I Am Baptized into Christ

Romans 6:1–4 ESV

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.

Introduction

I think you’ll agree, it has been a pretty tough week in the United States. I truly believe we are seeing portions of Biblical prophecy beginning to surface before our eyes. The devil is certainly on the prowl in ways, even a year ago, not thought imaginable. It is easy to despair, to lose hope, and fear for both our life and our faith. I have some great news for you today!

A fellow LCMS Pastor colleague, Dr. Daniel Lee Gard, the immediate past president of Concordia College-Chicago, shares some thoughts with a young girl that he knows, who was despairing over the events of this past week, and the seeming collapse of our Government.

Let me read it to you.

A young woman expressed her concern about today's events and the fear she feels. This was my response:

I understand how you are feeling. There are lots of people who share what you are going through. So you are not alone.

Please remember who you are – a child of God bound to Him for time and eternity. No matter what happens in the world around you, that world does not define your security. That security was not given by the world and it cannot be taken by the world. The promise of Baptism guarantees that to you.

What can we do? First, recognize that the only hope for the world in any generation is the Cross and Resurrection. Second, remind your brothers and sisters in Christ that we have in our possession the one thing that can change human beings – the Gospel of Christ. Third, remember that things like this are a call to repentance for individuals and for the Church. Fourth, work for peace and stand for Christian values as you interact with the secular world. Finally, pray. I will join you even as we are in different places.

Be at peace, my dear young daughter in Christ. He who rules the universe has you in His loving hands.

Baptism. It is a wonderful, powerful sacrament. A gift given to the Church by God Himself. A gift where, just like in the beginning, He attaches His Word— both Jesus and spoken— to water, by giving us His Spirit in the Water. In Baptism you were born of water and the Spirit. You were given new life in Christ. You were given faith. You were given the forgiveness of sins. You were sealed into Christ, never to be plucked out of His hands. Contrary to those who insist on some kind of huge, Damascus road conversion experience, you have been born again. Actually, John does not say, “Born again” but rather, “Born from above.’ For God not only gives this gift to His Church, but to you.

The Text from Romans 6 is the absolute strongest text that the Bible has on this wonderful sacrament, this “washing and regeneration and renewal” that Paul speaks about when he refers to it in a letter to Pastor Titus.

Baptism Kills

We need to be “rebooted”. I’m not speaking about our Country here, which some are trying to destroy, but I’m talking individually and personally before God. Unfortunately, unlike Adam, we were not created in the image of God. We were supposed to be. But that didn’t happen. Adam sinned. He fell from God. And no offspring could be greater than their father. We were born in Adam’s image. And that is a huge problem.

His image means that we are loaded with sin and death. We come under God’s command, “depart from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire created for the devil and his angels. That’s the sentence on our heads. Not just to die for our sin, but to go to hell for our sin. That is bleak. There is no hope in this.

While people may not know the theology behind this, they certainly know of the hopelessness attached to it. So many are without hope. So many place their hope in the hands of political leaders or politics. So many are despairing right now. Because ultimately, all we know in this life is death. There is no escaping it; it is 100 percent. Pick your poison.

God has to destroy sin forever. That means He has to destroy you forever. A sinner coming into God’s presence would be vaporized. I have no claim on God, and no right to come into His holy presence.

So God destroys us. But not in the way you may think.

God still loved the world that had fallen. And so He Himself does what is necessary to win the world back to Himself. He sends His Holy Son, Jesus into this world. And then He has Him killed for murder on a Cross. Folly to the world. But then He does another thing:

He eternally binds us to Jesus’ death in the water— the same water over which the Spirit hovered at Creation. And bound to Jesus, in this water, you die to sin. You die to the life apart from God. You die to yourself. All that which separates you from God lies floating on the surface of that water, forever left behind.

This is why Paul admonishes us to live in the freedom this brings. He admonishes us to live holy lives because “You died to sin… how can you still live in it anymore?

Every time you sin, you return to that old way of life. But Baptism into Christ washes that away. Through faith in Jesus we receive His forgiveness.

Baptism Raises Us

Baptism does not plunge us into death and drown our sin. It grants New Life. The Spirit raises us out of the water and gives us this New Life in Christ. The new life characterized by living in His will. Keeping His commandments. Loving God and neighbor. Continuously in prayer. Never missing the Eucharist. Every breath becomes worship. Not only is the sin gone, but now the Holy Spirit hovers over that water into which we were plunged eternally. You are marked forever. Nothing can pull you out of the palm of His hand. You are His. New life is yours. And that means hope is alive.

Yes, we can look at the evil that is exponentially increasing around us. But don’t let that cause you to lose your eternal hope that can never be taken away. Rather, let that darkness be a reminder to you that you are a Light Bearer to it. That Jesus died for the darkest of the dark. When we see the world’s despair, as Pastor Gard says, we have the answer. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. His light is the light of the world, the light no darkness can overcome.

This is the Baptismal “reboot” that unless we experience, we cannot be saved.

So why is Jesus Baptized?

So Baptism drowns our sin and raises us to new life. But Jesus had no sin, and is the definition of Life. It makes no sense that He would have to be baptized.

In the parallel passage of Jesus Baptism in the Gospel of Matthew we get some insight into this. Jesus says:

Matthew 3:15 ESV

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.

Jesus is baptized because He is truly man. He goes through everything that we do in life. It is another example where we see the mystery of the Incarnation in all of its beauty. He totally, and completely identifies with us in our lives. This is the genius of God saving us. No magic want here, no sweeping our sin under the rug, Jesus is totally man. And so, in this way, He fulfills all righteousness.

But it is much more than that. Jesus’ Baptism is the exact reverse of ours. When you went in the water, your sin stayed. When He went in the water, your sin stuck to Him and permeated Him so much that Paul tells us that He “became our sin.”

Then Jesus comes out of the water. Unlike the life and resurrection given to you in this Water connected to God’s Word and comprehended in God’s Command, Jesus comes out of the water to die. The same water that saves you brings Him death. The great reversal takes place. Luther: “Lord Jesus, you have become my sin, I have become your righteousness.”

Up and out of the water Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness where He is mercilessly tempted by the devil. Out of this water He is hated to the point that people will do anything to shut Him up and Shut Him down. People wanted Him g-o-n-e gone. They initiated all sorts of schemes against Him, but nothing worked. He remained the King of Heaven. Finally, they got their wish. They nailed Him. Literally. But they had no clue that what they actually were doing was God’s will to bring about life— Your life. And this is the life that God has given you in Baptism.

We are His. We are saved. We will live and reign with Him forever.

In Jesus’ Baptism we receive His Hope.

So be at peace, my dear daughter, my dear son in Christ. He who rules the universe has you in His loving hands.