The One Who Has Died Has Been Set Free From Sin
Notes
Transcript
One of the purposes of the baptisms that we witnessed this morning, that is believer’s water immersion, is to physically picture the most important spiritual reality of the gospel.
I want to say that again: believer’s baptism by immersion is a physical picture of the most important spiritual reality of the gospel.
My purpose this morning is to explain as clearly as I can, preciously what that most important spiritual reality is.
I want to do that by asking two major questions- and then a bunch of smaller questions that will guide our study.
I will give you both of the major questions up front and then we will unpack them together:
Question 1: what spiritual reality of the gospel does believer’s water baptism picture?
Question 2: why is that the most important spiritual reality of the gospel?
Those are our questions this morning. And we are going to answer them in reverse order-
1. Why is the spiritual reality that water baptism/immersion pictures the most important spiritual reality of the gospel?
1. Why is the spiritual reality that water baptism/immersion pictures the most important spiritual reality of the gospel?
In order to explain why this picture is so important we need to start our study this morning in Romans 6:23. So we are working backwards this morning:
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now I want you to focus on the first part of v. 23- the “wages” of sin is death.
What does the Bible mean when it talks about “wages”? This word has the idea of one’s pay or one’s compensation. I want you to remember back to the last job interview you ever had. For some of us that requires more mental effort than others. At some point in that interview you would have talked about your compensation package. That is, if you were hired and you came and worked a certain number of hours for the company, the company would compensate you. It would trade their money for your time and talent. A compensation or a wage is something that your are owed, because you worked for it, you deserve it.
The Bible teaches that the compensation that you are owed because of your sin is death!
Now this is a big deal! There are two important reasons for why this matters to every single one of us sitting in this room this morning.
Reason #1- The Bible teaches that we are all sinners. We all have the problem of sin in our lives.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
That means we all have sin in our lives, so we are all owed a compensation or a wage because of our sin, and that wage is death.
Reason #2- The Bible teaches that the death we receive as a wage from our sin is an eternal death. Eternal death means forever bearing the wrath of God for our sin in the lake of fire.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Death in this verse is contrasted with eternal life. So if the contrast to death is life, and if the life is eternal what must also the death be? Eternal right?
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
So if you are following the logical argument of the Bible this morning- what should your next question be?
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If the wages of my sin is eternal death, then how do I get rid of the penalty of my sin?
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
How do you become set free from sin according to Romans 6:7? You have to die! How does that make any sense?
In Romans 6:23 what are the wages of my sin?
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So then you are telling me that the only way to avoid death from my sin is to die?
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
That is what v. 7 says! The one who has died has been set free from sin?
This leads us to the answer of our first major question:
1. Why is the spiritual reality that water baptism pictures the most important spiritual reality of the gospel?
The reason is if you understand the spiritual reality that water baptism pictures and you are participating in that spiritual reality, it will free you from sin. And if we are freed from sin, the we are freed from the compensation of our sin, which is eternal death.
Have you died the kind of death that Paul is talking about in Romans 6:7?
What does that mean?
2. What spiritual reality of the gospel does believer’s water baptism/immersion picture?
2. What spiritual reality of the gospel does believer’s water baptism/immersion picture?
In order to answer this question we have to figure out Romans 6:7-
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
So, In what sense do I have to die in order to be set free from sin? And what in the world does this have to do with baptism? I’m glad you asked.
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
The main thrust of Romans 6 is to prove that no longer being under the law, but instead being under grace does not give one a license to sin.
Paul is anticipating an argument from what he just stated in 5:20-21
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
So if when I sin grace abounds and if graces reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life, then shouldn’t we just continue in our sin? If sin results in an over-abundance of God’s grace then let’s live it up!
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Paul answers with an emphatic NO WAY!
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Notice the question Paul asks in response to this bad theology. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Now, Paul is talking to the believers in the church in Rome- and he says to these believers in Christ that they have already died. And since they have already died how can they go on living in sin?
How can Paul write a letter to living people, and yet say about them “you have already died”?
In what sense have believers in Jesus Christ already died?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Believers are dead in this sense- they have been baptized into His death! What on earth does it mean to be baptized into the death of Jesus Christ?
Now there are many different interpretations for these verses, and many interpretations that can easily lead you into error.
Some understand this verse to mean that the way of salvation, they way one is united to Christ, is through the act of water baptism. I have had many conversations with people where I will ask them this question, “Are you a child of God?” And they will answer, “yes of course I am child of God.” And I will ask them, “How do you know you are a child of God?” And on several occasions I will receive an answer like this, they will say, “I am a child of God because I was baptized as a baby into my church.” And they might even point to this verse in support of their claim. What is the problem with that? There are two major problems with that idea- that water baptism can actually make someone a child of God.
#1- It goes against the clear teaching of the NT
You will never find an example of someone being saved by means of baptism. The overwhelming pattern in the NT is that a person is saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone, and after their salvation they follow the Lord in believer’s baptism.
Examples:
Thief on the cross,
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Cornelius and his house hold
47 “Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
The Philippian jailer
30 Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.
Not only do we have clear examples like these from the NT, but the clear teaching of the Bible from beginning to end is that salvation is a free gift of God through His grace and we receive it by faith alone. We cannot work to receive it. And we will talk about this more in just a little bit.
There are two major problems with that idea- that water baptism can actually make someone a child of God.
#2- The NT teaches two different kinds of baptism
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
The Bible teaches both water baptism and Spirit baptism.
Spiritual baptism is the acting of the Holy Spirit on a person at the moment of their salvation whereby He unites the believer with Christ. At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit, baptizes or immerses a person into the body of Christ.
I believe this is what Paul is discussing in Romans 6.3
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Being baptized into Christ is not talking about water baptism, it is talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby the believer is united with Christ. How do you know that?
5 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.
This is what the Apostle is teaching us in Romans 6- the doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ. This doctrine is so important. You must understand this doctrine- the doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ. Why? Why is this doctrine so vitally important?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
At the moment of salvation God takes the sinner and unites that one with Christ by means of the Holy Spirit- the Bible says that you are in Christ. And because you are in Christ, united to Him, you have the amazing privilege of sharing in the position and the privileges of Christ. In v. 3 Paul teaches that because of our union with Christ we share in the benefits of the death of Jesus Christ. Now why does it matter if we share in the benefits of the death of Jesus?
Remember v. 7?
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
What is the only way we can be set free from sin? We have to die! But, the good news of the gospel is that you don’t have to die yourself, God so loved the world that He gave His only Son to die for us. And through salvation we can be united to Christ, we can be in Christ, and if we are in Christ then we get to share in all of the benefits of Christ including the benefit of His death.
In other words Christ died, so that we don’t have to die. Christ died and shed his blood so that we can be set free from our sin. But, the only way to take advantage of that death is to be united with Christ through salvation. At the moment of one’s salvation God the Holy Spirit baptizes or immerses that individual into union with Christ, they become one with Christ, they become part of His body, they are in Christ. And because they are united to Christ they share in all of the benefits of Christ’s death on the cross for their sins.
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 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.
This union with Christ is so powerful and so final and so complete that the apostle goes on in v. 4 and he claims that the one who is baptized by the Spirit into Christ not only shares in the death of Christ, but that one also share in the benefits of the burial of Christ. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.”
When you bury the dead it adds a stamp or a seal of finality on the matter. It is utterly certain. It cannot be undone! If you are in union with Christ you share in the death and burial of the Lord. It is a powerful thing. It is the only thing that can save you from your sins. Only the one who has died is free from sin. And the only death powerful enough to free you from your sin is Jesus. And what we all need more than anything else is to be united to Christ so that we can share in the privileges of his death. And what are those privileges?
5 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.
6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Notice the intimacy of the believers union with Christ in verse 6- it is so close that Paul can say our old self was crucified with him. Paul says, in a certain way we were crucified with Christ. When Christ was hung on the cross, we died with him! We were crucified with Him. And for what purpose?
“In order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” This is such a powerful argument for the believer and the unbeliever alike. You must understand this- it is the key doctrine of the NT that cause a person both to be free from the penalty and the power of sin over them. The only way this is accomplished is by being united to Christ in his death.
7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Only the one who has died has been set free from sin!
Now how does one become united with Christ? How does one become united with him in a death like his?
The answer is given over and over again in the Bible- you become united to Christ through salvation, by placing you faith in Christ alone for the forgiveness of your sins.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, 6 just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
8 blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
This leads us back to our second question!
2. What spiritual reality of the gospel does believer’s water baptism/immersion picture?
2. What spiritual reality of the gospel does believer’s water baptism/immersion picture?
Water baptism is a picture of the spiritual baptism. Or you could say that water baptism is a picture of the believer’s union with Christ.
Water baptism does not save a person. Rather, it is something that a person does after salvation. Why do they get baptized? There are a number of reasons why we should get baptized.
It is a step of obedience
It is a pledge of a good conscience to God
It is a symbol of the believers identification with Christ-
It pictures the spiritual reality that has already taken place in their lives. It is a way for a person to publicly say I identify as a person who is in union with Christ. I am in Christ and I share in all of the benefits of the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
When Dan and Alysa were immersed in water just a few minutes ago they were publicly telling all of you that they identify with Jesus. And already, through their faith in Christ for the salvation of their sins, they have been united with Christ, in his death, burial, and resurrection. And baptism is a symbol and expression to all of us of the fact that they have died and they have been set free from sin.
Example of the wedding ring: “With this ring I plight thee my plight.” Does anyone know what that means? “With this ring I pledge to you a lifetime of faithfulness.”
Now what is it that actually puts into effect the marriage? Is is the ring itself? Or is it the vows, the covenant that the man and the woman make to each other? It’s the vows, it is the act of promising or covenanting together with each other- at that moment they are married. The ring comes after the vows and is a symbol of, or a picture of the vows that they just made.
In the same way baptism is a symbol that the believers enacts in order to picture the spiritual reality that has already taken place in their soul through faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.
Now I would be very negligent if I did not ask one final question this morning.
Are you one who has died and has been set free from sin?
Are you one who has died and has been set free from sin?
Has there ever been a time in your life when you realized you are a sinner, and because of your sin your compensation if eternal death, but the free gift of God in sending His Son to die your death for you can save you from your sin. You can be freed from your sin today. The only way for that to happen is for you to be united with the death of Jesus.
How do you do that? God is offering you a free gift this morning. All you have to do is turn away from your sin, and put your faith in Jesus alone to save you from your sin. Believe that the death of Jesus on the cross, and his burial, and his resurrection from he dead is the only thing that can free you from your sin- and then simply pray and ask God to unite you to Christ! Ask God to save you and to bring you into union with Christ so that you can take full advantage of all of the benefits of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.