Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

The Baptism of Our Lord in the Jordan River is often marked as the beginning of His public ministry, kicking off about three years of public teaching and performing miracles. We might imagine that Jesus was eager for this ordination so that He might begin the work that He had come to do. We might so look forward to the first day at a new job, or in a new home, or perhaps more to the current time we find ourselves in, the beginning of a New Year, with the desire and resolution to live out our callings with renewed vigour and intention.

 

We also celebrate the Baptisms of our family members in a similar way, although perhaps with not so much directed thought. Sometimes the gathering of family, and the special gifts, and the rite itself become the inspiration of our celebration moreso than the newness of life that has begun. The little saint of God has begun a new life in the family of God—a new life in which he, like Jesus, will confess God in speech and actions publicly before the world. This is the life...

 

...or is it the death? As we heard in our Epistle Reading, St. Paul wrote to the Roman Christians about Baptism not so much as the beginning of life, but moreso, as the end of one. He emphasized this Baptism into death in order to highlight its effect on our life of sin. And he prompted the Roman Christians to bring to mind what they knew from their catechetical instruction about Baptism.

 

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3)? Baptism is just as much the end of a life as it is the beginning of one. We often forget that, even though this familiar passage from Romans lays it out pretty clearly for us. Our union to Christ is not merely to His life of ministry and living out of God’s will. It is also, and begins with, a union to Christ in 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” (v. 4). In order that we might have that new life that we celebrate with vigour and intention, we must be buried with Christ. We must go down into the grave of death with Christ. There is an old life that must be put to death before a new life can begin.

 

Our catechism quotes this passage from St. Paul when asking, “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” (Small Catechism. IV. 4).

 

The new man is certainly there and emerging for us, but only when the old man is first drowned and put to death. St. Paul found he had to emphasize this for the Christians to whom he wrote because there is a tendency to believe that as long as we have been promised the new life of salvation and grace with Christ, then it doesn’t matter if our old man of sin hangs around or not. “Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound” (v. 1)? “Are we to continue in sin because we are not under the law but under grace” (v. 15)? You see, our old Adam in us is always at it, trying to hold on for dear life. He wants to stick with us and not allow us to move on in our new life with vigour and resolution.

 

You have to admit that is the way it is for you as a baptized child of God. The old Adam in you is still urging you to hold onto those sins of the past, not the far distant past but the sins of yesterday. He wants you to repeat them again today, the sins of everyday. He wants you to just keep living the same old way as if it doesn’t matter at all. Your gossip, your addictions, your hateful thoughts, your pride, your lack of care and compassion for others—these are the things that need to be put to death and the very things for which the old Adam refuses to go down without a fight.

 

But if you want to walk with Christ in newness of life, then the oldness of those sins has to be put away. And it requires a fight. You have to fight with your sinful nature with determination and resolve to leave that old way of life and its everyday sins behind. The new life that Baptism gives is there for you, but the old Adam in you must be drowned in your Baptism so that the new man may emerge from the waters.

 

Again, emphasizing what we have learned, St. Paul writes, “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” (v. 6). Our Baptism is a true union with Christ, not only to His resurrected life, but also to His crucifixion, death, and burial. And the reality is that in Holy Baptism our old self was crucified. It died.

 

The tragic life of a slave is that there is no escape except through death. There is no possibility of buying your freedom because you cannot earn anything for yourself. There is no running away because you will be hunted down and brought back. You long only for grace and mercy from your master and if you cannot find any there, then your only means of freedom is in death.

 

That is also what it means to be enslaved to original sin. Our sinful nature is part of our nature. There is no escape from it except through death. Sin is a dreadful taskmaster and offers no hope of grace or mercy and no matter how much you try to run away, it drags you back in. The only way of escape is through death, and that is what Baptism gives.

 

As much as our old man is resistant to this drowning and death of Baptism, our renewed man in Christ rejoices that Baptism is a death. We must die to sin so that it does not hold us any more. In Baptism we have been crucified with Christ. That means that the full payment for sin has been made for us. And we have died so that we are no longer enslaved by sin. Our death sets us free. The old man and the body of sin are left lying impotent in the grave.

 

What all of this means, of course, is that Baptism is just as much a death for us as it is a new life, but a death that we can embrace. And so it was for our Lord Jesus Christ. As He approached the Jordan River to be baptized by John, it was not just a new life of ministry and service that He was looking forward to. He was also looking forward to His death, His crucifixion. His going into the waters of Baptism meant that He was determined to go to the cross and the grave for us.

 

Matthew’s Gospel records that John the Baptist would have prevented Jesus from being baptized (Matthew 3:14). It didn’t seem right to John, that Jesus would need to be baptized. He had no sins of which to repent, no need to turn His life around. Jesus replied that it was necessary for Him to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness” (v. 15). Jesus knew that He must go to cross to fulfill righteousness on our behalf. He needed to die so that the old man in us could be put to death without our suffering for eternity in hell on account of our sins.

 

Jesus went into the waters of Baptism knowing that it meant death for Him and through our union to His death, our emancipation from sin to live life anew, as He lives it in holiness and righteousness before God. It is for this willing walk into the Baptismal waters that led to the cross, that God the Father spoke from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (v. 17).

 

St. Paul’s final reminder of our Baptismal catechesis in today’s reading, is to affirm: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over Him” (Romans 6:9). We know that Christ Jesus rose from the dead and so has conquered death and is under no threat of death. We can give thanks for the dying that Baptism works upon us, so that we too might not be under any threat of death.

 

Death is no longer lord over Christ or over us. It shall not control our actions. It shall not convince us that we can live as those who will die anyway. The world is full of slogans like, “Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” or “You only live once.” Those are slogans that the old man lives by, to justify continuing to satisfy his sinful desires. The truth is that in our Baptism we have already died and the life of eating, drinking, and merriment in sin is behind us so that we may live our new lives with feasting in the true joy of our righteousness, holiness, and salvation in Christ Jesus; a life of joy that is ours now and endures forever, a life of joy that death cannot end.

 

It is not true that you only live once. You have another life to live, a resurrected life. It matters how you live in this life because you have been redeemed to live forever. You have been united to Christ through Baptism so that sin and death do not rule your life to bring it down to hell. In Baptism we die to sin and live to God who gives newness of life for each day.

 

St. Paul reminds us of what we have learned from the Lord, in regard to living as the baptized saints of God. “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?... 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.... We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.... So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:1-11).

 

We can look forward to this New Year and every new day because of what we know about our Baptism into Christ. We can look forward to the first day at a new job, or a new home, or a new medical diagnosis, or a new relationship, or a new baby, or a new government, or whatever new thing comes into our life, with the intent and resolution to live out our calling as God’s baptized children with renewed vigour and intention each day.

 

Dr. C.F.W. Walther, the first president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, in a sermon for New Year’s Day, 1845 preached:

Now then, all of you who believe in God’s Word, let your watchword for entering the new year be this: “I am baptized!” Although the world may laugh at this comfort, the enthusiasts vex its confidence... nevertheless, abandon any dearly held pledges and speak only throughout the entire year to come, in all terrors of conscience and necessity through sin and death: “I am baptized! I am baptized! Hallelujah!” And you shall prevail! In every time of need, you will find comfort in your Baptism; on account of it Satan will flee from your faith and confession; and in death you will see heaven opened and will finally come into the joy of your Lord to celebrate a great year of jubilee, a year of praise, with all the angels forever and ever. Amen!

 

The old year is past, and the old man dies as you confess your sins in the grace of your Baptism. “The old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires.” And the new man can confidently emerge and arise to live in every new situation with the holiness and righteousness we have through our Baptism into Christ.