Romans Chapter 6 and Baptism
Well, I do want to thank you as a church for supporting our family over the past few weeks. As many of most of you know, Crystal's dad passed away to be into the eternal presence with Jesus on January the 19th. So we were very saddened by that. We were surprised by the timing of it. And we're grateful that we have a church family that was able to come alongside us and also afforded us the time to go be with family in North Carolina.
And then we had the ice storm that was kind of bad, but not as bad as predicted, that we canceled church. And Pastor Dan ably preached the first Sunday in February, and last week we had a great weekend with our friend Chap Bettis, who spoke. So, in a way, it feels like it's been forever since I've had the opportunity to preach, but on the other hand, God has been so faithful to work through those other brothers and other circumstances, and I'm grateful for that.
This morning, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 6. Our whole focus this morning is on baptism, and it's to help us see the gospel illustrated through this practice of immersing believers under the waters of baptism. This is an incredible honor that we have in the New Testament, that we get to practice this church ordinance to remind ourselves of the gospel and really to illustrate the gospel to ourselves, to show us what has happened when we believe in Jesus Christ.
This morning, the aim of my sermon is not to defend the Baptist view of baptism.
Asserting the Scriptural View
Instead, I will assert it. If you have questions or wonder about that, or come from a different denominational background that practices sprinkling or baptizing infants, we can talk about that one-on-one. But this morning, I want to just simply focus on what the scriptures say, and this lays out why we practice believers' baptism.
So let's read in Romans chapter 6, the first 14 verses. What shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 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. Because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God and Jesus Christ. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its evil desires. 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. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. Amen.
This morning, as we look at this passage, I'm not going to cover everything that's laid out in this passage. I'm taking us to this section of scripture to help us understand the significance of baptism and what it illustrates for the believer. Jesus made baptism an important part of his ministry, and he made it a necessary mandate for our mission as Christians.
Baptism as a Divine Command
Baptism is not man's idea; it's not a religious ceremony for nice people or something that has just been made up to control people. No, baptism comes from God, and He commanded Christians to baptize. In the Great Commission, before Jesus returned to his Father in heaven, he told the disciples that he was giving them all of his authority on heaven and earth. And he said, "Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."
Jesus' last words have become our first priority: that we would make disciples and signify those disciples through the waters of baptism. The church has been given two ordinances to practice to remind us of the gospel, baptism being the first and the Lord's Supper being the second. Both of these illustrate the gospel for the benefit of the church.
Baptism and the Lord's Supper, in many ways, we could say, visualize the spiritual significance of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection. In baptism, we identify ourselves with Jesus, and with the Lord's Supper, we unite with him and his church. You could think of it this way: an engagement ring symbolizes engagement, and a wedding ring symbolizes marriage. But the engagement ring is not what makes a couple engaged, and the wedding ring is not what makes a husband and a wife married. The rings simply show that a person is engaged or married.
Baptism likewise symbolizes our salvation. And the ceremony of baptism that we're going to observe today is not what saves Matt or Cody, who will receive baptism, any more than wearing a ring makes me married. But baptism will serve as a sign and a symbol that shows that these brothers are identifying their life with Jesus as his followers.
So as we think about baptism this morning, we're not doing this merely out of tradition. We're not doing it because we are trying to colonize, but we are baptizing in obedience to the Lord's command. That he told us to go making disciples, which is preaching the gospel and leading people to an understanding of repentance and faith. And the sign that they have understood this and believed it is that we baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We baptize them under the authority of God Himself.
Three Points of Baptism
And we do this to remind all of us that we have the opportunity to either live a life for ourselves according to our sinful desires, or we can live a life devoted to God and His plan for us.
Well, as you look at Romans chapter 6, I want to divide this section into three simple points that are going to follow the theme of the passage more than the exegetical details of the passage.
Illustrating Death to Sin
But in baptism, that Paul lays out here in Romans chapter 6, the first aspect that I want you to see is that we enter into the water to illustrate our death to sin. In the first four verses, Paul is reminding the believers that they have died to sin. The sin that once reigned in their mortal bodies, that controlled their every thought and deed, has been broken through the righteousness of Jesus.
That's why he asked the question: should we go on sinning and simply try to multiply the grace of God by being even worse than we were before? And his answer is by no means. No, if we've received the forgiveness of God, it changes us from a heart and desire of sin to a heart and desire of obedience. Rather than multiplying our sin, we would pursue God's righteousness.
Well, this points us back to the reality that God created us originally in the Garden of Eden to have a perfect relationship with him. But in the garden, Adam and Eve had the opportunity to either obey or disobey God. And he only gave them one piece of instruction, and that was to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And yet, with only one limitation and everything else before them, they did the one thing God asked them not to do. They disobeyed him and they sinned against him. That is, they did what was wrong and what was morally wicked.
This is why their eyes were immediately opened after they ate the fruit. Their eyes were opened to see the knowledge of good and evil and that they had done evil. They broke their relationship with their creator and their sin plunged all of humanity into a world of sin. Paul says it this way back in chapter five of Romans, verse number 12. He says, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.
What Paul is saying is that after Adam and Eve first sinned, that everyone who came after them is born a sinner and chooses to sin of their own volition. That is, this is the tragic consequence of their fall, that all people are now sinners. And the consequence of this sin is a curse that culminates in death. Paul says in chapter 6, verse 23, for the wages of sin is death. The author of Hebrews says, people are destined to die once and after that to face the judgment. Death is an inescapable part and consequence of our sin.
But God has offered a cure for our sin. And the cure for our sin is found in Jesus Christ. That's why Christians talk of Jesus often. We don't use his name as a swear word, but we use his name as the hope of eternal life because we put our faith and our confidence in Jesus. And we turn to Jesus as the cure, the one who can take away the curse and heal our souls.
As we do that, we come to Jesus, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, because for our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Christ we might become the righteousness of God. In other words, Jesus took our sin so that we can have God's righteousness and we can have a perfect relationship with him, just as Adam and Eve did before the fall.
When we confess our sin and we acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, then we receive his forgiveness. It's that simple. It's easy enough for a child to understand and to receive. And yet it's so simple that many people reject it as being too easy. Surely I should do something to make amends for the wrongs I have done. Surely I should earn it. Maybe I should give of myself or my time or my money, maybe I should do penance of some sort or another. Yet that's not how the gospel works. We've been given the offer of eternal life by simply confessing our sin and believing Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin.
In Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul says it this way: For Jesus has rescued us from the domain of darkness, and he has brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Paul also goes on to say in Ephesians that we are saved not by our works so that none of us can boast, but we are saved only by the grace of God.
Belief in the gospel unites us to Jesus Christ. And this is why we are baptized, recognizing that we are identifying with Jesus in his death and in his resurrection. Throughout this passage, you will see repeatedly that it says that we were baptized into Christ. Baptized like Jesus who died for our sin and Jesus who rose again from the grave, conquering our sin. When we believe the gospel, we have also come to the place where we have died to our sin and its power over us.
And we have the opportunity to rise from the dead, both spiritually but also one day physically, because we have been given new life, eternal life through Jesus Christ. And baptism by immersion in water powerfully illustrates our death and resurrection with Jesus.
He says in verse number 3, "Don't you know that all of us were baptized into Christ Jesus, were baptized into his death? 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 have new life."
The prerequisite for baptism, we believe, is belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why our church practices believers' baptism. We reserve this religious practice for people who understand the gospel for themselves and have consciously put their trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
As we illustrate this idea of baptism, we see that entering into the water illustrates our death to sin. Behind me is the baptistery below the cross, and you may notice the green strip of water. It's not because we don't have clean water there; it's because the plexiglass has green in it. But that water is still right now.
It's not really the best analogy to think about our lives marred by sin. When we enter the water in a few minutes, we're going to walk into it and it's going to start moving and churning and making a little bit of waves, hopefully not over the top of the plexiglass. But when you see those waves, think about the turmoil of your life of sin. Think about how sin colors everything and sin affects everything, and that water itself can be delightful in some cases, but dangerous in other cases.
For four years, our family lived in Scotland on the edge of the North Sea. And at this time of year, the North Sea was a very hostile environment. The water would churn and the water would rage, and it was fascinating to watch. We lived in a harbor town called Stonehaven, and we could go down to the harbor, either walk there or sometimes drive there. But we literally lived less than a block, so we often walked.
But at this time of year, there were constant warnings not to go near the water because the water was white and foamy as it was churning over and over again with the winter season, and it was dangerous. In fact, the first year that we lived there, there was someone who went down to Stonehaven Harbor to take photographs, and he stood on the harbor wall and he was swept out to sea and his life was taken. So in that moment that he was trying to capture with his camera, it ended up costing him his life. That beauty also represented raw power that could consume.
And as we think about our lives with sin, there are good parts of life, even outside of the Christian faith. God in his common grace gives us the blessing of family. He provides for our needs. And in many cases, he gives us a good life. But that good life is also marred and affected by sin. And the churn of our souls could take us at any time as we wrestle with guilt and shame, because all of us outside of Jesus are slaves to sin in complete bondage to its power.
Paul is writing in Romans 6 to remind the believers in Rome that that power has been broken through the death and resurrection of Jesus and that they have been identified with that. So that leads to the second thing I want you to see in this text. The first was that we enter into the water to illustrate our death to sin.
Illustrating Burial with Christ
Secondly, we go under the water to illustrate our burial with Christ. Pastors love to joke about baptism in terms of holding people down until we see their feet pop up and they're trying to escape our grip. But that's not how baptism works. Baptism is instead symbolic, and we quickly put someone under the water, and we quickly bring them up out of the water, because we're simply trying to illustrate, through the act of baptism, that this brother or sister has been buried with Jesus.
Now, it's not to be a grotesque sign. We're not trying to do some scene out of a Monty Python movie. But instead, we are trying to show the seriousness of the consequences of sin. When a believer goes under the surface of the water, it portrays what has happened in their heart and in their soul. Paul says it this way in verses 5 through 7. He says, "We have been united with him in a death like his. 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 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."
Baptism gives us a brief picture of our death to our old sinful life and a reminder of our former bondage to sin. Apart from the gospel, the Bible teaches that we are all enslaved to sin and we love, we even revel in our rebellion against God. Martin Luther, the great reformer, called this the bondage of our wills—that we were unable to escape our sinfulness because it consumed us and we were slaves to it. Baptism will illustrate our liberation from sin's curse; that we are put under the water to show that sin's power has died and will be brought out of the water to show that Christ's power has prevailed.
Baptism does not save us. It simply illustrates our salvation. And it is an external sign of an internal change. And it involves a public profession of faith in Jesus marking the end of our old way of life with sin and signifying our new way of life with Jesus. Now, this does not mean that those who receive baptism suddenly become perfect or become better than others or somehow at some religious plane that puts others to shame. No, baptism, if anything, shows that we admit we're sinners and that we're struggling with sin.
So some have accused Christians of being hypocrites and say, "The reason I don't like Christianity is because people don't act like Christians." And I would say that's certainly true. Christians are hypocrites, but we should know we're hypocrites and our conscience should be guiding us toward the new life that we have in Christ.
Several years ago, I had the privilege of baptizing a woman who was in her mid-70s. And this woman had had a difficult life. She had been married twice. Her first husband tried to kill her, and her second husband left her. And she had enormous relationship problems, some of that were brought on her and others of her own making. In the village where she lived, this was in Scotland, so they still have villages and towns and cities distinguished. But in the village where she lived, less than a thousand people there, she was sometimes banned from the local pub because she could be a bit of a curmudgeon.
Well, this dear lady became a believer later in life. And as she became a believer, her life started to change. It didn't mean that she suddenly became the most friendly lady in the village. It didn't mean that she no longer struggled with some of her sins and difficulty. But even the people at the pub could see that something was changing in this dear sister.
Well, when the time came for her to be baptized, she approached me and she said, "Nathan, I only have a few problems with this whole baptism thing. I'm worried about it." She said, "Number one, I don't trust men. Men have done horrible things to me." She said, "Number two, I am scared to death of water. I don't go swimming. I don't get in the sea. I avoid water. And baptism is about getting into the water." And she said, "And number three, I'm older. I'm at an age where something could happen and this may not turn out very well. I'm a nervous wreck." And she said, "But you know what? I know this is what God has asked me to do because Jesus has saved me." And she said, "While I don't trust men in general, I trust you. You have been good to me. And I will trust you to take me into this water and bring me out of the water and that nothing bad will happen."
Well, this dear sister was so sweet to indulge us in baptizing her as a church. And that particular Sunday, when we baptized her, she was the only candidate, but she was the sermon. I mean, literally, when she came into the water, she was shaking. She was so scared.
And when I baptized her, put her under the water, and brought her up, literally people said it was as if she transformed. She was a metamorphosis; she went from a caterpillar to a butterfly in that moment.
Now, rarely have I seen baptisms that are that dramatic, but that day, that particular sister illustrated that her whole life had genuinely been buried with Jesus. And when she came up out of the water, she showed to all with the smile on her face and even the change in her countenance that Christ was now alive in her.
And though she continued to struggle with sin, and there were other times that people at the pub got rubbed the wrong way by her demeanor, she did have Christ with her and she was changing and becoming more like him. She was now able to show love and kindness to people in the village that she had not shown love and kindness to before. She engaged them in conversation, not just in antagonizing them.
All of this reminds us that when we go under the water, we are dying to our old way of life, and we are going to be raised to a new way of life. So that leads to my third and final point this morning, and that is that we come out of the water to illustrate our new life in Jesus.
Illustrating New Life in Jesus
We come out of the water to illustrate our new life in Jesus. So we enter the water to illustrate our death to sin. We go under the water to illustrate our burial, but we come out of the water to illustrate our new life.
Look at verses 8 through 10. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that Christ was raised from the dead; he cannot die again. Death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. Very clearly, the Apostle Paul is saying that when we are raised out of the waters of baptism, it's illustrating that we will be resurrected with Jesus. That we have been given a new life. The old person that was a slave to sin has now given way to a new person that is loyal and committed to God, that is directed by the Holy Spirit of God who comforts us and dwells with us.
Baptism is providing a powerful picture of our new life. We are raised from the dead to walk in newness of life, Paul says here. And the waters of baptism are not what change us. There's no special formula that we've added to the water. It's simply regular water from here in Milton. But that water will help us visualize the spiritual renewal that's happening in Matt and Cody's lives as we do this this morning.
Candidates for baptism must give a credible profession of faith. They must understand the content of the gospel, what it means to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. And the candidate must also demonstrate that they have the character of a believer. Again, this is not to say that they must be perfect or self-righteous. It's just to say that they're now living their life differently because they're living it for God.
Baptism is ultimately an act of obedience for people who follow Jesus. And our church administers baptism as carefully as we can. And we make every effort to practice believers' baptism. That is, we meet with the candidates and we ask them, "What is the gospel? What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean for you to be a Christian?" And we want to make sure that they can say in their own words what it is to be a follower of Jesus.
Because our baptism ceremony today is not simply about going through a religious ritual. It's not to make Matt and Cody feel better about themselves because they've gotten this checked off their list. But it's to remind them and to show all of us that they're identifying with Jesus. So as they come up out of the water this morning, I would encourage you, you can clap, you can celebrate, you can rejoice with them for what God has done in their life. That through baptism, the internal change of their repentance and faith is being shown externally to the whole church and all of us who are watching and witnessing today.
But I would also pray that as you observe Matt and Cody receive baptism today, that you would consider your own relationship with Jesus Christ. That you would evaluate whether or not you have believed Jesus to forgive you of your sin. It's not enough to simply know who Jesus is. James says even the demons believe in God. But we must acknowledge who Jesus is and accept him as our Lord and Savior. That is, we accept Jesus as the promised Messiah who came to rescue us from our sins, and we also submit to him as the master, not only of the world, but the master of our lives.
And I would encourage you this morning, as you see these brothers baptized, that you would evaluate your own walk and see, are you walking on the path of darkness as a slave to sin? Or have you given your life to Christ and are now walking on the path of light as one who belongs to God as a son or a daughter?
The New Testament lays out a contrast that before Christ, we're simply identified as slaves. But after Christ, when we believe him, he calls us his sons and his daughters. Slavery, when it's practiced, is an awful institution. Slaves cannot liberate themselves. They don't simply get up one day and say, "Today's the last day of being a slave. I'm going to go be a free person." When slaves try to escape, normally their masters come after them with a vengeance. And bad things happen to escape slaves. And yet when someone comes to buy the slave, to take the slave away from its master, and to transfer the slave from one owner to another, the new owner can operate however he likes.
And Christ is our master. He has bought us out of slavery to our sin, and he has given us instead the freedom of sons and daughters. That's why he describes it here as a new life. That's why he says in verse number seven that we have been set free from sin.
And then in verse 11, he says that we can count ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ.
Testimony of the Brothers
Because we are no longer under the bondage of our wills, but we are instead in bond to the Spirit of God. In just a moment, I'm going to pray. And when I finish praying, the rest of the sermon is going to be Matt and Cody.
I've asked these men to prepare their testimonies to share with you and to encourage you and to challenge you as you hear how God has worked in their lives. They're different men from different backgrounds at different stages of life, and God has worked uniquely in both of them to help them understand this message so that they want to be baptized and show us all their belief.
I told them this morning as we were going over what we were going to do. I said, when I asked you to come up, you can bring your notes with you. You don't have to look at anybody. You can just lock in on your notes or do what you feel comfortable. I also reminded them, we're not expecting a TED talk. We're not going to be recording and seeing how many clicks we can get on the internet. But we want to hear from their heart who they are and what Christ has done for them.
So these brothers are each going to come, Matt first and then Cody, and they're going to share their testimony. And then they're going to join me upstairs in the baptistry where I will have the privilege to baptize them. And as I said just a few moments ago, I'd encourage you when we finish baptizing them, if you want to respond, you may do that.
And at the conclusion of our worship this morning, we will sing a hymn together. And then after they do a quick change, Matt and Cody are going to come down and stand with their nearest family here at the front. And if you would like to come and shake their hand or hug them at the conclusion of the service, you may absolutely do that.
But be reminded, God uses baptism to encourage the church, to show us that God is still at work, that he's not given up on our church. He's not given up on us, that he is continuing to stir by his Holy Spirit the work of salvation in the lives of people. And Matt and Cody will show us that powerfully this morning.
So I'm going to pray. And when I finish praying, Matt, if you'll come and share your testimony with us this morning.
So let's pray. Heavenly Father, this morning our hearts are excited. We're excited because it truly is well with our soul in Jesus Christ. And I ask this morning that you would use my brother Matt and my brother Cody to demonstrate the power of the gospel at work. Thank you for their confession of faith, that they have come to recognize their sin and their need for forgiveness. But even more than that, that they have come to recognize that they are free in Christ and that you have given them a new life to live.
Father, if there's anyone here this morning that does not believe that message, I pray that this morning, hearing it and seeing it, they would come to believe. And Father, I ask that you would guide us this morning to glorify you in this, and that we can celebrate because we see you at work. So, Father, we pray this, asking in Jesus' name, amen.