BAPTISM GIVES POWER TO FORSAKE SIN AND LIVE TO GOD
The Sermon Text, Romans 6:3-11 (v. 3-4, 10-11). Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. … For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Lord, this is Your Word, and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Let Your Word to us in Baptism, that we are Yours, keep us with You; and give our Baptism this power in our lives, that we may die to sin and live to You. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
We’re trained as Lutherans in the Law and the Gospel: that the Law shows you your sins, it condemns you and pronounces you guilty in God’s sight. But that’s so you will repent, and then only the Gospel is to be spoken to you or listened to by you, the beautiful message that God forgives all your sin.
The problem comes when our sinful nature gets hold of this and abuses it, saying, “What a good deal – God likes to forgive and I like to sin, I get to do what I want.” St. Paul anticipates this in Romans 6:2, the verse just before our text: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” In other words, do people see in us worse lives despite faith in Jesus? Because that would be terrible. Does God’s forgiveness let you slough off skipping church, holding a grudge, wasting time at work, talking back to a parent, or putting someone down?
God’s apostle answers: “Certainly not!” That’s the Bible’s answer. The Bible teaches that while good works are not part of how you’re saved, God’s will is for you to do good works, that is, to do His will, to live your faith.
But this godly living doesn’t just happen. The Law does serve a purpose here: the commandments tell you what God wants you to do but can’t help you do it. Only the Gospel can. That you do the works of love, say no to sin, put others first, etc., isn’t that you got good at obeying; it’s due to the Gospel.
Truly living “to God” comes not from being guilted into it, but out of love for Christ. Really, your godly living is done from Christ. His love is the source of your love, your living for Him. This is where Baptism comes in.
Baptism is the Gospel. “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. … Baptism now saves you.” That’s the Gospel: that you are saved.
“Be baptized for the remission of sins … Be baptized and wash away your sins.” That’s the Gospel, that God forgives your sins in baptism.
“Be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. … ‘I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live.’ ” That’s the Gospel: in Baptism you receive life that never ends from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life.
But it’s still true that the Gospel can be misused. That’s how the devil gets revenge. He hates the Gospel. He gets you to sin; the Gospel forgives the sins. But the devil gets you to use the knowledge of the Gospel as an excuse to sin, or to take sin lightly. He gets you to think of the Gospel as “that same old thing you already know.” If you come to church regularly, the Gospel being familiar is something he uses to make it so you don’t really hear it anymore.
When he removes the Gospel from your hearing it fruitfully, he’s then able to bring you back into slavery to sin with a bad conscience. He gets you to doubt that you are God’s child. In this situation, you wonder what to do. You may feel you’ve lost your way. How can you get back that childlike faith and joy in the Lord?
Well, you already have what you need: Baptism. In Baptism, you became God’s child. The problem isn’t that your baptism didn’t take. The problem is, we tend to think of Baptism as a one-time event: “I was baptized on this date.”
But hold on: Baptism isn’t about what happened to you once upon a time. It’s a daily reality, ongoing. It isn’t, “I was baptized,” but: “I am baptized!” Here in Romans 6 is where God teaches how you make use of baptism every day.
It begins: “Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried with Him by baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead … we also should walk in newness of life.” That last part – “that we should walk in newness of life” – is the goal; St. Paul comes back to it and says that you are “to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
This “walking in newness of life” and being “alive to God” is the thing. Don’t you often feel that you lack this? It’s no accident. Contrary to popular belief, the devil doesn’t want to kill Christians; he’d rather make it so we have bad consciences, feeling unforgiven, and walk around like zombies, in a daze, with a not-very-purposeful kind of Christianity – having a generic faith, to feel alone in the world, unsure if God is near or if He loves you.
But this comes from forgetting your baptism, and that you are God’s child! That’s what your baptism tells you. That’s why each church service begins with the baptism words – “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” – coming before Him declaring our status as His children.
In these verses from Romans 6, God’s apostle teaches that something with vitality took place in your baptism. We experience it as a sprinkling of water. But he says that, actually, a death and burial take place in baptism – the death of sin, the drowning of the Old Adam, which is a rough process – but then, what follows burial? Resurrection! Just as Christ rose from the dead, and “dies no more,” in Baptism you were raised with Him and “walk in newness of life,” you’ve been given a new lease on life, you run and laugh and sing.
Life doesn’t always feel like that, I know. Maybe hardly ever. It’s because we get dragged down by our sins and this world, by the Old Adam turning us away from God, away from the good, toward the lies and darkness that the world and Satan tempt us with by making it look like light and freedom.
But the way to have the life that God presents here – the baptismal life, the life in which wherever you walk you trample death and are dead to sin, and you live the resurrection life where you live to God – is through repentance. Repentance is actually the secret to joy. It’s the way you use your baptism. In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther says that repentance is a daily baptism.
That doesn’t sound right to us. Repentance sounds grim. But that’s the voice of the Old Adam in us talking, that doesn’t want to stop sinning.
What we need to know is that repentance consists of two parts: the first is contrition, being sorry for your sin; and the second part is faith. The true teaching of the Law and the Gospel is that God has given you the way to be freed from the guilt of your sins, and it’s through repentance: that the Holy Spirit leads you – through the Law – to be sorry for your sins, and then the Holy Spirit leads you – through the Gospel of forgiveness – to believe what God says in the absolution, that you have no sins in God’s sight. It’s the greatest joy, so great that the angels rejoice over “every sinner who repents.”
This is how we use Baptism daily: in repentance. So when you fall into sin, you don’t have to be re-baptized, you simply repent. Repentance is just using your baptism. It’s like this: When you were brought to baptism, nothing bad happened, only good – your sin was washed away, you received forgiveness. So also when you repent, nothing bad happens, only good – God gives you the same forgiveness you first received in Baptism. In repentance you come as God’s own child, knowingHe’ll forgive you. This is so joyful!
This is what Luther explains in the catechism, based on Romans 6:3-4: that “such baptizing with water means that the Old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires; and that a new man” – your forgiven self – “daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” It’s how you live with a good, clean conscience, and the Bible says with this you’re freed to serve God joyfully.
But why do we use Baptism daily? Why do we learn to make the sign of the cross in the morning and at bedtime, in remembrance of our Baptism? This is spiritual warfare. It’s battling the devil, who wants to lead you further into sin and farther away from God, who wants to lead you to despair of your sin and feel that you aren’t worthy or welcome in God’s Church. The way to fight this is to use your Baptism, to remember your Baptism daily, to insist that – in spite of your sins – you are in fact God’s child.
This Gospel also gives you strength to live a godly life: “to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” So sin doesn’t run you. You’re freed not just from sin condemning you, but from it ruling you. You can’t do it by your own strength. Your Baptism – the Gospel – gives it to you.
God baptized you into a life in which you always have access to the fountain of grace that drowns your sins and makes you pure and clean, and gives you strength to pick up the cross and follow Jesus. Through your baptism, as Psalm 1 says, you’re like a tree planted by the rivers of water – Baptism! – that brings forth its fruit in its season – every minute of your life. Amen!