This morning I’m going to be preaching on baptism and have us look at its symbolism; and I want to begin with an illustration. If you have a wedding ring on right now, then take a look at it. “Baptism is like a wedding ring. Both symbolize transactions. A wedding ring symbolizes marriage, just as baptism symbolizes salvation. However, wearing a wedding ring does not make you married any more than being baptized makes you saved.”(1)
A small child can try on her mother’s wedding ring, and maybe be allowed to wear it for an hour or so, but we know she’s not married. And in a similar way, a person can be baptized without having accepted Christ into his or her heart. Unfortunately, all too often, people are baptized without receiving Jesus as Savior and Lord; and when a person is baptized without knowing Christ, then he or she is not saved; and thus, the baptism was done in vain.
Baptism in itself has no saving power. There is only one thing that saves us; and the apostle Paul told us what that is in Ephesians 2:8-9. He said, “For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Salvation is a free gift that God bestows on those who simply have faith in His Son, Jesus. We are saved through faith in Christ alone, not through baptism or any other work.
Baptism is a symbol of our faith in Christ. Paul Powell, in The New Minister’s Manual, says, “[Baptism] does not wash away any sins. There is no magic in the water that we use. It is the same kind of water that we drink, and the same kind that we bathe in. [The purpose of baptism is that it] identifies us openly and publicly with the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord.”(2) Commentator Warren Wiersbe says, “It is an outward symbol of an inward experience.”(3) He continues to say, “Immersion was a picture of what the Spirit did. The Holy Spirit identified [believers] with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.”(4)
To extend the illustration of the wedding ring, “If a person, especially a woman, does not wear a wedding ring you can almost always assume that the person is not married. So it was in New Testament times. If a person was not baptized, you could probably assume that he or she was not a believer. On this we must be clear: baptism is a symbol of salvation and only a symbol. But, like a wedding ring, it is such an effective symbol that it should never be taken for granted.”(5)
This morning we’re going to view the symbol of baptism and look at it piece by piece, in order to come to an understanding of exactly what it represents; and I believe that once we realize the symbolism of baptism, that we will gain a fuller picture of how we’re supposed to live our life for Jesus Christ. So, let us now stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word in Romans 6:3-6:
Baptism Is a Symbolic Action (Romans 6:3-6)
3 Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
Allow me to share a short (but true) story told by a pastor named Bob Beasley. He said, “Our three-year-old daughter, Rena, sat with us during the baptismal service last Sunday night, which was a new experience for her. She exclaimed in surprise, ‘Why did he push that guy in the water? Why, Dad, why?’ My wife tried to explain briefly and quietly, but Rena just wouldn’t be satisfied.”
“Later that night we tried to provide an answer that a child’s mind could comprehend. We talked about sin and told Rena that when people decide to live for Jesus and ‘do good’ they want everyone to know. We then explained that water symbolizes Jesus washing people from sin; [and] when they come out ‘clean,’ they are going to try to be ‘good.’ A moment later, we realized we’d have to work on our explanation a bit. Rena immediately responded, ‘Why didn’t the pastor just spank him?’”(6)
Like little Rena, many of us are confused when it comes to baptism. If we believe that baptism is responsible for changing a person’s behavior and making someone good, then we too might wonder why we don’t just train and discipline someone instead. But as we’ve already heard, baptism is a symbol and it can’t change anyone. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only thing that will change a person’s heart and life. So, there is something more to baptism.
The majority of us here this morning are a lot older than little Rena; and so, I believe we can take a deeper look at the meaning of baptism and acquire a better understanding concerning what it’s all about. If we look closely at Romans 6:3-6, we can see that baptism represents three things: death, burial and resurrection. Wiersbe says, “Historians agree that the mode of baptism in the early church was immersion. The believer was ‘buried’ in the water and brought up again as a picture of death, burial, and resurrection.”(7) And, we’re going to look at each of these three aspects, beginning with “death” and “burial.”
Baptism Represents Death and Burial
The Bible says that Jesus, God’s one and only Son, died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, so that we might have spiritual life for all eternity. According to Romans 6:23, the wages, or the penalty, of sin is death. We’re all supposed to die a spiritual death for our sins. Jesus, however, stepped in and took our place when He died on the cross. In a sense, He sat in the electric chair on our behalf. He took our capital punishment on Himself.
According to Romans 10:9-10, Jesus will become the one who pays for our sins at the moment we truly believe that He died in our place; and when we publicly confess Him as Savior and Lord (cf. Matthew 10:32-33). Jesus died on the cross, and was buried in a tomb for you and me. He took our death so that we might live forever, if we will only believe in Him.
Whenever we accept Jesus we become an eternal being, just as Christ is eternal; but we’re presently stuck here on this earth until our physical body passes away. Because our inheritance is in heaven, we must live in the here and now according to the principles and rules of the kingdom; meaning, we should no longer live according to the ways of the world. We must spiritually die to this world, knowing that it doesn’t hold true life, but only pain, heartache and death.
In Matthew 16:25 Jesus said, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Jesus was saying, “Whoever wants to keep his physical, earthly life will lose his spiritual life.” In the preceding verse, Jesus told us how we can refrain from living according to the ways of the world. He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself” – or rather, deny his earthly life in the world – “and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). To take up one’s cross means to be ready to die.
We are able to live according to the principles of the kingdom when we crucify ourselves spiritually, or “take up our cross” as Jesus said. We must crucify our former life of sin, in order to identify with Christ. This sounds like a great mystery; and the apostle Paul expressed this paradox in Galatians 2:20, when he said, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ [lives] in me” (KJV). We are crucified with Christ when we accept Him as our Savior and Lord; and yet, somehow, we continue to remain alive on this earth.
In Galatians 5:24, Paul said, “Those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Whenever we accept Jesus as Savior we must kill, crucify, and put aside the sin in our life. We must crucify the sinful nature that comes with our physical being. We don’t literally destroy our body, but we deny its passions and desires; and therefore, we remain alive spiritually. We see this idea expressed in our main passage, in Romans 6:6, when Paul said, “Our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”
In baptism, whenever we are placed under the water, we are publicly declaring that we have crucified our former life of sin. The sinful nature has been buried. In baptism, we are making a commitment before God and others that we will strive to live apart from sin and temptation. Let’s now look at the aspect of baptism representing “resurrection” and “new life.”
Baptism Represents Resurrection and Life
In Colossians 2:12, we read, “[Be] buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised [Jesus] from the dead.” After Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and after He was buried in the tomb, the Bible tells us that He rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1-8). If Jesus had only died and remained in the tomb, then that would have been insufficient to save us from the consequence of our sin.
The resurrection is the key to the power of Christ over the sin in our life and over the sin of the world. We read in Romans 1:4 that the power of the Son of God comes through “the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” The resurrection proves that Jesus had power over His own death, and that He has power over the death that we too are to experience; and since death is the result of sin, then Jesus also has power over sin.
The resurrection reveals that Jesus has power over both sin and death. When we are raised up from the water during baptism, it is symbolic of being resurrected just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. It is symbolic of our own victory over sin and death through Christ.
1 Peter 3:21 in the New International Version tells us that baptism is just a symbol; that we are saved “by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” This verse also states that we are saved “not [by] the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.” That part about a “clear conscience toward God” signifies heart-change and life-change. Verse 4 of our main passage says, “Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Our victory over sin not only frees us from death, but it gives us the power to live for Christ.
Wiersbe says, “Too many Christians are “betweeners.’ They live between Egypt and Canaan, saved but never satisfied; or they live between Good Friday and Easter, believing in the cross but not entering into the power and glory of the resurrection.”(8) He continues, “Romans 6:4 teaches that we share in His resurrection power today. It is clear, then, that the believer cannot deliberately live in sin since he has a new relationship to sin because of his identification with Christ. The believer has died to the old life; he has been raised to enjoy new life.”(9)
Look down at Romans 6:10-14: “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
The symbolism of baptism is powerful, and we need to realize that when we are baptized we are reenacting that glorious Easter morning when Jesus broke free from the tomb; and keep in mind, that whenever we observe the baptism of a fellow brother or sister in Christ, that we are privileged to behold a glimmer of the splendor and glory of Jesus’ own resurrection that occurred on Easter morning. And if we have been baptized, then we are supposed to live day by day in the victory and power of the resurrection, in order to bring glory to the name of Jesus.
Time of Reflection
This morning I want to encourage those of you who are Christians and have already been baptized to reconsider the symbolism of baptism and what it represents and means in your own life. Did you just go through the motions, or are you truly living a life that demonstrates that you have crucified your former life of sin, and are living in the victory and power of the resurrection? If you’ve been baptized, and you are not living according to the testimony that your baptism represents, then you need to consider rededicating your life to the Lord.
If you are not a Christian, then I first want to encourage you to receive the free gift of eternal life acquired through faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ. If you truly believe that Jesus died for your sins, and rose from the grave victorious over sin and death, then you will be saved. And once you have accepted Jesus into your heart, you need to identify yourself with Christ by being buried with Him in the waters of baptism; and by being resurrected with Him by rising up out of the water. You also should do more than just symbolize this life-change; you need to live it out. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”
NOTES
(1) Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1997), p. 27.
(2) Paul W. Powell, The New Minister’s Manual (Nashville: Annuity Board, 1996), p. 71.
(3) Warren Wiersbe, “The Complete New Testament in One Volume,” The Wiersbe Bible Commentary (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), p. 423.
(4) Ibid., p. 423.
(5) Green, p. 27.
(6) Bob Beasley, pastor of Gregory Drive Alliance Church, West Chatham, Ontario, Canada.
(7) Wiersbe, p. 423.
(8) Ibid., p. 424.
(9) Ibid., p. 424.
