Through Baptism, You Are Dead to Sin But Alive to God in Christ Jesus!

When you hear the plastic crack as it hits the floor or see the pile of doll hair on the ground, your heart drops. One of the new Christmas presents is broken beyond repair and must be thrown out. Then the tears come as the meaning of loss hits a child, but the tears of loss are not for children alone.

You know the feeling when you realize something has been forever changed for the worse. As adults we experience the loss of trivial things like a shattered phone screen or burnt dinner. Of course, in the moment these things do not seem trivial, and we may even invoke the name of God in these trivial moments, which shows the depth of our sinful lack of control over showing honor to God’s name. The depth of our sinfulness is what causes loss and important things in our lives to change for the worse, but that has all been changed through Jesus. The good news of the gospel is the answer to our sinfulness as we hear in Romans 3, 22 … There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The grace of God is all inclusive as we heard in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 49, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” God’s salvation has reached across time and across the world to you. Jesus was the servant spoken of by Isaiah who brought salvation to all. Through Jesus everything in our lives has been fixed even our future sins. This means we do not have to worry about sin anymore; we can just go on sinning without a worry or care because God will forgive us. In fact, you can think of Jesus as a credit card with no limit to the amount of sin you can charge to it because the balance was paid off long ago at the cross and guaranteed by the empty tomb. If something about the direction this train of thought went does not sound right, then you understand what Paul was writing to the Romans about in our New Testament reading from Romans 6.

Paul begins Romans 6 with the point that your baptism is not an excuse to sin. In the first five chapters of Romans, Paul makes very clear that there is no difference in how all people are saved by the grace, redemption and justification that came by Jesus. Building on this solid foundation for how we have been saved by God, he begins Romans 6 with an application question, 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? In other words, do we treat Jesus like a sin credit card and charge as much sin as we can since it is all forgiven? And Paul responds immediately,

2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Paul makes it clear that baptism is not an excuse or enabler for sin; we are not saved so that we are now free to sin. If you want a picture of what Paul is writing, then picture yourself going to the gym in keeping with your New Year’s resolution getting sweaty and stinky, then caving on the way home and ordering onion rings and garlic fries with ranch dipping sauce eating all of this in the car spilling some on yourself and wiping your dirty hands on your shirt, then on the way into your house slipping in the mud getting covered in mud. Once inside and in the bathroom, you take all the dirty clothes off and shower. But then instead of putting on new clean clothes, you put the sweaty, body odor, fast food onion garlic ranch infused, muddy clothes back on. You would never do that! And Paul said that it is the same with baptism and going back to sin.

Through your baptism, you are dead to sin. Through your baptism, when sin texts you, sin gets the same response it would get from someone who is dead, nothing. You are dead to sin because through baptism, you were connected to Christ. And Christ died for our sins and was buried; his payment or redemption was sealed in the tomb. In our Gospel reading from Mark 1, we hear that Jesus began his ministry by being baptized and God the Father and the Holy Spirit both indicated Jesus as the holy, sinless Son of God,

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Jesus lived without sin so that he could take your sins to the cross and pay for them with his innocent life. So, you died to sin and were buried. But Christ was also raised from the dead. And Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are the power of baptism. It is not something you do for God, but what God does for you. Through your baptism, God gives you the benefits of Christ’s resurrection in the forgiveness of your sins, your own resurrection and eternal life in heaven. Plus, you have been raised from the waters of your baptism to live a new life here on earth.

We live in freedom from sin since we died to it. Paul goes on to talk about our freedom from sin in Romans 6,

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

Through baptism, our old self or sinful nature was crucified setting us free from its rule over our lives. Our sinful nature still lives in us while we are on earth; it will not be part of us in heaven. Paul’s point here is that the sinful nature is no longer seated on the throne of our hearts dictating what we think, say and do. In sin’s place, God rules in our hearts, so we are now free to use our bodies to God’s good purpose and not to use our bodies to sin.

God will bring us who have died with Christ to live with him. In your baptism, there is a direct connection between what Christ did and what he does as we read in Romans 6,

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

Since Christ allowed himself to be sacrificed as a payment for sin in death and was raised, he cannot die again; he has proved his power, mastery and lordship over death. With his mission to save us complete he lives forever serving God. Through baptism, we have been given this same new life as we read in the last verse from our New Testament reading from Romans 6, 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. This is the answer to the question Paul asked at the beginning of Romans 6, 1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? No, we are baptized and therefore we are dead to sin and live to God. For the first time in his letter to the Romans, Paul gives a command in verse 11, “count” or “consider.” After writing in great detail how we are saved, Paul tells us to do something. His command is not a law to be obeyed out of fear or a work to be done to save ourselves. Instead, it is an encouragement to live in all the freedom and blessedness of God’s gracious gift and power done to us in our baptism. As you consider how to think, speak, act and live, Paul encourages you to consider all that it means to be dead to sin and alive in Christ. In Christ your faith is kept alive not by a quick read or attempt at remembering Scripture or what your baptism means, but a deep dive, consideration and study of the Bible. Paul’s encouragement to you as a baptized child of God is to approach what God has given you in baptism and in Scripture as a full course meal spread on a long table so rich, decadent, filling, satisfying, healthy, good, fresh, etc. that you run from the dining room, open the door and throw your phone and other distractions outside and lock the door so that you can spend the time feeding your soul.

A broken Christmas present brings tears to the eyes of a child fearing it is lost beyond repair. Christmas gifts we appreciate then are gifts like tape, glue and tools to fix gifts so that they are not thrown out, but those are trivial things. The true Christmas gift is Christ who was born to save us from sin, death and hell fixing us for eternity. Jesus gave you the gift of life through your baptism. Through baptism, you were connected to Christ who died for your sins and rose to declare you forgiven. Through baptism, you were also connected to Christ who replaced sin as the ruler of your heart so that you live to do the good God made you to do. When tempted to go back to the broken sinful way of living, consider, study deeply all God has done for you and to you in your baptism. Through baptism, you are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Amen.