Trinity 6
Rom
6:3-11
7/23/17
It will probably not surprise you to
hear that I love to study the Bible. It
is after all, God’s Word. It is his revelation in which we meet Jesus Christ
our Savior and learn about how we live according to God’s will in response to
the salvation of the Gospel.
And then on top of that, the study
of Scripture that we expect of our pastors involves the use of the languages
Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek. It involves learning about the history, geography
and culture of the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern world. It involves learning about how Christians,
both ancient and modern, have interpreted the Scriptures.
Now for me, this is fun. As I have
described in the past, I figured out quickly in high school that languages,
history and literature were my strengths and that math and science were
not. Don’t get me wrong, I got A’s, but
I didn’t enjoy it and clearly I was never going to excel in it. And so I headed
down the path that has led me here.
As one of my favorite professors and
now friend likes to say: “The Bible is a big book.” There so much stuff in there that you will
never run out of new things to learn. At the same time, I have found that some
of the most interesting discoveries are not information that is completely
new. Instead, it is learning that
something you assumed you knew – something straightforward and basic – isn’t
what you thought it was.
That is the case for our text for
today from Romans chapter 6. Now we grow
up in the Church confessing every Sunday in the Nicene Creed that there is “one
baptism for the forgiveness of sins.” We
learn in the Small Catechism that baptism, “works the forgiveness of sins,
rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe
this as the words and promises of God declare.”
It’s understandable then, that when
we come to a text about baptism we are primed to read it as if that it is
talking about the forgiveness of sins. The problem is that not all verses about
baptism are talking about the forgiveness of sins – at least not directly. For sure this truth is always
present and can be assumed. But sometimes this is not the thing that the
biblical writer is calling our attention to – not directly.
And that is the case with our text
this morning from Romans chapter 6. In
our text Paul begins by saying, “Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
Now without a doubt this text does describe
why baptism gives the forgiveness of sins.
Paul says that to be baptized is to be baptized into Jesus Christ’s
death. In fact, the apostle says that to
be baptized is to be buried with Christ.
Through baptism you have shared in Christ’s death for you. This was a death – a sacrifice – that he made for
you. It was a death in your place. As Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not be
served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” By sharing in
Jesus’ death through baptism, the saving benefits have become yours. This means
that you have received … the forgiveness of sins. You know it for sure. Why? Because you have
been baptized! Christ has combined water
with his Word to give you something objective you can hold onto in faith.
However,
that’s not specifically the thing Paul is talking about here. Instead, to understand his point, we need to
go back up to the first two verses of the chapter that are not included in our
text. Near the end of chapter five Paul
had written, “but where sin increased,
grace abounded all the more.” Now one
could be inclined to say: “This is great! I like to sin and God likes to
forgive! This is perfect!”
In response to this impulse that all
sinners share, Paul writes, “What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no
means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” In our text, Paul is not talking about the
forgiveness of sins, but instead about living in ways that don’t sin. Paul says that we
have died to sin because we have died with Christ. But it’s not just a death
that has occurred. There has also been a
resurrection.
Jesus
Christ died on Good Friday. But on Easter God raised him from the dead. And
it’s the resurrection that really
drives what Paul is saying in our text. The
apostle says, “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in
order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
we too might walk in newness of life.”
Did you notice what the apostle just did there? He said that Jesus died and you have died
with Jesus through baptism. Then he said Christ was raised from the dead. And
so we expect that the next thing he will say is that we too will be raised from
the dead. But instead he says, “we too might walk in newness of life.”
Paul isn’t
talking about the future. He’s talking
about right now. This “newness of life” is what is what you
already have now because you are “in Christ.”
It is the forgiveness and salvation you have because of Jesus. But in the setting of what Paul is talking
about it also includes the way we live. And this fact is tied to Jesus’
resurrection. For Paul leaves no doubt that your baptism also means that you
will share in Jesus resurrection. He
goes on to say in the next verse: “For if we have been united with him in a
death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like
his.”
In his
letter to the Romans, Paul doesn’t show you all of his cards as at once. It’s not until chapter eight that he reveals
a key point that runs throughout his thinking. There he writes: “If
the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
his Spirit who dwells in you.” Paul says that the Spirit who raised Jesus
Christ is in you. How do you know? You’ve been baptized! It is the Spirit who raised Jesus from the
dead, and he is going to do the same thing to your body on the Last Day.
What does this mean for us right
now? Paul says in our text: “We know that our old man was
crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,
so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been
set free from sin.” Pauls says that the old
man was crucified with Christ in under to nullify the work of sin in our body –
and the purpose of this is for us no longer to be slaves to sin.
This isn’t
only about death. But it’s also about life
– the resurrection life of Christ worked by the Spirit. Paul says at the end of our text, “Now if we
have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that
Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has
dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the
life he lives he lives to God.
So
you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Notice how Paul returns again to the
resurrection of Jesus, and how the resurrection becomes the basis for how we
now live.
Now you are
probably sitting there thinking: “Yeah, but pastor it’s not that simple. I am
still messing up in sin. I still find
myself doing stuff I don’t want to do, and failing to do the things I
should.” You are right. And Paul knew it
too. That’s why in the verse after our
text he writes, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you
obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to
life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.”
Paul
doesn’t talk like this life that avoids sin is automatic. And remember what I said earlier about how
Paul doesn’t show all of his cards at once.
If here in chapter six Paul announces freedom from sinning because
through baptism we have shared in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,
in chapter seven he deals with the fact that sin is still present and offers an
ongoing challenge. Paul writes the
famous words in chapter seven: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that
is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability
to carry it out.
For
I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on
doing.”
However Paul’s discussion is moving
towards chapter eight. And there Paul
finally comes right out and talks about the Holy Spirit. There he says, “For
the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of
sin and death.”
Paul has told us two truths. He has told us that through baptism we have
shared in the saving death of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit who will raise
our bodies on the Last Day is already at work in us now – the power of Christ’s
resurrection is at work in our lives today.
And he has told us that we also still have the flesh – the fallen sinful
nature that is not yet completely gone and can still drag us down into sinful
thoughts, words and deeds.
The question then for us as
Christians is what we are going to do with these truths. Are we going to just excuse sin? Are we going to assume that falling in sin is
just to be expected? That’s not what the apostle thinks. He says, “So then, brothers, we are debtors,
not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to
the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live.
For
all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.”
Paul says that by the Spirit we are
to put to death the deeds of the body.
Make no mistake. The inspired apostle acknowledges that there is a
struggle. He doesn’t deny that failure
occurs. But he refuses to believe that
falling into sin is always inevitable or unavoidable. And that is because the
Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work in you now.
Our life as Christians is therefore very
simple. When we fall into sin we return
in faith to our baptism, for there we have the assurance of forgiveness because
of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We view sin as something that we will need to
struggle against. In faith we believe
God’s promise that through baptism the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is
at work in us so that we can put to death the sin present in us and instead
live in faith toward God and love towards our neighbor.
Few people have understood this more
profoundly than Martin Luther who wrote in the Large Catechism: “Therefore
let all Christians regard their baptism as the daily garment that they are to
wear all the time. Every day they should be found in faith and with its fruits,
suppressing the old creature and growing up in the new. If we want to be
Christians, we must practice the work that makes us Christians, and let those
who fall away return to it.”
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