Ezekiel 36:16-38; Romans 6:1-14
Let’s give our attention now to God’s word. This is Romans chapter six, beginning at verse one. This is the apostle Paul to the church at Rome. And he says this, 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?
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. 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. We know that our old self 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. 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. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments of 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. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but under grace.
Amen. The God, the word of our living God, may he add his blessing to it. When we think of the chronology of the life of our savior, the Lord Jesus, in recent weeks, we have considered his passion, his death, his resurrection. We think of the 40 days where he spent ministering to his disciples, appearing to them. and proving that it was he who indeed was raised from the dead, but also in that period, instructing them in the faith and in the ministry that they would carry forward from Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. We call that his great commission before Jesus. rose up into glory and took his seat in heaven. He gives the great commission, we find it at the end of Matthew, and he tells his disciples to, or his apostles, his disciples to go into the world and make disciples, baptize and teach. And so how does God, uh, rule and reign over his church as he’s ascended into heaven? Uh, he rules and reigns through his, uh, disciples, uh, who are on earth, uh, making disciples as they go in the world, as they baptize and as they teach.
Now we come to this question of improving our baptism. And we might think in our heads, we’ve been baptizing for 2000 years. We ought to be pretty good at it. We’ve been baptizing for 2000 years. And, you know, you go around all the places in antiquity where churches were and they excavate the sites and there’s baptismal fonts, there’s pools and waters of baptism. So how is it we improve? Is it the technique? Is it the how much you put on? Or if you’re a dunker, how wet they get? Is it? in the South, how much chicken salad we serve, that sort of thing.
What is the message here that we want to hear about improving our baptism and our catechism based on Romans chapter six, which we just read and based on so many other places in the scripture encourages us that our needful duty But our often neglected duty is to improve our baptisms.
And there’s really two occasions the catechism gives as teaching for when are those occasions where we might improve our baptisms. The first occasion would be when we are in the time of temptation. Martin Luther would say when he was harassed by Satan and tempted by his own evil desires, he would say, behold, I am baptized and I believe in Christ crucified. And so historically, one of the ways believers can improve their baptism is under temptation, under trials to remember that we are baptized into the name of Christ Jesus who was crucified for us. Well, when is the other occasion where we ought to improve our baptisms?
It’s a day like today when we are present at the administration of it to others. Now I can imagine in this room right now, we’ve got people who were baptized in various ways under various traditions, And you’ve got lots of things swirling in your head. Now I mentioned earlier, baptism is first and foremost in the covenant view, entrance into the covenant community.
It marked Israel out from the Gentiles. If you were a Gentile, you were uncircumcised. In fact, you come to the New Testament and who are the two categories of people that Paul goes and preaches to? He goes to the Jew first. And then to the Gentile or the uncircumcised second. And so in the old covenant world, if you were circumcised, you were a Hebrew, you were a follower of Yahweh, or at least in that covenant community. But if you were uncircumcised, you were cast out or not a part of God’s kingdom.
And so we don’t think of it this way, at least not very often, because I think baptism for a lot of us is something that was done a really long time ago, and it involved you know, a cute dress for a boy or a girl and chicken salad afterwards, right? But for us, we are either in this world baptized or unbaptized. That should be a distinction that is in our heads and in our hearts. I am a baptized child of God, or I am among those who are not baptized. We don’t think of it that way, but we perhaps should. It’s the way the old covenant thought, circumcised or not, Perhaps it’s the way we should be thinking as New Covenant people. There is a distinction.
You belong to the Lord or you do not. But I imagine every one of us has different thoughts swirling around in our heads. And I encourage you in this way. G.I. Williamson, who is a Presbyterian theologian who passed away in recent years, many of you have used his study guide in the Westminster Confession of Faith.
He says, baptism is a whole bunch of things. And he says, it’s like a moving picture show. And you can’t begin to understand or explain all of the pictures of baptism in just one paragraph, just one statement, just one sentence. Baptism is so many things, but we wanna think of it in light of the need to improve it. So in the time of temptation or when we’re present at the administration of it to others. And I want us to think of five things that I believe pop up in the larger catechism.
First is I am baptized. Second, I am dirty. Third, I am clean. Okay, that’s confusing. Fourth, I am strong. And fifth and finally, I am holy. So I am baptized, I am dirty, I am clean, I am strong, and I am holy. So first, we want to think briefly about I am baptized. How do we improve our baptism?
It’s the neglected duty. It’s the needful duty. Well, we remember we are baptized people and we consider the nature of it. We consider the ends for which Christ instituted it. We consider the privileges of being baptized. We consider the benefits that are given to us. And then we remember our solemn vows that we are engaged to be the Lord’s. Well, I am baptized.
What does that mean? It means that you have been washed with water. Nora and Jonah and Judah were washed with water. Did that wash away their sins? No. What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. So the washing with water signifies the washing with the blood of Jesus.
It signifies being made new again by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. And so I am baptized means yes, I have been washed with water in the name of the triune God. It means I have been engrafted into Jesus Christ. I have been enfolded into the family of God. It means remission of sins. It means regeneration by the Holy Spirit. It means adoption into the family of God. It means resurrection.
And so when we think of our baptism, whether our parents presented us as infants, perhaps we went to the YMCA swimming pool and got baptized there or in a a local lake or pond or in a dunking booth at a church, had the Hall River in the picture in the background and all the rest, done in the name of the triune God, simply put, you belong to Jesus.
You belong to God. And so you should, like Martin Luther during times of temptation, remember, I am a baptized person and I believe in the crucified Jesus Christ. That was Luther’s way of saying to Satan, buzz off, get lost, leave me alone. There are plenty of worldlings you can mess with, but not me. I am a baptized person.
And as a baptized person, we give thanks to God for the washing away of our sins. We give thanks to God for the church of Jesus to further grow us in our faith. We give thanks to God for the privileges of being his child and not an orphan in this world. We give thanks to God for all the blessings that are ours by being in covenant with him. Put it simply, remember God’s promise to Abraham, grapes, and grandkids. So I am baptized. Second thing we want to think of is I am dirty. OK, you just said we got washed. You just said we got baptized. But we want to remember as we improve our baptisms, that we are indeed dirty.
What happens in the Christian life when we have the remaining sin and corruption in us? We are humbled. As we see our sinful defilement, Now, in our confession of faith class, we’ve talked a number of times. Why does God leave remnants of sin and corruption in us? If he could have cleaned it all out, if he could have wiped it all away, why are there remnants of sin and corruption in us? Now, remember, our sins are pardoned in Jesus. Our sins are subdued in our sanctification. But there are remnants of sin in us.
Paul refers to this in his letters as the flesh. live by the spirit and not the flesh, but we have remnants of sin, remnants of corruption, the flesh. And so we can say, yes, I am baptized, but yes, I am also dirty. There are remnants of sinful defilement in me.
And every day I fall short of every day. I walk contrary to the grace of baptism. Now you might say, boy, the preacher hasn’t read any Dale Carnegie. He does not know how to win friends and influence people, right? I got to tell you the bad news. We are dirty.
We have sin in us, remnants of corruption. And every day we struggle against those remnants of sin, the flesh. Every day we struggle against the world. Every day we struggle against the same devil that tormented Martin Luther, that Protestant theologian. And so as we recollect our sin, our defilement, our falling short of and our walking contrary to the duty We also must remember that we are clean.
I am clean. I am baptized. I am dirty. Third, I am clean. And we grow up in the assurance of pardon of sin. What is our little saying in here that we’ve stolen it, right? We borrowed it from the Heidelberg as we should. God sees me in justification, just as if I… Oh, y’all are so happy about it. Just as if I… And just as if I… Always obeyed. That is our level of cleanness in Jesus Christ. God sees us as if we have never sinned.
And as if we’ve always obeyed last Monday, the men in the confession of faith class looked at the statement in our confession of faith that says God hates all sin and by no means will clear the guilty. That’s a really sobering statement. But what we looked at is that, yes, there is a means by which God will clear the guilty.
And that is that the sins. of God’s people are laid on Jesus at the cross, just as the high priest in the old covenant would put his hands on the scapegoat’s head and impute the sins of Israel. And once a year on the day of atonement, send that scapegoat out in the wilderness to die with the sins of the people with him.
So Jesus had our sins laid on him at the cross. And if we put our faith in Jesus, we put our hope and trust in Christ alone for our salvation, our sins indeed have been imputed or credited to Jesus. And when he died the death of all deaths on Calvary, our sins were paid for. We were crucified with him and payment was made. Our sins were nailed on that cross with him.
And so when we say, I am dirty, we also can turn right around and say, I am clean. And we are to grow up in that assurance of pardon of sin. We are to be assured as we go through temptation, as we witness the baptism of others, we are to be assured more and more by the promises of God and the scriptures that God has indeed made us clean. Satan will tempt you to despair. Satan will accuse you and remind you of everything you’ve done. Your own conscience will plead with you of your guilt. And we must run always, constantly, every moment of every day to Jesus and be reminded that in him we are clean and cleansed and holy.
We are baptized. Yes, we are dirty, but there is that fountain that will cleanse us. Well, the fourth thing we must say, we are strong. So I am baptized, I am dirty, I am clean, but fourth, I am strong. And that strength comes as we draw from the death and resurrection of Jesus. We draw strength to live the Christian life. It is into Christ we are baptized. But it is through the power of Jesus we are enabled more and more in the Christian life to put to death what is earthly in us, to put to death the sins that so easily cling to us and cause us not to run the Christian race well.
I mentioned just a moment ago that in Christ we are justified. That’s a legal, Declaration by God, the judge that in Christ, your sins are forgiven. God sees you just as if you’ve never sinned. He sees you just as if you’ve always obeyed. But there’s another word, another theological word we like comes from the Bible. That’s the sanctification word. God is in the business of sanctifying us our whole life long.
By his spirit, through the new nature we’ve been given by resurrection, we are able to hate what is evil and we are able to obey God and to measure up to his standard only by his grace, only by his spirit. But we live a struggle of a life. We struggle with sin. We struggle with obeying God. We struggle with the world. We struggle with living for the celestial city. We struggle with allegiance to the evil one. And we struggle with following the Lord Jesus. And we must remember that it is only by the strength of Jesus that we can live the Christian life. It’s only by the strength of Jesus that we can put to death sin and mortify the flesh. It is only by God’s grace we can live the Christian life.
You can put sticky notes on your bathroom mirror. You can put Bible verses in your car. You can put promise rings on. You can wear a cross. You can go to this conference. You can make this pledge. And what does Paul say to the Colossian church? These things will not stop the flesh. We need the grace and the strength of Jesus Christ. And it’s in him we can say, I am strong. I can fight off as I wear the whole armor of God. I can fight off these things. So we are baptized. We are dirty. We are clean. We are strong. The final thing we want to think about is we are holy. Our goal, according to the larger catechism, if we want to improve our baptism, our goal should be to endeavor to live a life by faith that is a life of holiness and righteousness. Now, I know that what I’m saying is kind of pie in the sky, easier said than done. The Christian life is brutal. Our walk with Jesus is difficult and it’s because of our weakness.
It’s because of our influence from the world and the temptations of the devil. We’re like Edmund in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia. We love Turkish delight. And when it’s offered to us, we will walk headlong into the witch’s lair and get frozen in sin. Our struggle is we love this world. We love what it offers. We love the shiny trappings.
And we’ve got to remind ourselves we are baptized. We belong to Jesus and it’s in his strength that we live. But we’ve got to remember we are holy. The name of God has been placed upon us. The waters of baptism signify that cleansing that is ours by faith in Jesus. And so we are baptized, we are dirty, we are clean, we are strong, we are holy. And so as we live the Christian life, we need not neglect our duty of improving our baptism. We need to nurture our understanding of it, we need to be thankful for the blessings of it, and we need to live as clean children of the living God.
Some of you perhaps grew up in a day where your parents might shame you, And where you come home from school with a bad grade, you come home from school, maybe gotten in trouble. And your parents said something to you like no child of mine would ever do something like that. And you’re thinking, well, he did or she did. But what did your parents mean?
You bear our name, you represent us. And I think the same is true, maybe much more so when we bear the name of Jesus. When we bear the name of Jesus, we should remember what God would say, no child of mine. And that’s possible through the strength of the Savior, Jesus. It’s possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s possible as we are nurtured in the word.
You will never be perfect in this life. Perfection only comes when we are glorified, when we are safely brought home into the heavenly city. But if we are baptized and we rest in the strength of Jesus, We discipline our lives in such a way that we’re in church, we’re receiving the sacraments, we’re praying people, we’re fellowshipping people, we’re thoughtful people. It’s gonna go a lot better.
And so brothers and sisters, let me challenge you to think this way. You were dirty, but you are now clean through Jesus. You are getting more holy through the work of the spirit and the washing of the word. In Christ, you are indeed strong. And as you march to heaven, endeavor to live as baptized children of the living God.
Let’s pray for God’s help. Father, we thank you for the chance to be your children. What a privilege and what a standing it is. As we want to improve our baptisms, remind us today of all the things that are true, but remind us of our needful but often neglected duty. Give us the desire, the strength to no longer neglect this duty, but to seek to know you and your word and your ways and your promises more.
We ask that by your grace, day by day, we would hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good, as far as it is possible, be at peace with all men, help us to live for you and for your glory. May our hearts beat with a heavenly beat. Lord, wean us from this present world. Remind us this present evil age is not to last, but put our eyes on the heavenly city where you dwell and where there are saints who have gone before us, who’ve been made perfect and righteous. And may we look with great joy to our arrival through those gates. Bless us now, we pray in the name of Jesus, our great savior, and all God’s people said, amen.