Mid-Lent 2
Rom
6:1-5
3/15/17
In 313 A.D. the Edict of Milan
declared that Christians would no longer be persecuted by the Roman
Empire. The Emperor Constantine had
converted to Christianity and this marked the beginning of an incredible change
for the Church. Just a decade earlier under
the Emperor Diocletian the Church had experienced the worst and most thorough
going persecution she had ever received.
Now she would no longer face this threat.
But more than that, now the Emperor
of the Roman Empire was a supporter of
the Church. The emperor had
tremendous wealth at his disposal and historically he had used this to support
various pagan religions. Yet now,
Constantine began to fund the building of churches all over the empire. He put the imperial post system – the
empire’s official system of travel – at the disposal of the Church’s bishops so
that they could gather for church councils. During the fourth century the Roman
Empire began the transition that would lead to Christianity becoming the
official religion of the empire in 380 AD under Emperor Theodosius.
The Church went from being a
persecuted minority in the Empire, to being the favored and supported
religion. The Christian faith was now
seen in a completely different light and the Church began the process of
receiving large numbers of new members. This was a great change. And as the Church developed the ways that she
would receive these new converts she came to shape her practice around what
Paul says in our text tonight.
The Church developed the
Catechumenate in which people were taught the Christian faith during the period
of Lent. This process moved toward baptism at the Vigil of Easter. Paul says in our text, “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.” The apostle says that through baptism we have shared in
Christ’s saving death and have been buried with him.
In order to
convey this fact the Church began to baptize people on Holy Saturday when
Christ had been buried in the tomb.
Early fonts were even sometimes constructed to resemble tombs of that
period in order to visually portray the reality of what happened in baptism.
At the same
time, Paul also goes on to say about baptism in Romans 6, “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.”
Through baptism we share in the death of Jesus Christ. However, Jesus is also the risen Lord. Through baptism we have the assurance that we
too will share in Jesus’ resurrection on the Last Day. Since the Vigil of Easter at sundown was also
the first service of the Feast of the Resurrection, baptism at this time
powerfully conveyed this truth as well.
Last week we focused on the most
fundamental blessing of baptism: the forgiveness of sins. Certainly Paul’s words tonight help us to
understand why baptism delivers forgiveness.
When you were baptized you shared in Jesus Christ’s saving death. Jesus died as the sacrifice to atone for
every sin. And then the Lord defeated death as he rose from the dead and God
exalted Christ at his right hand. Through baptism you have been joined to
Jesus’ death – you have been buried with him – and so the blessing he won of
forgiveness has become yours. And your
baptism also guarantees that Jesus will raise you up on the Last Day – that he
will transform your mortal body to be like his resurrected and immortal one.
However, the really interesting
thing about our text is that this isn’t what Paul is actually focusing upon at
the beginning of Romans 6. Instead, he
says, “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?”
Paul has
just been talking about how God’s saving grace in Christ abounded beyond any
sin in order to give us forgiveness and eternal life. But that raises the thought:
Maybe then we don’t have to worry about how we live. After all, God has us covered! We like to sin and God likes to forgive. This
will work just fine!
This is
always the temptation for us as Christians.
The old man in us always wants to abuse God’s grace. We want to use his forgiveness as an excuse
to do what we want – or at least as the reason that we don’t have to work that
hard in struggling against sin. So we
mess up … of course we do! But it’s no big deal, because in Jesus we have
forgiveness.
Yet the
apostle Paul says this is all wrong. He
says it can’t work that way. After all how can we who have died to sin
live in it? In order explain his point,
Paul goes to something that he knows is a shared Christian understanding. He says, “Do you not know that all of us who
have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” His point is that of course they know this, since
this is what the Church teaches about baptism.
But then he adds, “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.” In baptism you shared in Jesus’ death. But baptism is not just about
forgiveness. It is also serves the
purpose that just as Christ rose from the dead, so now we walk in newness of
life. This newness of life is being in
Christ – it is being saved, forgiven and living
like this is so.
Paul assumes something here that he
doesn’t express until later in Romans. And this is the fact that the Holy Spirit is at work in baptism. We will speak more next Wednesday about how
the Spirit works regeneration through baptism just as Paul says in Titus 3:5 –
the verse quoted in the Small Catechism. It is the Spirit who is at work in baptism –
the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.
As Paul says later in chapter 8, “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.”
Why does baptism provide the ability
live in newness of life? It does so
because through baptism the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead is at work in
you now. And it is by the Spirit’s power that God provides the ability to
overcome the old man; to live in ways that are true to God’s will.
Your baptism is the foundational
source of your life in Christ. Through
baptism you shared in Jesus’ saving death and so have the forgiveness of
sins. Through baptism the Spirit has
given your rebirth and continues to be at work in you. The Spirit who has done this to you is the
One who will be at work to raise and transform you on the Last Day. And the Spirit is already now at work in you so that you can live out this new life
in Christ.
However, this doesn’t occur without
struggle, because the Last Day hasn’t arrived yet. Jesus hasn’t returned. The Spirit has not worked the complete
transformation that will occur when he raises you to be like Jesus. And so that remnant of the old man is still
there, struggling against God’s will. That is why we still must cooperate with
Spirit in the battle against sin.
That is also why there are still times when we
fail. We have to be honest, that happens
too. And when it happens we turn back to
our baptism. The fourth question about Holy Baptism in the Small Catechism states, “What does such baptizing with water
indicate? It indicates that the Old Adam in
us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins
and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live
before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Luther is referring to how in his
day baptisms were done by actually plunging the baby under the water in the
font. In faith we return to our baptism.
We confess our sin. We repent. We take comfort knowing that we have shared
in the saving death of Jesus through baptism and so, we are forgiven.
And then
we go forth again because the Spirit has created the new man within us. Just as the Spirit raised Jesus from the
dead, so he is at work in us now to enable us to live before God in
righteousness and purity – in ways that are true to God’s will. He will keep doing that in us because we are
baptized children of God. And then on the Last Day he will bring that work to
completion as he transforms us to be like Jesus. As Paul tells us tonight: “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. 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.”
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