BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST – Romans 6:1-4
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on July 31, 2011 under 2011 |
Preached July 31, 2011
from
Romans 6:1-4
Theme: Those baptized with Jesus into His death are to now live as those raised with Him to newness of life.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
It’s much more than just a ‘happy’ event, though. It’s something that our church does in serious obedience to its Lord and Master. It’s something that Jesus commanded in His “great commission” to the church1. It’s not something to be done indifferently; but with careful reflection as to its meaning.
And to help set our thinking for this important event, I ask that we turn to Romans 6:1-4; and to a wonderful passage about baptism. All of chapter 6 is a unit; but I’m asking this morning that we focus on just the first four verses; because I believe they are basic to what the rest of that chapter says.
In Romans 6:1-4, the apostle Paul writes;
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 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 (Romans 6:1-4).
In looking at these four verses from Paul, I ask that we consider carefully the four things that we find in it. In verse one, we find a very important question that the apostle Paul asks. In verse 2, we find the answer that he gives to that question. In verse three, we find the remarkable spiritual fact that stands behind his answer. And in verse four, we find the practical implication of that spiritual fact.
And I believe that, when we rightly understand these four things that are given to us in these four verses, we will have a good grasp of why baptism is so important—and why it’s such a worthy thing for us to celebrate.
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So then; let’s look at verse one; and at . . .
1. THE QUESTION PAUL ASKS.
Paul was writing to people who had placed their faith in Jesus Christ and who believed on Him for their salvation. And he asked them, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
To understand why he would ask such a question, we need to work backward in the book of Romans. In this letter, Paul was declaring the gospel—the “good news”—of our Savior Jesus Christ. He began in the first three chapters by establishing that all of us need a Savior; because all of us stand guilty before a holy God. No matter how hard we may try, we human beings cannot make ourselves righteous before God on the basis of our own good deeds, because we are all guilty sinners before Him; “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God has declared to us what righteousness means through His law; but we have all sinned and broken that law, and are thus convicted sinners before Him. How could convicted sinners make themselves righteous before a holy God?
But no sooner did Paul prove that we absolutely cannot make ourselves righteous before God on account of the guilt of our sin, than he went on to declare,
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe . . . (3:21-22a).
Paul sought to show us that God now declares everyone righteous who puts their faith in His sinless Son Jesus—whom God had set forth as the place for guilty sinners like us to go to for mercy—because of the blood Jesus that was shed for us on the cross. Jesus died in our place, and God raised Him from the dead; so that now, as Paul wrote, full righteousness before a holy God
. . . shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification (4:24-25).
When Jesus died on the cross, that was when God paid the penalty for our sin. And when Jesus was raised from the dead, that was when God declared to the whole world that He is pleased with the price Jesus paid. He can now pronounce us 100% righteous in His sight—by grace— if we will put our faith in what Jesus did for us.
And what’s more, no sinner will ever have to be afraid that the sacrifice of Jesus was not sufficient for them—no matter how great a sinner they may have been. They may have broken every single commandment that God ever gave in His law—and more times than they can count. But as Paul said in Romans 5:20-21, in the verses just before this morning’s passage,
Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (5:20-21).
I like what one preacher said about that; that if you’ve committed a hundred dollars worth of sin, God doesn’t just buy you out of it with a hundred dollars worth of grace. He buys you out with a million dollars worth of grace; because, “where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”!
And by the way; I truly hope you’ve placed your trust in Jesus. He is an absolutely sufficient Savior for us—no matter how great a sinner we may have been. Everyone here who has trusted in the cross of Jesus can be sure that they stand 100% righteous in God’s sight and are completely accepted by Him. And anyone here today who may think that they’re too much of a sinner to ever be made righteous before God can know that, however great their sinfulness may be, there is ‘grace abounding much more’ for them in Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * *
But that’s when we come to this question that Paul asked in verse one. How do we respond to all of this? He was speaking to those who had placed their faith in Jesus; and asked, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
Some people seem to think that they can. Sin was what caused us to be separated from God in the first place; and yet, they seem to think that, if Jesus paid the debt for all our sin, then it no longer matters whether or not we continue in that state of sin before God. They believe they can just trust in Jesus, stay in the same old pattern of life as they always have, throw a few pious words and religious ceremonies into the mix if they want, and know that it really ultimately doesn’t matter any longer what they do. They think that no matter how they live, they’re going to heaven; so they can just keep on living the same old way they always have, and just enjoy the ride.
You see; this question from Paul, in verse one, is a very important one. It really gets to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. A Christian isn’t just someone who merely believes in Jesus—someone who has simply prayed a prayer long ago, and asked Jesus into their lives. A Christian is someone who has trusted in what Jesus did on the cross to such a degree that they rise up, follow Him, and live a brand new life that is characterized by obedience to His commands.
Jesus doesn’t accept people as Christians who simply throw a bunch of religious talk His way. He Himself has asked, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). He demands that His ‘followers’ be people who actually ‘follow’ Him. He said,
“Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:34-38).
The implication of those words from Jesus is that there are many people who say they are Christians, but are only kidding themselves. If we want to truly be Christians, then we must take up our cross—not just His cross; but our cross!—and follow Him. He didn’t even ask us to call ourselves ‘Christians’. But He most decidedly insisted that we be self-denying ‘followers’. And so, if you want to be a Christian in the sense that Christ Himself would accept, you can no longer live the way you used to live before you turned to Him. You’re under a whole new set of rules. When He commands in His word that you do something, then you must do it. When He commands you to stop doing something, then you must stop. When He goes in a direction that is contrary to the flow of culture and of popular opinion, then you must go with Him—even if it costs you your friends, or your family, or your reputation, or your livelihood, or even your very life.
Otherwise, whatever else you may think you are, you’re not one of His followers.
* * * * * * * * * *
So you can see what an important question this is that Paul asks in verse one: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
And look at verse two and see . . .
2. THE ANSWER HE GIVES.
His answer was short, and uncompromising, and hits you right in the chops!—”Certainly not!”; or as it is in the New International Version, “By no means!” In writing this, he used one of the strongest negations he could possibly use in the Greek language: mē genoito; which means, “May it never be!” “Categorically not!” In other words, by no means shall we, who have experienced the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, in any respect continue in sin that grace may abound!
And do you notice that, in answer to his first question, he asked a second one? He wrote, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” I’d bet that came as a surprise to some of Paul’s original readers. “What’s that you say, Paul? We died? I can certainly understand it when you say that Jesus died. But we died too? How can that be? I don’t even feel sick! You’d think I’d remember a thing like ‘dying’!
But Paul didn’t mean that we “died” in a physical sense. Rather, he said very specifically that we died to something—that is, “to sin”. He didn’t say that we’re in the process of “dying” to it right now; but that we “died” to it as an action that occurred in the past. And he didn’t say that we “died to individual sins”, because we sometimes still commit those; but rather that we “died to sin” as a fundamental orientation of our being.
At one time, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the ‘automatic default setting’ of our hearts was toward sin. Sin defined our state of being; and that state of being naturally expressed itself in sinful actions. Elsewhere in the Bible, Paul described it as being
. . . dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).
But Paul says we have died to that old orientation of being—that old ‘automatic default setting’ of sin. We were the slaves of sin; and when it commanded us to do something, we had to obey. But now, we’ve died to sin. We’ve been set free from its dominion over us through death. And now, whenever it commands us to do something, it has no more authority over us than a slave master would have over a dead slave.
* * * * * * * * * *
So; Paul asked a question to those of us who have believed on Jesus: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” And he answered it in a very assertive way; “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
And that leads us, next, to . . .
3. THE SPIRITUAL FACT BEHIND HIS ANSWER.
How is it that we have died to sin? On what basis can Paul say a thing like that? This brings us to a wonderful spiritual truth that touches on the whole matter of why baptism is so significant a thing. Paul went on to say in verse three, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?”
The baptism that we will witness later this morning—that is, the ordinance of baptism in a church in obedience to Jesus’ ‘great commission’—is symbolically representative of a greater baptism. That ‘greater’ baptism is a spiritual baptism, performed by the Holy Spirit, in which someone who believes becomes forever identified with Jesus and all that He did for us.
There’s a good illustration of this from the Old Testament. Do you remember when the people of Israel were delivered from their bondage to Egypt? God sent Moses to them to tell them about Him. God punished the Egyptians with plague after plague; and finally, at His command, the people left their bondage in Egypt and followed Moses to the promised land. They were led by the pillar of cloud that God sent to them. The Egyptian army chased after them, but the cloud blocked their way. And when God parted the Red Sea for the people of Israel, and they passed through on dry ground, the armies of Pharaoh chased after them; and the sea closed up on the armies of Egypt.
Now; in 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, Paul wrote, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea . . .” And then, he says, “all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea . . .” In other words, because of the experience God brought them through of the cloud and the sea, their identity was no longer as slaves of Pharaoh. They had become permanently identified with Moses. Pharaoh was on one side of the Red Sea; and they and Moses were on the other. Pharaoh could issue commands to them all he wanted to; but they were dead to him. They were now “baptized” into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And similarly, in that ‘greater’ baptism which the Holy Spirit performs, those who believe on Jesus are forever identified with Jesus and all that He has done for us.
The Greek word from which we get the word “baptism” is a word that means to “dip” or to “wash”. In ancient times, when a launderer wanted to change the color of a piece of cloth, he would get a big bucket of colored dye and “dip”—literally, “baptize”—that cloth into the dye. When he pulled the cloth out, it had been “baptized”—permanently identified with that dye. And that’s what Paul is talking about when he speaks of our being “baptized into Christ”. The Holy Spirit, as it were, “dips” us into Jesus Christ so that we become permanently identified with Him and all that He did for us.
No wonder Paul said, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” When Jesus died, we—in a spiritual sense—died with Him. Sin, our old slave-master, no longer has authority over us. And that’s the spiritual reality that stood behind Paul’s amazing words, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; the ordinance of baptism is meant, in part, to symbolize that spiritual reality—that we have been forever identified with the death of Jesus for us on the cross, and that we have died with Him. But if that was all that was being symbolized in baptism, then baptisms in a church would be very tragic events. We would place someone under the water and leave them there.
But I hope you notice that we always raise them out of the water! It’s because when we’re baptized into Christ, we’re baptized into all that He did for us—not only His death but also His resurrection.
And this leads us to . . .
4. THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATION OF THAT SPIRITUAL FACT.
As Paul went on to write in verse four, “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.” That’s why, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we must not to go on living as if we were still in that old ‘automatic default setting’ of sin. That’s why we are to now live a life that is characterize by an obedience to Jesus Christ. We have died with Him to the old way of life, have been buried with Him, and have now been raised with Him from the dead. From God’s perspective, it’s as if we have literally been raised from the dead. It’s appropriate for us to now walk every day in newness of live.
Paul has said this elsewhere in other places of the New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 5:14-17, for example, he writes,
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 2:14-17).
In Galatians 2:20, he says,
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20)
In Ephesians 2:4-10, he writes,
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:4-10).
Or in Colossians 3:1-4, he writes,
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).
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So, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in answer to Paul’s question, “Shall we continue in sin?” The answer is a decisive “No!” We place our confidence in the great spiritual reality of our baptism into Christ—that we are baptized into His death. And so, we say with Paul, “How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it?” Instead, we affirm that we’ve been baptized not only into Jesus death, but also His resurrection; so that we who have been raised with Him must—and can!—now walk in newness of live.
All of this is being symbolized in this morning’s baptism. I hope you stay to bear witness of it; and not only rejoice in it, but also give a hearty “Amen!” to the glorious truth that it declares.
See Matthew 28:18-20.
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