We Who Were Baptized into Christ

1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; 6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. 7For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; 9knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him! 10For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. 11Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

From the sermon that pictured the prison of death, you will have seen in some detail how fearful Satan’s temptations and sin truly are. Because sin has the power to drag people down to death, Paul called the salvation won through Jesus’ death a great grace. To forgive sin, God made his Son bear the cross, and Jesus, in obedience, gladly left his throne and atoned for our sin. His sacrifice brought forgiveness to sinners who deserved to die, and through his resurrection they came to be called righteous. Having taught us all there is to know about sin, Paul went on to say that those whom God has called righteous must live with the hope of heaven, persevering. Forgiven through the death of Jesus Christ and given access to God, we now live lives of obedience and grow into the likeness of his holy character; this is what we call sanctification. To be sanctified, we must live by the word of God, which is why God said that to obey is better than sacrifice. A sacrifice could be offered simply by following the form God commanded, but obedience can be offered only by those who love God and understand his will. This is why faith is needed.

Anyone who gives their all to living by the word does not make the foolish choice of defying God’s will. Until now Paul had concentrated on making his hearers see their sin; from here on his concern turns to the life of mature faith. To live as people who are being sanctified, we need to cast off merely human judgment and reasoning and become new people, born again through the work of the Holy Spirit. But the Jews, who had only a surface knowledge and had never grasped the truth deeply, misunderstood what Paul preached and argued against him instead.

Romans 6:1

1What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

Paul said that the law came in so that the trespass might abound. No one can keep the law perfectly, and so sin cannot help but pile up. When grace comes to a place where sin runs rampant, many who could only have died are rescued by that grace; in this way, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. But those who had not received Christ could not understand Paul’s words. They mocked him, asking whether, in that case, we should not go on sinning so that God’s grace might overflow all the more. People can talk this way only because they do not know how much planning, sacrifice, patience, and love it took for God’s forgiveness to be accomplished.

For those locked inside the prison of death, the height of its walls is like a message telling them that they are sinners who can never be forgiven. Only when they admit that they are sinners can they see that even those high walls were built to protect them. Their forgiveness was possible because the holy God caused his only Son to bear the cross; yet these people sneered that if God’s grace overflows where sin abounds, there could be nothing wrong with their sinning. God’s grace is not, as people imagine, a pardon for self-indulgence or for sins born of human greed. Because he forgave us through the blood of Jesus, who came to deal with the original sin that had shut all humanity up in death, we must not speak such ignorant words.

Romans 6:2

2May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

To people who had no grasp at all of how serious sin is, Paul explained that though they had lived until now as slaves of death, of Satan, and of sin, they had now died to sin, and so, grateful for grace, they must not sin. What does it mean to die to sin? When Jesus bore the cross and, breathing his last, declared that it was finished, those who believe died with him on that very spot. Since they no longer have a body with which to sin, they have been set free from sin. The wages of sin is death; to commit again the sin Jesus atoned for is to betray grace and to leap into the pit of death. The salvation of Jesus Christ is like a verdict of not guilty handed down to a criminal under sentence of death, and it shows that our sin has been wiped away completely. Someone who has been acquitted has no reason to stay in the prison of death any longer. Freedom has been given to them, and all that remains is to enjoy that freedom within the good truth.

Romans 6:3-4

3Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

Paul linked our dying to sin with Jesus on the cross to baptism. The baptism he has in mind is not a mere formality. To be baptized is to die and be buried with Jesus Christ, and it means that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God, we too live in the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:1-2

1Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

Israel set out from Egypt, where they had been slaves for 430 years. But when they saw the Egyptian army pursuing them, they thought death was now certain. Pharaoh, whose heart had hardened again even after the ten plagues, led his troops in pursuit of the people of Israel. At the edge of the sea the people looked only to Moses, and Moses looked only to God. Unless God acted, Moses and all the people with him would die. Then God, hearing Moses’ prayer, caused a strong east wind to blow and opened a path through the sea, and once dry ground appeared, the people began to cross on foot through the middle of the sea. With so vast a company, the crossing probably took a long time. Soon Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and horsemen came after Israel, charging into the middle of the sea where its bed lay bare like dry land. Perhaps those hours with the Egyptian army at their heels were more frightening and painful than all the suffering of 430 long years of slavery. They had thought their hardships would be over once they left Egypt. God had sent them Moses as their leader, and watching the ten plagues Moses brought about, they would have thought that a God and a Moses who worked such wonders would lead them along an easy road. But once they found themselves in the middle of the sea with the Egyptian soldiers behind them, Israel’s faith wavered and their resentment grew. They had witnessed the miracle of walking through the sea between walls of water, and still they were gripped by the fear that the Egyptians might kill them. Facing slaughter, or capture and a forced march back to Egypt, the people, I imagine, were terrified of what lay ahead. God made them see with their own eyes the waters heaped up like walls, yet their doubts had no end. Still, God does his work whatever people may think.

As Pharaoh’s army followed the people into the sea, Yahweh looked out on them from the pillar of fire and cloud and threw the Egyptian army into confusion. When their chariot wheels came off and their chariots broke apart, the Egyptians realized that Yahweh himself was fighting against them. They had seen Yahweh attacking them from the pillar of fire and cloud. Yahweh commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea so that the waters would come back over the Egyptians. When Moses stretched out his hand, the sea swept over the Egyptians, and every one of them drowned. More astonishing still, the sea closed over the side where the Egyptian soldiers were, while on the side where the people of Israel were walking it still stood divided. At God’s command, there in the middle of the sea, life and death were parted in a single moment.

In the sea of this world, too, God’s people live with new life, while those who have not received Christ are, as it were, all sunk in death. The Egyptian soldiers had felt God’s wrath firsthand through the ten plagues, yet they chased Israel to make slaves of them again; in the end they fell under God’s wrath and all of them died. To those who misunderstood God’s forgiveness and grace, Paul explained the true meaning of the exodus. Being under the cloud means that Israel was under God’s protection and guidance, and passing through the sea means that God split the sea of death and gave Israel life. Without God’s grace, all Israel would have died, but by a special grace they lived; Paul used baptism to make that meaning plain. Being baptized into Moses means this: the people grumbled against Moses without end, yet by the grace of God, who rescued them from a desperate crisis, they became one with him. The apostle Paul described this crossing of the Red Sea, as one with Moses, as being baptized in the cloud and in the sea. Those who trusted Moses, the one God had sent, and walked through the sea united with him overcame death and gained life. Seen in this light, baptism is the same. In a world where death reigns, a believer who trusts in Christ’s atonement and is united with him confesses the resolve to live a life separated from the world and from death, and then receives baptism.

The disciples, too, baptized those who believed in Jesus Christ. When Candace, the eunuch of the queen of Ethiopia, was returning home from Jerusalem, Philip went to him at the Spirit’s command and taught him the word, and when Candace confessed his faith, Philip baptized him where there was water. We were baptized into the death of Jesus Christ. In other words, just as the people of Israel were united with Moses, those united with Jesus Christ receive baptism by faith. Just as Israel passed through the middle of the sea, the church practices baptism, whether by immersion, going fully under the water, or by sprinkling. The sea had parted, yet Israel was still in the midst of the waters; in the same way, baptism, through the form of being briefly put under water, signifies that the sinful body dies and rises again with new life. Baptism is a form, so not everyone who is baptized is born again; but if we know what baptism means, the sinful old self must die, and we must be born again as new people. Receiving baptism in its outward form is needed, but receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit matters far more. When we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, we come to believe in the Kingdom of God and the atonement of Jesus Christ, to long for heaven, and to be sure of our own salvation. When we rely on the Holy Spirit, he keeps sin from leading us to death and gives those who persevere in faith the power to resist it. If we do not stand firm, we will disobey even when the Holy Spirit shows us God’s will, so it is important first to set our own faith upon the rock. God will help us so that sin cannot drag us to death, but we too must be equipped with the strength to resist sin.

We were baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. If someone baptized in the name of the almighty, triune God is shaken by the world’s temptations, it is a sin against the will of the Holy Spirit, and they will be rebuked for it. Of course, the sin Jesus Christ atoned for is original sin. But if believers go on committing moral sins, those sins will in the end draw them away from God, lead them to deny the truth, and carry them as far as the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit.

Judas Iscariot sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, knowing that the Jews meant to kill him. Demas labored alongside the apostle Paul through hard times. Both abandoned their faith and chose the world. Look at these two, and you can see how fearful sin is. Sin grows just as faith grows, so may we never forget that the way we live is bound up with our salvation. If you are united with Christ, you belong to God’s people and have received new life. What matters, then, is to live the resurrection life and to strive against sin.

Romans 6:5

5For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;

The Greek word translated “united” carries the sense of “planted together” or “grown together.” To say that “Christ and his people are united” means that they are one, because we were planted by Christ and have grown by Christ. Jesus said that those who remain in him, with him in them, bear much fruit; just as he said, we are one with Jesus Christ. When Jesus declared that he had accomplished God’s will and breathed his last, we too died with him in his death. And when Jesus rose again, we also rose together with him in his resurrection. Of course, ours is not yet a complete resurrection, since we still live in the flesh. On the day Jesus Christ returns, we will be raised completely.

You believe in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and in his resurrection and return, and so you can live in the freedom of the truth. God does not expect us to live as flawlessly as Christ did. This is because he knows that, though we say our old self died with Jesus on the cross, a bent toward sin still lingers in the flesh we now wear. The flesh shares the nature of sin, and unless we persevere and are sanctified, we can fall.

Romans 6:6

6knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.

This verse tells us that we no longer have a body with which to sin. Yet because we still carry weak flesh, sin is hard to escape even when we try to overcome it with what we know in our heads. As God’s people we ought to live as the righteous, as those without sin; yet in a world where temptation never lets up, we must withstand Satan’s attacks and rein in the cravings and desires of the flesh, and so life is hard. This is the suffering every believer endures.

Jesus Christ has cut us off from sin, and still human nature, made from dust, is constantly tempted by it. Just as Adam fell into sin so easily, old habits and wrong ways of living remain in our bodies, and that is why it is so hard to remake our lives with new habits and new ways. Think of a brick made of clay. Dried well, it will not break even under a hammer, but soak it in water and it turns back into mud and dissolves. We were made of dust, but when we are trained well by the word of God, we grow firm through the fullness of the Holy Spirit, strong enough to overcome worldly temptations. But if we plunge back into the waters of the world and sin, we lose the look of people set apart, bearing the image of God. I hope you will take to heart that unless you lean firmly on Christ, you will end up sinning and could even become Satan’s servants. How, then, should we live?

Colossians 3:1-3

1If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. 2Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

The apostle Paul said that the way for us to overcome the world is to look to Christ, who is at the right hand of God. To seek the things that are above is to look to Jesus, who conquered death and triumphed, who sits on the throne and has become the Judge, and so never to doubt that we will be raised and will enjoy eternal life in heaven. When we set our hope on heaven, we can overcome suffering, and because the risen Jesus is there, we need not fear the trials we meet in life. United with Jesus Christ, we can recognize the schemes of the evil one and of evil spirits, and we will not be swayed to the right or to the left.

Satan used people to kill Jesus and believed the victory was his. But even Jesus’ bearing of the cross was God’s plan, so Satan turned out instead to be a tool that helped bring that plan to fulfillment. From this we know that no effort of Satan’s can stop God’s plan. And you are the ones who have been saved within this tremendous plan of God. Because Jesus Christ is receiving glory on the throne, those who believe are already kept safe in God. Satan cannot attack them, for they are hidden in God.

One day, on the day of God, when Christ returns, we will appear with him in glory. If the people God holds so dear harbor sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, it is as good as helping Satan to victory. If we, lowly as we once were, believe that we will appear with Christ in glory, we must put to death the members that long to sin. If we, sanctified by God’s grace, overcome the members that crave sin, we can become good instruments in God’s hands and proclaim the gospel. To make known to the whole world Jesus Christ, who laid down his life and forgave sin once for all, you must boldly drive off the temptations of sin.

You have been specially chosen by God. If you fix your eyes on this passing world, the body of sin that died with Jesus on the cross comes back to life; so you must persevere, and persevere again, and live out your days in holiness. The God who split the Red Sea and stood its waters up as walls is still at work in your life today, splitting apart every stumbling block so that none of them can stand in the way of your salvation. May you believe this, and may you live out a life of victory; that is my earnest hope.