“Baptism—Dead to Sin & Alive in Christ” Romans 6.1-11, Jan. ‘20

1.                Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word is taken from Romans 6.1-11, and is entitled, “Baptism—Dead to Sin & Alive in Christ,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Back in June of 2010, Jon Metz moved from his urban dwelling in New Haven, Connecticut, to the suburbs. He had purchased an old home that he was now fixing up. One day, John was cleaning an old boiler-style furnace in the basement when his arm became lodged inside the furnace. The harder Jon tried to free himself from the furnace, the more his arm swelled and he became entrapped. Two days later, Jon realized that his situation was even more perilous. In his attempts to free himself, Jon had cut himself on the filthy furnace. He was now infected. His arm, once dear to him, was costing him his life. In an act difficult for us to imagine, Jon was able to reach tools nearby. He fashioned a tourniquet and amputated his arm. Doctors later agreed Jon’s heroic act saved his life.

3.                In Rom 6:1–11, St. Paul describes the death-to-life experience of Holy Baptism and what the baptized in Christ give up for the sake of the new life they now have. In Baptism, we receive the benefits of Christ giving his life. Today, let us search the Scriptures anew and learn how In Our Baptism,
Our Old Self Is Drowned and Cut Off So That We Then Arise to a New Life in Jesus. 

4.                Our old self desires to continue sinning, that grace may abound (v 1).  Here was a seemingly plausible—even pious—question the Romans may have been asking:  Paul had taught that no matter how great our sins, God’s grace always abounded to cover them in Romans 5:20.

5.                Well, if God’s grace—a very good thing!—is always more than our sin, wouldn’t it be a good idea to sin more so that God can be even more generous?  Sounds pretty holy, but it’s really our old self asking the question.  Think of the possibilities! We could do all sorts of things we might like to do.  We could disobey those in authority and rebel against them.  We could drive as fast as we want to on the Highway and tell the Police Officer who stops us that we are forgiven by God anyway.  We could sleep off our hangover on Sunday morning.  But who is it inside us that even finds those ideas attractive? It’s our old sinful self!  Paul says, “No way!” (vv 1–2a).  Sin separates the believer from Christ.  Sin is a rejection of the life God designed for his people.

6.                  The question, of course, is absurd. And Paul recognizes it as such. It would be like asking, “Should I set my house on fire so that the fire department can get more practice at putting out house fires?” “Should I crash my car into a tree so that first responders get more practice in responding to accidents?” By no means!

7.                At the same time, we know that we will not be free from sin this side of heaven. We are still going to sin, even as we walk in this newness of life. The difference is that we don’t live to sin. Instead, we repent of our sin daily. And we live daily in the forgiveness that is ours in Christ. And daily we walk in the newness of life that God gave us in our Baptism. 

8.                Paul says that old self has been drowned and cut off by Baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection (vv 2b–7).   Jesus did die to atone for our sins—every sin!—so that God’s grace does always cover every sin we could ever commit. But Jesus died also to deliver us from our sin.  We are baptized into Christ’s death to sin.  We are literally drowned to the sin that once separated us from God and enslaved us.  Like the young man cutting off his arm, this is what’s cut off from the Christian with our new lease on life.

9.                And we are resurrected with Christ to a new life!  Like John Metz, who cut off his arm to save his life, God “cutting off” his Son, Jesus, on the cross does give life to you and me.  Our holy and righteous living is a fruit of faith and the expression of the Holy Spirit working this new life in us (Jn 15:5).  Therefore, we arise to a new life in Christ that is totally different from the old (vv 8–11).  Like Lazarus (Jn 11:43–44), we cast off our grave clothes and former ways (Col 3:1–5).  St. Paul writes in Colossians 3:1-5, “1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”  And, in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Paul writes,  “9Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

10.               We clothe ourselves with Christ.  Paul writes in Colossians 3:12-14, “12Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”   We put on the full armor of God and take our stand against Satan’s schemes (Eph 6:10–17).  We “walk about,” peripatēsōmen, in a newness of life.  We live in the fruits of the Holy Spirit as St. Paul describes in Galatians 5:22-24, “22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”  We “consider” (reckon, ponder, meditate), logizesthe, what it means to be dead to sin and alive unto God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

11.              In the same way Jon Metz cut off his entrapped and infected arm to save his life, Jesus Christ, God’s Son, was infected with our sin and enslaved by judgment and death. In our Baptism, we are buried with Christ in his death to sin and resurrected with him to a new life. Given new life through the forgiveness of our sin and the certainty of eternal life, we now consider the new life we have in him and what it means to live to his glory. We cut off all that infects us and cast off all that entangles us.  Amen.  The peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting.  Amen.