Free Text Baptism of our Lord - Kieth Bernard Kuschel
Romans 6: 3-4
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin..... 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.............. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Baptized:when. What
IA1 Baptize. What does the word mean? It means apply water in some manner. It was an ordinary word for “washing” or “applying water” in the Greek New Testament. In the verses before us today the phrase is “baptized into”. If there was a flood and you got washed into the ditch, what would your situation be? You would be surrounded by water. An equivalent phrase in the next verse is “buried with”. If there was a mudslide and you got buried with it, what would your situation be? Surrounded by mud. So what would baptized into Christ Jesus and buried with Jesus mean? It means we are surrounded with, connected to Jesus. Paul tells us in verse 5 of this chapter what his definition of those phrases is. It means we have been “united with Jesus.
2 What tool does Paul reference as the means by which God connects us to Jesus? Baptism. That is very strange. How can a washing with water connect someone with Jesus? Well, this isn’t just any washing with water. It is the washing which Jesus commanded in Matthew 28. “Go and make disciples of all nations, washing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It is a washing which Peter tells us is “for the forgiveness of sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”(Acts 2:38) and therefore also “saves.”(I Pet 3:21) It is a washing which Paul tells us is to “wash away sins”(Acts 22:16).
B1 The verses before us today tell us that “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death.” Jesus’ death is one of the two most important events which ever happened in the history of our world. When He died, He had taken our sins with Him to the cross. He shed His blood so that He could use it to wash away our sins.
2 When Jesus died, something else happened. He suffered death, something that God had mandated as punishment for anyone who sins. He also suffered separation from God, when He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, which we usually call hell, something which God had also mandated as punishment for anyone who sins. Jesus didn’t deserve either of those punishments, since He had never sinned. But He took the punishments we deserve because He had taken our sins on Himself.
C1 What does Paul mean with the words all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death.” He tells us in verse 5: we have been united with him in his death. We were connected with Him when He died. That means His blood, intended to wash away sins, washes away the sins of anyone connected to Him in this process. That means our sins have been washed away and we are no longer guilty in God’s sight.
2 We were connected with Him when He died. That means when He suffered death as punishment for sin, we were being punished right along with Him. That means when He suffered hell as punishment for sin, we were being punished right along with Him. So, we don’t have to face punishment for our sins in the future, since we have already been punished for them in the past. We have been rescued from punishment, redeemed from punishment, because we were connected with Jesus in His death.
D1 Our Baptism connects us with Jesus. Jesus became connected with all humans when He was born. He became a real human being just as all of us are, so that He could be our Savior.
One of the requirements for Him to be our Savior was to do all the things which God had commanded humans to do.
2 Why was Jesus baptized? He didn’t need to be connected with the Savior, He is the Savior. Jesus was baptized because it was part of His being connected with us. He was baptized because it was one of the things which God had told human beings to do. Jesus said this when He told John that He was being baptized to “fulfill all righteousness.”
IIA1 The other of the two most important events which ever happened in the history of our world is the resurrection of Jesus. He died on the cross. He suffered hell. Then He came back to life. He declared His victory over Satan. Then He appeared to people to prove that He had come back to life. Paul says that {4}Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, The Father deserves our glory, our praise, for a number of reasons. The most important is that He planned our salvation. It was the Father’s carrying out of that plan that raised Jesus from the dead.
2 Paul says we are also {3}“united with him in his resurrection.” What tool does Paul reference as the means by which God connects us to Jesus? Baptism.
B1 What did Jesus’ resurrection accomplish? It proved that He was God. Only God can conquer death. He had to be God in order to be our Savior. He had to be God to be worth enough to be the Ransom Payment to wash away the sins of the world. He had to be God to be able to take the holiness which He lived as a real human being and cover the whole human race with it. Jesus’ resurrection also proved that what He said was true. He had promised ahead of time to rise. He did. So, we can trust that what He promises is going to happen and what He says is true.
2 Jesus’ resurrection also proved that our sins have been washed away. If God would have left Jesus dead, He would have been saying that Jesus’ life was not worth enough to pay for our sins. So, we would not be forgiven. Jesus’ resurrection, furthermore, proved that we are going to rise from the dead some day. If Jesus would not have been able to conquer death for Himself, He certainly could not have done it for us. But He did, so we will rise to life after death and live with Him forever.
C1 It sounds as if that is what Paul is saying in verse four: 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Although it is true that we will live eternally with Jesus because of His resurrection, that is not what Paul is talking about here. Listen to these verses: 5 For if we have been united with him in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin..... 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.............. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
2 Paul said the same thing from the negative side in verses 1-2 of this chapter: 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? In this chapter the new life we live because we are connected with Jesus through Baptism is our life of godliness and righteousness right now.
D1 Jesus became connected with all humans when He was born. He became a real human being just as all of us are, so that He could be our Savior.
2 Why was Jesus baptized? Jesus was baptized because it was part of His being connected with us. He was baptized because His connection with us gives us the motive and ability to “crucify the old self, do away with the body ruled by sin, not be slaves to sin, not let sin rule, not obey evil desires, not offer ourselves as instruments of wickedness, offer ourselves as instruments of righteousness, not have sin as our master, and not live in sin any longer.” All of which we couldn’t do on our own.
LORD Jesus, thank You for connecting me through Baptism into your death and into a new life.