to live like this.

One small warning we can take away from Sammy the Bull is where he started to get off track. He gave up the cover name he was given. Why? Because he liked his old reputation and life! We must be careful when we find ourselves envying the lives of sinful people. We must be on guard whenever we find ourselves long the sinful ways we left.

Imagine for a moment, if someone came to you and rolled back the clock on your health. Everything that aches went away instantly. Not only that, but they said they would take care of all your doctors visits and any procedures you’d have in the future. Would you abuse your body? Would you make dangerous decisions? Would you neglect your health? Of course not! You’d be grateful and thankful! Why would we do any less when we have been given new life in Christ?

Or what if someone paid off your house? Would you let it fall into disrepair? Of course not! With that stress removed from your budget you would probably make your place even nicer! After all, it’s where you live. Do you not know that your body is the Holy Spirit’s temple? Then live like it!

You are alive and eternal death cannot touch you. You have been set free and have been filled with the Holy Spirit. Day by day, moment by moment, he is producing in you something new, something divine. Within you is a new love, an enduring joy, and an unshakeable peace.

You love God, not out of guilt, but (1 Jn. 4) because he first loved you. You are joyful, not just when your life is filled with pleasures, but because you know what God has done for you in sending his Son. You are at peace, not because everything is always going your way, but because you know that the Prince of Peace has paid for all your sins. You are reconciled to God. You know why you are here and how you are to live.

Because of God’s grace there is a growing and maturing desire to be kind and patient. Because of God’s great goodness and love you are eager to do what is good. You are eager to encourage people in their struggles against sin and in their faith in Jesus Christ. Because you’ve experienced God’s gentleness, you are sympathetic to all sinners—even those who have sinned against you in nasty ways. Sin isn’t calling the shots anymore, because Christ has connected himself with you. Amen.