"ONE WITH CHRIST"
The Baptism of Our Lord (First Sunday after the Epiphany)
January 8, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried 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.
Romans 6:3, 4 (ESV)
I haven't heard it used much here in the Pittsburgh area, but there's a word I that used hear from time to time in Baltimore that always made me very nervous. The word was "christening." The reason why it made me so nervous is because that's the word that people would use when they were requesting a Baptism, but they weren't interested in having any real religious significance attached to it. For them it was just some tradition that had always been practiced in their family (or perhaps it was something that the grandparents were nagging them about). The reason why they were calling me in particular was, as one young mother explained it to me: "I want to get my kid done, and everybody in my family always got their kids done up at your church, so that's where I want to get my kid done." I suppose this mindset almost makes some sense if you bear in mind that the overwhelming majority of Protestants do not consider Baptism to be a Sacrament at all, but only an "ordinance." They believe that Baptism is not something that God does to create faith, but rather something that we do to express our faith.
What's wrong with this point of view is that Baptism means something--and it means something very powerful and very beautiful. As Lutherans we have the highest regard for this Sacrament--even higher, in a sense, than that of the Roman Catholic Church--because the Roman Church teaches that Baptism only takes care of original sin--that all sins committed after Baptism have to be dealt with by another Sacrament, which they call Penance, or Reconciliation. In our terminology, that is Confession and Absolution. While we certainly practice Confession and Absolution (as we do at the beginning of most of our worship services) and even offer private Confession and Absolution as an option, we believe that the power for the forgiveness that we receive when we confess our sins is inseparably connected to our Baptism, because it is in our Baptism that the Holy Spirit has made us children of God and has united us with Christ, thereby making His merits accessible to us. Let's explore the meaning of our Baptism this morning, meditating on the fact that through this Sacrament the Spirit of God has united us with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in both His death and His resurrection.
The Word of God states, first of all, that our Baptism unites us with our Lord Jesus Christ in His death. Now that ought to give us something to think about. When we decided to have our children baptized, how many of us really thought of it as putting those children on the cross and in the grave with Jesus? And yet that is exactly what Scripture says that we have done. In uniting the baptized with the death of Christ, the Holy Spirit has made them dead to sin. That's right. As far as sin is concerned, the Holy Spirit has made you and me and everyone else who is baptized in the name of the Triune God dead. No longer are we enemies of God because of our sin. No longer are we harassed by the guilt of our sin. No longer does sin hang around our necks like an albatross. And no longer can sin dictate to us how we are going to behave. Because we are baptized into the death of Christ, the accusations and temptations of Satan ought to affect us as much they would affect a corpse.
If we know anything at all about sin, we know that sin, above all else, is selfishness and self-worship. The essence of sin is taking for ourselves the position in our lives that rightfully belongs to God alone. In Baptism we have been united with the death of Christ so that we have died to ourselves. Our own self-interests are to be of no consequence to us anymore. Just as our Savior humbled Himself and went to the cross for sinners like us without giving a thought to His own glory or comfort or convenience, so we, in thanksgiving for what He has done for us, are to serve our Lord by serving others with the same kind of self-sacrificing commitment. We are empowered to do this because in Baptism our sinful, selfish nature has been put to death with Christ.
But there is more to this than just our being dead to sin. Our Baptism has also united us with our Lord in His resurrection from the dead. While His death makes us dead to sin, His resurrection makes us alive by the power of the Holy Spirit to live the New Life to which He has called us. This means that we are totally justified in the sight of God--accepted by Him as perfect in spite of our sin for the sake of His perfect Son. You see, in our Baptism the Holy Spirit has given us the perfect righteousness of our Savior. He who perfectly fulfilled the Law of God did it not for Himself, but for us, so that we might live before God as His dear children. When God looks at us, He doesn't see our sin, because we have been covered (or clothed, if you will) with the perfect merits of our Savior. Therefore we need not be afraid of the God who will come to judge the world on the last day. Because of the merits of our Savior, with which we have been clothed in Baptism, we will not die in His presence, but live forever in peace and joy.
This New Life that the Holy Spirit has given to us in Baptism has practical implications also. Not only are we considered to be righteous and declared to be righteous and accepted as righteous; we are also empowered to live a righteous life before God, carrying out His will and performing good works to His glory in the sight of those who will "see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16), as Jesus says in His Sermon on the Mount. Even though the works that we do are far from perfect and always come out of mixed motives, they are nevertheless accepted by God as perfect if they are offered in gratitude for His gift of salvation in Christ by those who are children of God through faith in Christ--the faith that has been given to them by the Holy Spirit in Baptism. The New Life in Christ that the Spirit has bestowed upon us in Baptism makes it possible for us to replace our selfish and sinful works of the flesh with "the fruit of Spirit," which is identified in the Word of God as "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control" (Galatians 5:22, 23).
In Baptism we have been made one with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit--one with Him in His death, being dead to the guilt and power of sin, and one with Him in His resurrection, being made alive in Him to live the New Life that has been given to us. This death and resurrection is not just a one-time thing; it takes place in our lives each and every day--as often as we repent of our sins and receive God's forgiveness and acceptance. It also gives us the strength to pick up the pieces of our lives, which have been broken by sin, and to go on to do glorious things in the name of Christ and to His glory.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.