Sermon Transcript:

In my other job, I deal with people from all over the world. A few years ago, one of my business associates from Taiwan called the office to talk to a guy named Steve who told him that he would need to call him back because he was busy that morning putting out fires. Concerned, and thinking the building was on fire, our Taiwanese friend began reaching out to everyone to make sure we were ok and that we got Steve out safely.

We had to explain to him that in American English, putting out fires was a figure of speech, Steve was fine and nobody was in any danger. We had a good laugh about it but this raises an important point. A good idiom, illustration, or metaphor can often help a listener better understand something than simply telling them facts, but unless we understand the point of connection, they can actually confuse and make it harder to understand.

For example, saying you are putting out fires is a vivid way to communicate the urgency and stress of trying to quickly take care of something before it becomes a bigger problem but is confusing to someone who doesn’t realize your intent. 

Since biblical faith deals with spiritual and internal realities the language of believers is saturated with figures of speech that, while helpful to those trying to understand the concepts, can be confusing to those who are not familiar with them. For example, we have records of ancient Romans who were horrified to hear Christians share a ritual meal involving eating flesh and drinking blood. Others were appalled to learn we celebrated love between brothers and sisters. 

You have to admit that some of the things we say sound pretty strange out of context. Who would want to crucify their flesh or be washed in the blood of the lamb without understanding what these mean? We are taking a break from Judges this morning to celebrate a baptism. 

When we explain what baptism symbolizes we tend to use a lot of figurative language. Baptism involves outward acts that display through symbols inward spiritual realities. To go down into the water and come back up illustrates the washing away of sin, that they have died and been buried with Jesus, that they have been born again and raised to walk in newness of life. In Romans 6:1–4, the apostle Paul says,

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.

We see each of these concepts in this passage. We see that the believers' relationship with sin has changed. We have in some sense died with Jesus. He says we have been raised to new life, which is to be born again. All of these flow from being united to Jesus by faith. 

First let’s look at how our relationship to sin changes when we put our faith in Jesus. In our main passage Paul doesn’t specifically mention washing because he is focused on the Christian life afterward, but he mentions baptism, which is the symbol of that washing. Paul makes the connection in Acts 22:16 where he says,

16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

But what does it mean to have our sins washed away? Sins are not physical objects that can be scrubbed or rinsed. The act of being cleaned in water is an illustration of something deeper. Physical water cannot cleanse spiritual filth. It is not the water that results in our sins being washed away, but the sacrifice of Jesus. By going into the water a person is testifying that they have placed their trust in God to remove their sins.

Baptism isn’t a claim about what we have done but about what God has done. Our participation is merely a testimony of our faith that God has cleansed us of our sins on account of what Jesus has done for us. That is why 1 Peter 3:21 says baptism saves us…

21 …not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

This doesn’t mean believers will never sin again. In fact, it is a sin to deny that we are sinners. What we are talking about is the record of our sin. It means that in the courtroom of heaven we are declared innocent because the record of our sin has been expunged. It is removed. 

Imagine there is a giant chalkboard where all our sins are recorded. When we place our faith in Jesus it is as if he comes along with a sponge and washes the board clean. We now have a clean record and we stand before God with no charges against us. We are released from the penalty of the law because none of the evidence is admissible.

Our record is clean, but we can still sin and we must still ask forgiveness, but we do so in the confidence that God keeps his promise to remember them no more. 1 John 1:8–10 says,

8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

The sin of every believer is therefore washed away because of our faith in the effectiveness of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Baptism symbolizes our confidence in God’s promise that he does this for us. Therefore, while in this world we are at the same time both sinners and saints. We may still fall into sin, but we also possess righteousness. It is a righteousness we did not earn, it is a righteousness that has been given to us by grace. Our identity is no longer that of a sinner, but that of a saint with a clean record. We have a new identity. That brings us to the next point.

In our main passage the apostle says believers are baptized into the death of Jesus. He says we should not sin because we have died with Jesus Christ. Later this morning when Mike goes under that water, he is entering a grave. He is telling us that he has already died and been buried with Jesus. But when he comes back up, he is still going to be Mike and he won’t be suddenly perfect, so what do we mean that he has died with Christ?

As John Owen said, “to kill a man, or any other living thing, is to take away the principle of all his strength, vigor, and power, so that he cannot act, or exert, or put forth any proper actions of his own.” To die is to lose all our power and agency and the claim is not simply that the person being baptized has died, but they have died with Jesus Christ. It means it is the cross that has killed them.

Everything we naturally do is for Self. Even the good things we do are motivated by and undertaken in the strength of Self. We cannot do otherwise for there is no way for one who loves Self to act in any other way, it is what we are.  Jeremiah 13:23 says,

23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

People are not sinners because they commit sins, they commit sins because they are sinners. Our every desire and act, apart from the killing grace of God, is infected with Self and thus denies God as creator and king. We are all born hopelessly infected with a love of Self. The Bible says our very wills are inescapably corrupted and enslaved to sin. This is what makes religion so dangerous because we are tempted to turn even good things into sins by doing them in the power of our flesh, that is Self, rather than by the Spirit. 

Every living thing has a survival instinct. The old Self will violently resist being nailed to the cross. He will struggle and heave with all his strength to keep himself alive and he is very persuasive in his arguments. He is content to hide in the comfortable and polite morality of spiritless religion. It is not pretty business putting something to death, but the Bible says that in order to live, we must die. The old man, the flesh, Self, must be killed by the cross. This means we must come to see we are truly guilty, that our best works truly deserve punishment, to be humbled before a holy God. The cross of Christ must drive us to despair of all our works. All the claims of Self upon God must be put to death.

To find salvation we must cease trying to defend ourselves. We must give up being champions of Self. We must quit campaigning for our own will to have some glory in salvation. We must die.  To die this way is to recognize that in terms of salvation and spiritual fruit, we can do nothing but receive so that God, and God alone gets all the glory. Jesus says in John 15:4–5,

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

To be fruitful, we must die. This is a very uncomfortable thing to experience. I fear many people who call themselves Christians don’t know anything about it. It doesn’t come by signing a card or repeating a prayer. It comes to those who meet the risen Christ in all his glory. It is not comfortable, but it brings freedom. Freedom from the condemnation of the law, but also freedom from the power of sin. It is a wonderful freedom to live as one who is already dead.

What is it that the devil tempts us with? What are those things that cause us to stumble and to fall into sin? Are they not those very things that appeal to our old identity, to Self? What is it that keeps us enslaved to the world, if not the desires of the old man?

We sin because of pride. We think we are better than others or deserve greater glory than we have received. But if our identity is that we live as one who is dead, how can pride operate? If I am dead, I am less capable and lower than the weakest and meakest. If I have died, why should anyone pay attention to me?

We sin because of fear. What if I lose everything? What if my family is hurt? What if they think I am a fool? But if I am dead, I have nothing to lose. If I am dead, I know that I cannot protect everyone else in my strength, I must trust God to do it. If I have been crucified, what do I care what anyone thinks of me? There is nothing they can take from me because I have nothing but Christ, and nothing can separate me from him.

If we understand we are dead to the world we no longer seek pleasure in that drink, that drug, that man or woman, that pornography, that frivolous wastefulness, or ungodly entertainment. We no longer need to be important or recognized. The world has no capacity to satisfy us if we are dead. That is why Romans 6:11 says,

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Imagine brothers and sisters how bold and fruitful our ministry could be if we truly lived as those who have died with Christ! Imagine what a powerful testimony would ring through our nation if we followed Christ so radically and without fear or hesitation. We need to stop pretending the church is a psychological project or a social club to make everyone comfortable and return to boldly proclaiming to the world that Christ alone can save, and he is worth suffering and dying for!

Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, witnessing the rise of the Nazi’s and seeing the compromises of the church in Germany with the political powers, wrote a book in the late 1930’s called The Cost of Discipleship. I don’t agree with everything he says, but he had a profound insight into what this meant. The most famous line in that book is 

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo April 5, 1943. He was eventually hanged to death in Flossenbürg concentration camp in 1945 just a few weeks before the camp was liberated.

Someone may be listening and thinking this all a bit dark. It isn’t, but I understand. It is not natural to embrace being humbled or to accept suffering and loss in this world as something good. Really who could honestly live that way? That brings us to the next point.

Not only does baptism illustrate being crucified with Christ, but also being resurrected with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him not only come and die, but die so that they may receive a new life, an eternal life. To die to the flesh and the world is to be truly alive for the first time. Just as a seed needs to be buried in order to produce fruit, we also need for Self to be buried to bear the fruit of eternal life. Romans 8:11 says,

11 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.

By faith we are killed by the Cross but also receive new life by the Holy Spirit. There will come a day when our physical bodies will be resurrected like Jesus, but even now, believers are already participating in the resurrection life because the Spirit is already at work in our lives. It is this gracious work of the Spirit that transforms us into a new creation. It is also this work of the Spirit that enables us to die to sin. The new birth and the death are connected. Listen carefully to what Romans 8:13–14 says,

13 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. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

As we have seen, living a life of faith is a continual putting to death the deeds and impulses of the old identity, which this verse calls the flesh. Notice, however, how this is done. This is critical. “If, by the Spirit, we put to death the deeds of the body.” The promised result, “you will live” is to those who use the appointed means “by the Spirit”. We cannot try to overcome our sin through the strength of Self. The flesh will not kill itself. That means we cannot use external rules to do it. The law cannot deliver us from sin, only the gospel can do that.

Most of the advice we receive from the world, and sadly from many confused Christians regarding growth is to just try harder or follow certain procedures. Hundreds of books are in the Christian bookstores telling you to just copy some set of steps someone else did. Trying harder won’t work. It might make you a more convincing hypocrite, but it won’t make you holy and it won’t give you the peace and joy you seek.

Let me tell you what often happens doing that. We sin and then we feel guilty and convicted so we are determined we will not fall into that sin again. We muster up all the discipline we can and we focus on avoiding that sin with all our strength. We may go for some time on our own strength without committing the sin again. But then like a dam breaking, it happens again and the cycle of grief and guilt is even deeper so we try to collect even more discipline and the process starts all over.

Or, even worse, we have enough natural discipline that we do avoid that sin through sheer determination which only means we have diverted the sinful intent of our heart from that thing to pride and self-sufficiency. This is a form of thinking we can deal with our own sin. It is the old Self convincing us he doesn’t need to die. This is trying to be sanctified, or holy, through the law that Jesus already fulfilled on your behalf.

The gospel teaches us that the key to overcoming sin is to stop focusing on the sin and to focus instead on Jesus Christ. The more we focus on a particular sin, the more distracted we are from the real issue, which is that this sin has already been dealt with. The record is clean, the power of it is broken because we have died to it, and the desire for it has been replaced with a greater desire for something better through the new birth. The key to overcoming sin is to be so filled with satisfaction by what God has given and promised that the appeal of the sin is progressively weakened.

Don’t focus on the sin, focus on Jesus Christ. Fill yourself daily with satisfaction in Jesus.Focus on how much better and more satisfying he is than anything else. When you are tempted with a specific sin, think about whatever Satan is offering compared to what God offers. If I go to Kroger when I am hungry, I end up with a cart full of things that aren’t good for me. But if I am full and satisfied, I am not tempted by those things and I come home with what I actually need.

And should we stumble, we rest in the promise of God that he forgives those with repentant hearts, that Jesus has already satisfied God’s wrath against our sin and broken the cycle of guilt. To be born again, or raised to walk in the newness of life simply means that God has changed the desires of our heart so we are no longer enslaved to sin. It means that there is now a love for God and truth that was not there before. This is the New Covenant God promised in Ezekiel 36:25–27,

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Baptism is an illustration that we have been sprinkled clean and have received this new spirit. The law is no longer an external boundary or burden. We do what the law requires willingly because our hearts are now filled with love. You don’t lie, steal, cheat, and kill those you love not because it is against the law, but because you don’t want to.

To be born again, or to be raised to walk in newness of life is to be transformed in our thinking and affections. As we have seen, the flesh will resist, but this is God’s work and so we can be confident in it. If it were merely up to me, I would mess it up, but the life of faith is the working out of a promise of God. Ephesians 1:13–14 says of Jesus,

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

If you have saving faith in Jesus then your inheritance in glory is guaranteed. God himself has pledged it to be so. Our sins are washed away, the record against us has been removed by the death of Jesus. We have died to Self, having been crucified with him. We have received new life by his power that is at work in us applying all his benefits until that great day when our bodies will be raised in glory as well. On that day, we will be perfected. The work of salvation will be complete, we will no longer be at the same time sinners and saints, just saints. Holy ones blessed to be in the presence of God for all eternity. Titus 3:3–7 says it this way,

3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This is what baptism testifies about. Jesus the righteous one died so that we would be saved. He paid the price. He was innocent but was crucified on a cross for our sins. He was buried because of our transgressions. But three days later, he rose victorious proving God’s justice was satisfied. Then he returned to heaven where he had come from, but he is coming again to establish his kingdom. If you believe these truths and accept this sacrifice, you will be saved. Your sins will be washed away, your condemned life will be nailed to his cross, he will give you new life and a place with him forever.

Mike, as you prepare to testify to your faith this morning I pray that today and for the rest of your time on earth your testimony and reality will be the great truth the apostle Paul shared in Galatians 2:20,

20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Amen