020506 Died Buried Raised

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Died, Buried, Raised

Romans 6:1b–11

          Introduction: Did everyone see a miracle this morning? (pause) When the water of Holy Baptism is connected with God’s Word, a miracle occurs that unites the baptized with the Savior, Jesus Christ. Paul says it this way, "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Galatians 3:27, ESV) It is because of our union with Christ that we can confess the Christian faith regarding baptism, as we did earlier. We can also apply the words of our text to ourselves and say with the utmost confidence; “We have DIED, were BURIED, and RAISED with Christ.” This is what I mean.

1.      “We died to sin.”

A.      It wasn’t a physical death. It wasn’t by struggling to avoid temptations and obey the commandments that we died. No, it is by the very promises of God in baptism that brought about our death to sin. You all witnessed the baptisms this morning. What did God require except that they be allowed into His presence. The point is this: Human effort does not make us dead to sin. It is the effort of the Holy Spirit that unites us in Baptism with the death of Christ crucified.

          Illustration: In February of 1804, Thomas Jefferson somewhat dubiously used a cut and paste method to edit his Bible into what he called “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.” Jefferson included only those portions of the gospels that he thought were genuine events and teachings of Jesus. What he cut out were all the miracles, including Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.

          Don’t you find that just a bit offensive to Christian sensibilities? Do you realize that we do something very similar when we rely on our human willpower or moral convictions to keep ourselves from sinning? Our text indicates that we die to sin in order to rise to new life through the power of Christ’s resurrection. But if there is no Resurrection, as Jefferson thought, where is life to be found.

B.      Paul teaches that “Our old self was crucified with him.” He also teaches that “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). Now think about this! If we have died to sin, how is it that we continue to sin? Do we think the Good News of salvation means there is no longer responsibility for sinful behavior? If so, we are not in touch with God’s reality! Though it is true that “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Rom. 5:20), we are not given a license to sin. That is not what Baptism is all about. No, Baptism is about the power of God working “so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin” (vv. 6, 7).

          Illustration: C.F.W. Walther offers this illustration (p. 320): “Christians are pilgrims through this world on their way to heaven. The devil, like a highway robber, assaults them, and they go down before him because of their weakness, not because they meant to go down. To a true Christian his fall is forgiven because he turns to God in daily repentance.” Walther’s point is that the Christian does sin, but according to his new nature, he recognizes it as evil and detests it especially when it is found in himself. Those who continue to live in sin without remorse, and use God’s grace as an excuse, are not true Christians, but hypocrites. But sinners can take heart in this: “We died to sin” in Christ Jesus.

2.     We were buried with Christ.

A.      Paul says: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism.” Being buried in the ground is not a very pleasant thought. But it is not the ground that baptism buries us in. The burial of Baptism is in Christ Himself (Eph 2:4, 6-7). In this regard, we can rightly say, we have been clothed with Christ. And, in Christ, we have every spiritual blessing (Eph 1:3). In Christ, we are chosen to be blameless (Eph 1:4) in God’s sight. In Christ, we have forgiveness of sins (Eph 1:7). In Christ, we have obtained an eternal inheritance that is guaranteed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in us (Eph 1:11, 14). That inheritance, Peter explains, is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is kept in heaven for us where our faith in Christ hangs on to it (1 Pet 1:4).

B.      Being buried with Christ means the old things are gone, “putting off the body of the flesh” Paul calls it (Col 2:11). This putting off of the old means another body can take its place, a spiritual body. Just consider what we get rid of with the putting off of the old body: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal 5:19-21). And, in its place comes the fruit of God’s Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, (and), self-control” (Gal 5:22-23).

Illustration: In Holy Baptism we die and are buried with Christ, but we are also raised with Christ to new life. This means there are two natures in us—one sinful, the other holy. Regarding these two natures, it can simply be said: “One must be continually bled, that is, put to death, and the other continually fed, that is, lifted up. A poem by Peter Kurowski explains.

Two natures beat within my breast,

The one is cursed, the other is blessed.

The one I love, the other I hate;

The one I feed will dominate.

Peter M. Kurowski, The Lifelines of Love. New Haven, Missouri: Leader Publishing Company, 1994, p. 51.

3.     Being Dead and Buried in Christ has as its goal and promise, life.

          A.      Listen again to verses 4–5: "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." (Romans 6:4-5, ESV)

also Rom. 8:11; 2 Cor. 4:10; Col. 2:12).

          Illustration: In a letter dated July 11, 1955, Christian apologist Francis A. Schaffer wrote, “No price is too high to pay to have a free conscience before God” (William Blake, An Almanac of the Christian Church [Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987] 191). That’s right! In fact, the price is too high for any of us to pay. But, 1 Pet 3:21 says that in Baptism a good conscience is freely given us because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. His life is the proof that God has “wiped the slate clean.” His life is now our life! And just listen to Paul explain it in Rom 8:11, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." (Romans 8:11, ESV) That is such precious good news! It means a new and different kind of life can be lived in this world. God’s Spirit brings it about.

          B.      This new life—lived in Christ—is to the glory of God. Through faith in Christ Jesus what is attributed to Him becomes ours. “For the death he died, he died to sin, once for all.” This is what it means to be justified by grace. We are justified, not so that we can sin even more, but so that we die to sin and live to God. This is why Paul, and by virtue of our Baptism, we can say: "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20, ESV)

          Conclusion: At the funeral of a believer, I often refer to this text to remind those who grieve what we really have in Christ. I share this text because of the gift and promise God gives through baptism. Today, we have been honored in Christ again as all the gifts of God were placed on these children by the Holy Spirit through the washing of regeneration. It’s a miracle of pure grace so that even now these little ones can point to their baptism and say: I DIED, am BURIED, and RAISED in Christ Jesus my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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