What will you do with Jesus?
Die with Him Romans 6:1-14
Focus: Hearing the good news of Jesus demands a response… will it be to die with him in baptism in order to live a transformed life?
Function: to call hearers to commit their lives to Christ in baptism and to live a new life in Christ!
Let me tell you about a movie I’m going to see this week: Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ
• I have been extremely impressed by interviews I’ve heard with Gibson about his dedication to accuracy and presenting the story of the final 12 hours of Christ as it actually happened.
• He makes no excuses for its graphic violence and its R-rating, afterall crucifixion was the cruelest and most horrible of ways of execution ever devised.
• Next week we will be taking a look at the “Passion” from the Bible and I’ll tell you what I thought of the movie, but for now I’d encourage you to go see it, take a non-Christian friend with you and talk about it with them.
• There is a lot of opportunity in this for us as Christians—as so many all over the world are talking about Jesus. My brother-in-law has a Moslem friend who he’s going to see the movie with.
Is there anyone in this world that YOU would die for? Your wife? Your husband? A child? Perhaps a parent or other loved one?
The Bible says, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:7-8NIV
• That’s the gospel in a nut-shell! That’s the good news Christians are called to proclaim to the world!
• When WE didn’t deserve it… when HE didn’t have to… Christ died for us as the ultimate demonstration of God’s love!
• As we’ve been talking about for four weeks now, that good news calls for a response on our part. We’ve got to do something because God has done so much for us!
• So, I’ve asked, “What will YOU do with Jesus?”
• Hearing about the Christ demands a decision! What will it be?
This morning I want us to see that it calls us to do nothing less than to DIE WITH HIM!
• Sound too radical? Too extreme? “I could never do that!”
• Yet that is exactly what is referred to in the text read a moment ago…
Romans 6:1-4
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 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. NIV
To understand this great text, we’ve got to remember where Paul was coming from…
• From the mid-point of chapter 3 to here, Paul has been talking about the wonderful grace of God which has come about thru Christ, because “all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” - Romans 3:23-24 NIV
• But can you believe that there might be some who would pervert this wonderful gift of grace? … who might argue something like this: its good to have the grace of God; the more sin I commit, the more grace I can receive; so I should sin as much as I can!
• Paul wants to counter this notion. Nothing can be farther from the truth, he says! “By no means!” It’s a strong statement against that idea.
• Perhaps there were Christians there at Rome who were being tempted to go back to their old patterns of sin?
• Paul says, “You can’t go back to your old sin… don’t you remember that you died to it?”
And he says in effect, “Remember your BAPTISM!”
• What? What does that have to do with anything, Paul?
• I’m being tempted to slip back into my old lifestyle, my old habits, my old sin… and you say to “remember my baptism”.. what are you talking about?
• I told you last week that I can remember well my baptism. I remember coming forward on a Sunday night and telling the minister that I wanted to ‘get baptized.’ I remember going down into the water—all of me! And I can remember the hugs and well wishes that I got from a wonderful church family when I came up out of the water.
• Think back for a few moments about your baptism… do you remember it? Where was it? How old were you? What prompted your decision to be baptized at that time, in that way? Who was there? Friends? Parents? Grandparents? Your children, perhaps? Where was it? Was it in a baptistry like mine was? Or was it in a river, a pond, or lake? Some years ago, my grandfather and I drove out through the country where he was raised and I remember him showing me the river where had been baptized; out in the country. Can you remember your baptism?
• Maybe you can’t remember your baptism because you were a small child when your parents brought you to a minister to have you baptized. Hang with me for a few minutes and I’ll come back to that.
Paul says, “Remember your baptism” but NOT just the EVENT of your baptism… rather remember the MEANING of your baptism!
• I’m afraid that many misunderstand the meaning of their baptism today.
• There are those who believe baptism is merely the sign of salvation already received; the outward sign of an inward grace, some would say.
• There are others who believe that it is an indispensable command of God; a somewhat arbitrary test of loyalty that we must obey if we’re going to get into heaven.
• I would say to you this morning, that baptism is more important than either of those views!
• Yes, it is a sign/ a symbol! Yes, it is a command! Yes, it is indispensible! It is all those things… and more!
• It is about nothing less than dying with Christ!
Now, churches of Christ have typically placed a strong emphasis on baptism—compared to many of the other religious groups. I think it has been a good thing.
• It has been one of those things which has set us apart from other religious groups, but unfortunately it has been one of those things over which Christians have disagreed over, fought about and split on. If you’re like me and grew up in churches of Christ, you know what I mean.
• But, maybe you’re not like me. Maybe you’ve wondered why we baptize the way we do…
• A couple of reasons…
1. The original word in the N.T. we translate ‘baptism’ is the Greek ‘baptizo’ and it means simply ‘immersion.’ The word ‘baptism’ is a transliteration of the original Greek, not a translation. If the 1st English translations had translated it ‘immersion’ that would have saved us all a lot of confusion, but instead they just transferred it over as ‘baptism’ which had already sort of been re-defined by some church practices. But in the Bible, baptism was immersion in water. It wasn’t until the middle ages that ‘sprinkling’ became common and that was originally only for those who were too old or too feeble to physically be lifted into a pool of water. It was called ‘clinical baptism’ and was never meant to be a substitute for immersion. (That’s one reason.)
2. But more than that… we practice immersion baptism because of the symbolism embedded in the very act… as we saw in this text. It is a death, a burial and a resurrection.
Baptism is a Death
• We are baptized into Christ’s death, says vs. 3. It is about dying with Christ.
• It is about putting away the old sinful nature, putting it to death, never to return to it.
• Paul says in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” NIV
• This is why we don’t baptize infants. Nowhere does the Bible teach that a child comes into this world as a sinner in need of putting their old nature to death.
• Instead, Jesus teaches that we ought to BE like little children! They’re not sinful or in need of forgiveness.
Baptism is a Burial
• What do you do with something that has died? You bury it! You put it away!
• There is no longer any life within it, and so it is put in the ground.
• When Jesus died, his body, too was put away. The Gospels tell us that a certain Joseph of Arimethea owned a tomb and donated it so that Jesus’ followers could give him a proper burial. I think when they put Jesus’ body in that tomb, they fully expected the whole thing to be over. Jesus was dead. It was over. They put his body away. They might as well go back to their fishing jobs back up in Galilee.
• But that’s not the end of the story!
Baptism is also a Resurrection & a New Birth!
• Jesus didn’t stay in that tomb! On the third day he rose again! His body came up out of that grave and the stone was rolled away so that the people could see that it was empty!
• And he wasn’t the same… there was something different about Jesus’ resurrection body. I’m not sure we can say for sure how he was different, but we see some evidences in the Bible that he just was. For example, he seems to be able to move through physical walls when he appears to the disciples in John 20. On the one hand, when he appears to Thomas, his body still bears the marks of crucifixion. Yet, when the women first see him on the day of resurrection, they don’t immediately recognize him. While there was something familiar about hi, he was different as well.
• So, too, in baptism we come up out of the water different… raised as a new creation; a new person. There is something about us that is different! Not physically, or on some sort of meta-physical level, but spiritually… different!
• We are no longer that person we used to be. That person has died and has been buried.
• We have experienced a new birth! We have been born again!
In Baptism, we are participating in that Death, Burial & Resurrection of Jesus
• That’s why a sprinkling just doesn’t do it!
• We are claiming that Death, Burial & Resurrection for ourselves—recognizing that it is thru that event (Christ’s death, burial & resurrection) that our sins are forgiven and we are saved!
But not JUST that…. Look again at the text. What is baptism for?
• Salvation? Yes. Forgiveness of sins? Yes. Assurance of Heaven? O.K. The gift of the Holy Spirit? You bet! But to what end?
• Look at vs. 4 “in order that we may live a new life.”
• Baptism is about living a new/ transformed life!
• Why does continuing in sin run contrary to the meaning of your baptism, as Paul said? Because baptism is about living a changed life!
Romans 6:5-7
5 If we have been united with him like this 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 of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. NIV
Through baptism, we are identifying ourselves with the victory that Christ won!
• In baptism you died to sin… how could you live in it any longer? How could you keep on sinning? How could you go back and wallow in that old mud pit again?
• Sin used to be your master. You were its slave! But no longer! In baptism, you are freed from that sin!
• Not because we were smart enough to figure out that we needed to be baptized or good enough to deserve it… but because in baptism we IDENTIFY with Christ and his Death, Burial & Resurrection thru which he overcame the power of sin!
• So, by identifying with the one who overcame death & sin, we, too overcome it and are resurrected.
• One of the most beautiful analogies for baptism that I’ve heard (connected to this) is presented in F. LaGard Smith’s book: Baptism, the Believer’s Wedding Ceremony. He likens baptism to a marriage ceremony where man & wife are brought together, ‘identify with one another’; are united on the basis of their vows. The Bible itself speaks of the church being the ‘bride of Christ’. In the marriage ceremony, the two become one; and what belongs to one becomes the other’s as well.
• In baptism, Christ’s victory becomes our victory.
• Of course, it gives a whole new meaning to ‘taking the plunge’!
Baptism is about living a Resurrection life—its about saying that life is going to be different from now on!
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. NIV
• While we look forward to the final resurrection when we’ll finally go to be with the Lord, I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at here.
• We live in the here & now under the power of the resurrection!
• Baptism isn’t JUST about where I’m going to end up in the after-life; it is also about a new life in the here & now!
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 the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. NIV
• Sin is no longer master- you don’t have to listen to it!
• Grace has won out! So, “Live like it!” Paul is saying. Act as one who has been brought from death to life! Offer your body for righteousness, not sin.
• I’ve often wondered how Lazarus was changed after Jesus raised him from the dead. You remember how Lazarus had died and lay in the grave for a number of days. Then Jesus brings him up out of the tomb and gives him life again. The difference, of course, between his raising and the final resurrection was that Lazarus was raised only to die again at a later time. But in the meantime, I wonder if he lived differently? I wonder if his perspective on life was any changed? Knowing how short life really is, did it cause him to stop and smell the roses any more? Did it prompt him to appreciate his family any more? Did getting a glimpse of eternity change the way in which he worshiped God?
• “Live as one who has been brought from death to life!” because you have! We have been given so much thru Christ! That should cause us to live differently.
Do you remember the meaning of your Baptism?
• Did you truly bury that old self/ that old nature? Did you put it away? Did you leave it there in that water?
• Did you rise up and walk away from it as a new creation, putting it behind you forever?
• I don’t mean to suggest that this transformation ever happens overnight. The truth is, we all return to that old sinful nature EVEN after baptism from time to time. The process of transformation is just that, a process. It is a gradual growing closer to the Lord each day of the rest of our lives.
• But what I am hoping to get at this morning is seeing Baptism as the inaugural event through which God takes us from the person we used to be and begins shaping us into the person he wants us to become.
• It is that first step on the journey towards transformation.
I think that this is all “bound-up” in the Bible’s view of Baptism… so you see why I think Baptism is more important than simply an outward symbol of salvation or even as an act of obedience because God has told me to!
• It is about being changed into the image of Christ!
• It is about changing your life to be more like His!
• Through participating in that death, burial & resurrection symbolized by being buried in the water, and raised up out of it, we are identifying/ uniting ourselves with Christ, and claiming the victory that HE won for ourselves!
• So, to even ask the question if baptism is ‘essential’ or not is to miss the point!
• If I understand the story of what Christ has done for me, why would I NOT want to be baptized? Why would I NOT want to identify myself with him? Why would I NOT want to participate in that event? Why would I NOT want to claim the power over sin?
When the crowd at Pentecost was convicted of what Jesus had done and of their own sin; that they had crucified the Messiah, they asked Peter, “What shall we do?” and you remember what he said.
Acts 2:38-39
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-for all whom the Lord our God will call.” NIV
• That’s something else we’ll have to come back to and talk about some more. Paul didn’t mention the Spirit’s role in all of this there in Rom. 6, but that’s also a part of God’s promise to us.
• It is in this joining of ourselves with Christ that God gives us the gift that is the Holy Spirit.
• It is my conviction that it is this Spirit of God within us that works on us; that brings about this process of transformation.
• But the question is the same for us today as it was at Pentecost…
“What will you do with Jesus?”
• Have you LISTENED to what he has to say for your life?
• Have you put your TRUST in him?
• Have you turned away from your sin and TURNED towards him?
• Have you SURRENDERED yourself to his will instead of your own?
• Will you DIE with him in baptism—dying to your sin, putting it away, and leaving it in the water as you are raised to walk in newness of life?
It is only the beginning, but it is a wonderful, new beginning! It is the beginning of a journey of transformation with God-- where he takes us from that person we used to be and fashions us into the person that he wants us to be…
Have you experienced that new beginning in Christ?
