Baptism of Jesus (C)
Romans 6:1-11
January 12, 2025
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
The text that I have chosen for this morning’s sermon is the Epistle from Saint Paul’s letter to the church in Rome.
The list of dangerous activities is practically endless. Skydiving, mountain climbing, cave diving, and running with the bulls offer incredible experiences… with the ever-present possibility of something going horribly wrong. The list of non-dangerous dangerous activities is even longer. Getting out of bed, crossing the street, and cleaning the gutters should be safe doings, but sometimes things go horribly wrong. Of all the things that happen at Emmanuel, you might think that baptizing a baby would be a safe thing, right? It’s not. I don’t mean the possibility of dropping the baby at the altar during the prayer, which, by the way, is my number one fear as a pastor. Baptism is dangerous because it may look safe, but in the baptismal waters there is also life and death.
The purpose and effectiveness of Holy Baptism is widely debated within Christianity. Some denominations like the Baptists, Amish and Mennonites, and most non-denominational churches, have baptismal beliefs that are contrary to what the Bible teaches. It’s a shame because they’re missing the benefits and comforts of what it means to be baptized in the name of the Triune God. The reason that Jesus instructs the Church to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19), is because baptism isn’t symbolic, it actually does things!
The Lutheran doctrine of Baptism comes solely from the pages of Scripture that teach baptism is not something to be dismissed as unimportant. Baptism is for all people from the infants to the elderly, that it bestows the Holy Spirit and faith, that it forgives sins, and that it’s an ongoing necessity in the life of the Christian. Saint Paul writes his co-worker Titus: “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5) When Saint Paul refers to regeneration and renewal, he’s stating the fact that Baptism gives life, and not just any life, life with Christ.
The day you stood by the font and received those gracious waters, the Holy Spirit, who descended upon Jesus at His baptism, descended upon you. He stepped in and delivered all the blessings that come from Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. He took the curse of death and gave you the blessing of life. In that great hymn See this Wonder in the Making, we sing how a child of nature is brought to the font and made a newborn creature. What does it mean to be a newborn creature? It means new life in Christ, a life that has spiritual and eternal dimensions. It means a child of God who is blessed with the assurance that no matter what life throws at you, guilt, shame, or any other woes, your Lord is with you because you’re baptized in His name.
We like to have beautiful gold crosses, that usually, are lacking the body of Jesus. In reality, there was no gold cross. Crucifixion was a gruesome punishment meant to drag out the suffering of the accused. There was no escape from crucifixion, no one survived. Crucifixion was so awful that Roman citizens couldn’t be legally crucified. Teh ugliness of a true cross gives us a new perspective to what Paul says to the Roman Christians. He says, “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” (Romans 6:6). When Jesus was crucified, your sins were crucified with Him. Your sinful nature was also crucified when Jesus was nailed to the bloody cross. It was put to death with all your other sins, your guilt, your shame, your rebellion. Your sinful self has been crucified with Jesus and rendered powerless, ineffective and useless. It’s dead, D.E.A.D. dead!
Zombies have long captured the imagination of moviegoers; the idea that the dead come back to life and remain basically dead is disturbing. What’s also disturbing is that your sinful nature is a also zombie. It’s crucified, put to death, and yet every day it re-emerges in all its ugliness to take destroy your new life. Every day, that sinful nature, that criminal and rebel in each of us must be put to death again; crucified and given a horrible death. You can’t sugarcoat it, your sinful nature is meanest, nastiest, part of you and every day you have to kill it again. But what happens when you don’t kill our sinful nature? It leads you back into slavery to Sin, it makes death once again a terrifying reality. In the Small Catechism Luther instructs us in how to deal with our sinful zombie nature. He wrote baptism “signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts. And it also shows that a new man should daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” Not once a week, not once a month, every day! Someday, we won’t have to worry about our sin and sinful nature, until then we crucify it daily through repentance and the forgiveness of our sins.
In verses 1 and 2, Paul addresses the common Christian attitude which Dietrich Bonhoeffer called cheap grace. Cheap grace is when we make presumptions on God’s grace. It believes that God forgives because that’s His job and as long as we’re not a horrible people, we’re okay. And if we do sin a lot, God will forgive us a lot and that’ll be a good thing. In response Paul says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!” In modern English we might say, “Are you out of your mind?” God is love and God is forgiving, but He hates sin and those who try to exploit His goodness face His righteous anger and condemnation. It matters a great deal how we live day in and day out. As forgiven Christians who have new lives and new self, things are different!
Paul puts it this way: “You also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” To be alive in God is to be surrounded by Christ and to be what God says that we are – alive and not dead. We don’t listen to sin, we don’t encourage it, we don’t make ourselves its slaves once again. If only it were that simple and easy, right? Sin keeps coming back, we don’t always ignore it like we should, and that sinful nature rises again. When this happens return to your baptism! Hold on to the promised fulfilled by Jesus that your sins are forgiven, your guilt is washed away, and that sin has been once again nailed with Jesus to the cross. We live for Christ because one day, the old sinful nature will be crucified and put to death once and for all. Once you were dead, now you are alive and because you are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen
Now the peace which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen