Baptism
of Our Lord
1
Cor 1:26-31
1/12/25
“For
the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to
us who are being saved it is the power of God.” That’s what Paul has
just said prior to our text. He says
that the message of the cross – of Christ crucified – is folly to those who are
perishing. It is mornoic.
How
could it be otherwise? Paul and the
apostles proclaimed that a Jew who had been crucified is Lord of all. They said that a man who had died as a
criminal in the most humiliating form of death possible is the Lord who is to
be worshipped.
The
apostle said that this was God negating the wisdom of the world – making it
foolish. Paul wrote, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know
God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save
those who believe.” Then he added, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek
wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and
folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,
and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
God
had acted in Christ in what seemed to be foolishness and weakness. And in our
text the apostle goes on to point out that the Corinthians themselves were
examples of God working in this way. He
says, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of
noble birth.” It was true that most of the
Corinthian believers were of low status – they were poor, women, and slaves.
However,
God had called them. And this choice revealed the way God worked. Paul
says, “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the
wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose
what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not,
to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human
being might boast in the presence of God.”
Paul
tells us that God works in ways that appear foolish. He acts in ways that appear weak. We see this truth on display today in the Feast
of the Baptism of Our Lord. You see it
in John the Baptist’s response to Jesus.
Jesus came to John who was baptizing in the Jordan River. John’s ministry was calling Israel to
repentance. His baptism was a baptism of
repentance – by submitting to John’s baptism people showed they repented of
their sin and were looking for Yahweh’s salvation.
When John saw Jesus he responded, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you
come to me?” In fact John wanted to prevent it from happening. But Jesus said, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for
us to fulfill all righteousness.” We learn that
when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and the heavens
were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and
coming to rest on him. And a voice from
heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Jesus submitted to a baptism of
repentance – a baptism that was for
sinners. At that event the Spirit descended on Jesus and God the Father
spoke words that drew upon Isaiah chapter 42 as the prophet said, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul
delights; I have put my Spirit upon him.”
Jesus is identified as the Servant of the Lord. And the Servant is the One about whom Isaiah
wrote: “But
he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his
own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
The cross may be foolishness to the
world, but Jesus’ baptism was all about the cross. At his baptism, Jesus stepped into your shoes
– a sinner who deserves God’s judgment.
You do because you don’t always obey your parents. You do because you don’t always carry out
your vocation as parent – your calling to teach your children the Christian
faith by what you say and do. You do
because in your jobs you don’t always work as unto the Lord and not unto men.
From the moment of Jesus’ baptism,
his entire ministry was directed towards one goal- it was directed towards the
cross. Jesus repeatedly declared that he
would die. But he also said each time
that he would rise from the dead. Jesus’
words found their fulfillment as he was crucified on Good Friday. He was the Suffering Servant who received the
judgment of God in our place. But then
on Easter, God raised Jesus from the dead.
He vindicated Jesus by showing that what appeared foolish and weak had
in fact been God’s powerful and wise action to save us.
After his resurrection, Jesus
instituted Holy Baptism. He took the baptism administered by John the Baptist
and transformed it into his own as he commanded his Church to baptize “in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
The Corinthians had received baptism
when they became Christians. They had been baptized into Christ. Paul says in our text, “And because of
him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from
God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” Baptized into Christ, the Corinthians now
lived in Christ. They shared in the
saving benefits that Christ had won for them.
What Paul says about the Corinthians
is also true for you. Through baptism
you now live in Christ. You have been joined to the Lord and his saving
work. Christ is the wisdom from God.
What appeared to be the foolishness of the cross is the wisdom of God that
brings salvation.
Christ is the righteousness from
God. He is the saving work of God that
puts all things right. In particular on
account of Christ God has justified you.
He has declared you to be righteous – to be not guilty. You already know the verdict of the Last Day.
Christ is our sanctification. Because of Christ we are now considered holy
by God. In ourselves we are people who
continue to struggle with sin. But as
those who have been baptized into Christ – as those who are in Christ – God
does not see us as sinners. Instead, he
sees us as those who are holy because of what Jesus Christ has done for
us. It is for this reason that Paul
could begin the letter to Corinth by saying: “To the church of God that is in
Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints
together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.”
And Christ is our redemption. We were enslaved to sin. We were held in its power. But Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead
to free us from this slavery. Baptized
into Christ, you now live in Christ. You
receive Christ’s saving work, and so you are redeemed.
Baptized into Christ we have this
new status before God. But this doesn’t
mean that we are free to continue living in any way that we want. Paul says in this letter, “Or do 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, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Paul lists these sins. But then he
goes on to say, “And 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.” Through baptism the Corinthians had been made
holy and had been declared righteous by God.
But of course the implication for them – and for us who have been
baptized – is that we can’t return to living in these sinful ways.
Paul teaches us that Holy Baptism is
the means God uses to assist us in this struggle. He told the Romans, “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.”
Baptized into Christ, we have shared
in his death. But Christ did not remain
dead. Instead, God raised him from the
dead. The apostle says later in Romans,
“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.”
In baptism you received the “washing
of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the
dead. This means that the resurrection
power of the Spirit is already at work in you.
The Spirit is the One who helps you to walk in newness of life – life
that is true to God’s will.
When
we fail in our ongoing struggle with sin, we repent. We repent and turn in faith to our
baptism. In repentance we drown the old
Adam. And by turning to our baptism in
faith we are directing ourselves toward the source of the Spirit’s continuing
work in our life. It is the Spirit who
helps the new man to arise in live in ways that please God.
Paul said that the preaching of
Christ crucified was a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. Why did Paul and the apostles suffer and die
in order to proclaim a message that they knew many would reject as moronic and
absurd? They did so because Jesus Christ
had risen from the dead.
Your baptism is God’s promise that
you too will share in Christ’s resurrection on the Last Day. You have been baptized into the death of
Jesus, who is the risen Lord. Paul told
the Romans about baptism, “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.”
God
acted in Christ in a way that appeared foolish and weak – he acted in the way
of the cross. The Baptism of Our Lord
was the moment when Jesus took on the role of being the suffering Servant – the
One who would die on the cross in our place. Now in delivering the blessings of
Jesus’ work, God continues to act in ways that appear foolish and weak to
many. He uses water applied in his
Triune name. He uses water and the Word
in Holy Baptism. But because this is
God’s gift, it is powerful and saving.
Baptized into Christ we live as those who are in Christ who became to us wisdom from
God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
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