Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture Reading

Introduction

It is once again a great joy for us to gather together at a service in which we will witness the testimony of God’s saving grace through the picture of Baptism.

This is one of the very simple, and yet most glorious pictures that we have as a church to celebrate the work that God does in the life and heart of a person that was once spiritually dead in transgression and sin, but has now been made spiritually alive in Christ.

As we come to consider the picture of Baptism, we will be learning from Paul’s letter to the Romans, and the grand implications that he draws from the picture of Baptism for the life of the believer.

As we consider this passage briefly together, I want to call upon each person here today in Christ, to consider the fact that the implications and truths that Paul draws from the picture of Baptism are important truths applicable to us in our daily walk as His disciples.

In other words, there are daily implications to our declaration of faith, and our identification with Jesus Christ that takes place at Baptism.

In summary form, we need to be reminded that Baptism picture and requires of us death to sin, and consecration to a new way of life in righteousness, even as we follow our Lord.

As we begin this morning, I to remind us that sin always brings bondage—of the body, mind, soul and will.

Sin takes us captive.

Sin enslaves us to its problems and practices.

Christ came to set us free from this slavery!

Christ came to break the chains of sin that held us bound.

In the words taken from that beautiful hymn by Charles Wesley…

Long my imprisoned spirit lay,

Fast-bound in sin and nature’s night.

Thine eye diffused a quickened ray,

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

Baptism is a public picture and proclamation that Christ has indeed performed this work in us, by His grace, and thus that there is a new pattern that marks our lives.

As we come then to this text, notice firstly that Baptism pictures...

1. Salvation from Sin (vv.

1–5)

Paul begins verse 1 here with the words...

Immediatley we must ask, why is he posing this question?

To see why, we must look back to that which precedes this text.

Paul has been arguing for the fact that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone.

There is no other basis for our salvation.

But further to this, the grounds for our salvation is utterly sufficient for our salvation.

Notice Romans 5:17-18...

Further on in verse 20 he says.

That’s the phrasing that sets up the question in verse 1 of our passage.

Paul is presenting to the Romans this glorious Gospel message of salvation.

A salvation that could never be earned, and a salvation that is given to those who are lost in their wickedness and sin.

And he emphasis the glories of this Gospel message by emphasizing that even as sin increased, grace increased all the more.

And so what then, should the Christian, the one that has been born again through this glorious Gospel continue to sin in order that God’s grace might be all the more applied?

Paul’s answer follows in the next verse.

Paul outright rejects the idea that a born again believer, having gone through the waters of baptism to declare the inward work of God in their heart, can continue to wilfully live in sin.

Dear friends, when God opens the eyes of the believer to the grievous nature of sin, and when he shows that believer the seriousness of His sin in light of God’s holiness, the cost of salvation on his behalf, it leads to a profound and deep transformation of that person’s perspective on life in general, and sin in particular.

It leads a Christian to hate that sin.

It leads the person so transformed by the grace of Christ to perceive something of the vileness of their rebellion against God.

It creates within them a sense of the extent of the opposition that his former manner of life placed him before God.

A true work of regeneration by the Spirit of Christ, leads the Christian to reject ongoing sin as a pattern for their own lives.

I would like us to pause briefly on this phrase and question by Paul, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of the radical nature of the New Birth.

When we are born again, there is a simultaneous death to the former manner of life.

This is essential to what it means to be born again.

Think about Paul’s words to the Corinthian believers:

Think about that picture, dear friends.

The Christian is referred to as a “NEW CREATION.”

That which is brand new.

The difference between the old and the new is a life that was once oriented towards sin, selfishness, an enjoyment of wickedness, as opposed to a life now lived in holiness and purity, for the purpose of bringing glory and honour to God.

Paul says to Timothy…

As we read the New Testament which portrays the wonderful Gospel of Grace, while there truly is an emphasis on the grace of God to save the unrighteous, there is equally an emphasis on that grace’s ability to enable the believer to live in increasing conformity to the will of our Lord.

Consider the book of Galatians.

In that book, Paul marvelously outlines that nothing can save a person apart from the Gospel message that was preached.

But then he says things such as this…

Brothers and Sisters, we must seek to fully appreciate the Gospel message that both saves us and transforms our hearts and minds.

As those will go through the waters of baptism this morning, they are declaring that their lives have been transformed.

Salvation has come to them.

And this salvation will lead them to a new manner of life.

Later on in this same passage, Paul emphasizes this point further…

In verse 7, we read…

The truth of the Gospel is that we live our lives as if dead to sin.

We are freed; no longer a servant of sin.

At this point, Paul makes the direct reference to Baptism.

We should see from this that as Christians, our identity is no longer primarily according to relations with those in the world, but our identity is first and foremost with Christ.

The very picture of baptism requires that we live as those sharing in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Our identity is found in Christ.

Our unity is with Christ, and there are implications to that.

The most important thing about us (and this is what baptism partly symbolises) is that we belong to Jesus Christ.

This is our identity.

And Paul says here, that as those who were baptized in Christ, we were baptised into His death, meaning that we are those who share in the death of Christ.

Now, we certainly don’t share in the death of Christ in the sense that we are physically put to death (although that may exist as a possibility).

But the fact is, the death that Christ died, in addition to all that it achieves for us, also serves as an example for us in the manner that we are to die to a former manner of life.

This speaks of our self-denial.

Jesus spoke very clearly about the importance of self-denial.

A Christian life is surrendered to God, not patterned after this world.

As a person goes through the water of baptism, they are declaring a death to self.

they are declaring before all the witnesses gathered that they have surrendered their selfish lives to the grave, and will no longer live their lives pursuing selfish desires and ungodliness.

The results of this are seen in Romans 6:4-5...

Now, there are two things that we should understand regarding this “resurrection”.

The first is that there will be a resurrection in eternity.

That’s the long view.

That’s the view for when we pass on from this life and are united with Christ, or when Christ returns… depending on which is first.

But there is the more immediate reality, and that is a new resurrected spiritual life, wherein we are no longer dead in trespasses and sin, but now have awareness of God, Christ, His desires, and are filled with HIs power as He dwells within us.

We can no longer continue to willingly and happily walk after the sinful patterns of life, but rather are to be submitted to the will of our Lord, as He enables us to live in this manner.

This is a life, as Paul says, that is lived by the Spirit.

Furthermore, this is a life that is lived by faith.

Secondly, we must recognise that this salvation leads to, and thus this baptism pictures…

2. Separation from Sin (vv.

6–11)

This separation means that we have a freedom that we never previously enjoyed.

While the old man is indeed a slave to the passions and lusts of the flesh, the same is not to be said of the one that has been born from above.

Friends, the picture of Baptism, as it speaks to our own salvation, should lead us to live a life of separation from sin.

Notice what Paul says in verse 6-7…

Death to sin means that there is freedom from sin.

This is what I mean when I talk about separation from sin.

The Old Man has been cricified, and thus separation takes place.

The Gospel teaches us that because we have died to sin, and are now alive to Christ, separation can now take place because sin no longer has a hold over our lives.

If we are in Christ, then this dominion has been broken.