Sovereign Grace Baptist Church
Date: 1-10-99
Sermon Number: #31
Text: Romans 6:3-4
Baptized and Buried
Having just set before our eyes the wonders of Sovereign, redeeming, grace sufficient to blot out the greatest of sins the Apostle answers a serious question. (Rom 6:1-13 NASB) "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? {2} May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? {3} Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized (immersed in or placed) into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? {4} Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that (or to the end) that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. {5} For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, {6} knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, (By faith we have participated in the death of Christ.) that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; {7} for he who has died (in and with Christ on the cross) is freed from sin. {8} Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, {9} knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. {10} For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. {11} Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, (separate from it) but alive (or joined) to God in Christ Jesus. {12} Therefore (because these things are true of you as a Christian) do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, {13} and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God (to whom you have been joined by faith) as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God."
In our last lesson we discovered that it is God's will that all the saved become Christ like in every way. The first few verses of this chapter tell us what God has done to insure that this comes to pass. In verses one and two Paul tells us that it is possible to live a Christ like life because we have died to sin. In other words we are no longer slaves of sin, self, or the devil. We have a new master, we have been made slaves of God and of righteousness. Remember, death means separation. When, in Adam, we sinned against God, we died to God. We were instantly separate from Him because we were dead in sin. Likewise when we believed in Christ we died to sin. We are now separate from sins power. We are free to walk away from all temptation and sin by the grace and power of God in us.
However, the Christian is not free from sin's influence. Romans seven describes the reality of the Christian's day to day life. We wrestle and fight and struggle against sin, the flesh, and the devil. We are not free from sin's influence. We are free from sin's penalty and we are free from sin's power. Therefore, though he must struggle and fight, the Christian need not and will not live a sinful life, he is free to live for God.
In verses three and four, which are the focus of this lesson, Paul continues to speak about the death Christians have experienced. But he brings in a new idea, baptism into Christ and His death. Lets read verses three and four once again.
{3} "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? {4} Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
Here we are told that our death to sin was brought about by God's act of baptizing us into Christ and into His death. PAUL IS NOT TALKING ABOUT WATER BAPTISM. He is talking about a spiritual baptism with which ALL true believers have been baptized. This is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We are baptized by the Spirit INTO Christ and, therefore, INTO His redemptive work. Being IN Him we become PARTAKERS of His death, burial, and resurrection. Today we focus on our participation in His death. As He died for our sin we died with Him to sin's penalty and power because we were and are in Him by faith.
You see the death of our Lord had a two fold purpose with reference to sin. The first is described in chapters three through five and has to do with our acts of sin. Jesus paid the penalty which the law demanded for our many acts of sin. Secondly Jesus died with reference to our sin nature. These two aspects of Christ's death are described in Romans 6:10-11 NASB. "For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. {11} Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Being in Christ and being partakers of His death we are now free from any penalty for our acts of sin. We will not experience the wrath of God. But secondly, by that same death, we have the right to consider our selves dead to sin and alive to God. Our death in Christ has set us free from the rule and dominion our sin nature once help over us. By the blood of Christ we have been justified and we shall be sanctified.
The hymn we sang this morning, "Rock of Ages", expresses these two truths quite well when it says. "Let the water and the blood, from Thy wounded side which flowed, be of sin the DOUBLE CURE, save from wrath and make me pure." Do you see it? Save from wrath is the justification spoken of in Romans three twenty-one through chapter five and verse eleven. This is Jesus freeing us from the penalty of death for our acts of sin by the shedding of His blood. Make me pure, is the sanctification that God promises and then commands us to pursue. This sanctification is God washing us with the water of the word by the work of the Spirit. In this way He cleans up our thoughts and deeds a little more each day. This double cure takes place because the believer has been baptized into Christ and into His death and has therefore died to the power of sin.
The word baptize is used in and out of scripture to describe the immersion of a person or thing. The village black smith baptizes a piece of hot iron when he immerses it in water to cool or temper it. In the Greek version of the Old Testament the word is used to describe the priest dipping his finger into a bowl of blood seven times with a view to sprinkling it before the Lord. Further, in Luke sixteen twenty-four the rich man asks if Lazarus could dip his finger in water so as to cool his tongue. The word dip comes from the word we translate baptize. By considering the various uses of the word we are able to determine its meaning in Romans six.
Here the word refers to the act of God the Holy Spirt whereby He places a believing sinner into a vital union with Jesus Christ so that the believer becomes a partaker of all that Christ has done and all that He is. The believer enters into Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and in fact becomes the very righteousness of God in Christ. Once he is "IN" Christ the power of his sinful nature is broken and a new, God loving, sin hating, scripture and righteousness hungry nature, is planted within him. This is the result of being baptized into Christ and His death.
Again I must remind you that Paul is not speaking of water baptism. A line must be drawn between the two. Water baptism cannot put us into Christ but Spirit baptism can and does. John the Baptist made the difference between the two very clear. ""And I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, (he speaks of Jesus) this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit." (John 1:33 NASB) This Spirit baptism accomplishes what no water baptism can. Hear the words of 1 Cor 12:13 NASB.
"For by one Spirit (God the Holy Spirit) we were ALL baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." God the Holy Spirit baptizes all believing sinners into one body, the body, the person of Jesus Christ. "Therefore, (says the Apostle in our text for today) we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." (Rom 6:4 NASB)
Christ died with reference to sins penalty and power and, being in Him, so did we. Christ was buried so were we. Christ rose from the dead and so have all believing sinners risen from the dead. We are no longer dead to God, bound by sin, or lying powerless in the grave. No, we've been set free because we died with Christ. We are free to live for God and we have a new nature to prod us along. We are no longer dead in trespasses and sins we have risen with Christ to "Walk in newness of Life." We have been raised from the dead that we might subject ourselves to our new Master, to a new set of desires, to our new and divine nature which is intent on leading us in paths of righteousness for His names sake.
This new nature is spoken of in several texts in the New Testament. Consider 2 Cor 5:17 NASB. "Therefore if any man is IN Christ, (has been baptized into Him and His death) he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." The old me loved to sin and please the flesh. The new creature that I have become in Christ wants desperately to be Holy as He is Holy in thought word and deed. I have a new nature within me, I am a new man. Consider also Col 3:9-10 NASB.
"Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the OLD SELF with its evil practices, (The old self, the old me was enslaved to sin, self, and the devil. When one comes to Christ he leaves the practice of evil behind to walk in newness of life.) {10} and have put on the NEW SELF who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him" This new self is the new creature that we have become in Christ. This new self is being renewed or sanctified or made Christlike day by day by day and hour by hour.
Finally consider the words of 2 Pet 1:4 NASB.
"For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might BECOME PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE, HAVING ESCAPED THE CORRUPTION THAT IS IN THE WORLD BY LUST."
That is it in a nut shell! Having been baptized into Christ and into His death we have escaped! We have escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. We have been freed from the power our sin nature once held over us. We were once slaves of the devil but now we are free. We were once slaves of our lust but now we can say no to our flesh. We are in Christ! We have been given a new nature which both desires to and is able to obey God according to the scriptures.
I said earlier and I say again the power of sin has been broken but we are still subject to its influence. The believer finds himself in an entirely new position. He now hears two opposing voices. A young man in my acquaintance put it like this. "It's as if the Devil sits on one shoulder and an angel sits on the other. One says do this the other says no, do this." That's not a bad description of what the Christian experiences on any given day. The old nature calls us to old and familiar paths but, praise God, it has no power to make us conform. The new nature also calls to us. It calls us to obedience, holiness, and God honoring behavior. Thank God there is power in this call. I speak of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is intent on making us Christ like. Therefore, although we do sin at times, the general bent of the Christian's life will always be toward holiness and obedience. For the renewed sinner has new desires. He wants to please the God who saved him. He wants to and will obey his new master and Lord.
We have been speaking of the miraculous. What else would you call sinners being baptized into Christ and His death. How else could you explain sinners becoming partakers of all that Christ did and is before God. What else could account for the fact that believing sinners will not come into judgement but will have everlasting life. How has this all come to pass? The answer is found in verse four and in the little phrase, "Through the glory of the Father." Here, according to William Hendricksen, the word "glory" means, "Majestic Power." So, the great truths we have considered today have come to pass for every Christian through or because of the "Majestic Power of God." This is the good news ladies and gentlemen. God saves and sanctifies sinners by the exercise of His power.
Salvation is a remarkable thing from beginning to end. Remarkable, that is, if the scripture's description of it is not modified in anyway. I say that out of necessity. For even as we speak there are, so called, gospel messages being preached and broadcast which deny that salvation comes to pass solely by the majestic power of God.
Most of these modified messages emphasize the cooperative element in salvation. They are fond of saying that, "With you and God working together you can be saved." "You can't do it without God and He can't do it without your permission and cooperation." There are many variations of this but the common denominator that runs through all such presentations is that God does so much and man must do the rest. The two efforts equal salvation. All men, they say, have within them the power to come to Christ if they wish to do so. God is said to love and desire the salvation of all humans equally, however, it is also said that He is powerless to save any who resist or reject His advances. God is powerless to save man without his help, permission, and cooperation. Yet the scripture before us says that the whole of salvation comes to pass, "Through the glory of God." Salvation comes to pass through and because of His "Majestic Power."
Let me close today's lesson with a presentation of the Gospel according to the Bible which Gospel gives God all the glory due His Holy name. The Biblical Gospel or good news can only be understood and appreciated when one first understands the bad news about man. Man is a sinner. This means that he has broken God's law in two ways. First, Romans chapter five tells us that all men have sinned in Adam who was our representative head. Therefore all have died spiritually and will die physically. Second, all men sin as soon as they are able to express the sin nature they inherited from their father Adam. So we are guilty on two counts. We are sinners by nature and by practice. This sin has separated us from God which separation is spiritual death. This is why the Bible declares that we are dead in trespasses and sins. We are separate from God because of sin. When one is joined to God by faith in Christ he has life everlasting. But the problem is everyone is born outside of Christ and is, therefore, separate from God and spiritually dead. It is essential that we understand this truth.
For just as the physically dead are helpless and cannot bring themselves to life or even assist those who would raise them from the dead. So are the spiritually dead helpless as concerns being raised from spiritual death. The dead know nothing and can do nothing about their condition. Therefore, the sinner cannot go to God and he does not want to go to God. He is dead and the wrath of God rests upon him. This is the bad news.
The Good News, the Gospel, is this. God has set His love upon a people the number of which is great but unknown. In Love He set out to save these lost sheep from their sin. He determined to bring them out of the darkness of sin and death into His marvelous light, out of death into life. God determined by His, "Majestic Power," to justify or to declare perfect people who were not just and were far from perfect. Further He determined to make them holy in a practical sense. He would do all of this in spite of the fact that they were dead and helpless. But how?
The Creator would accomplish His saving purpose through His Son Jesus Christ the Lord. Jesus, gave Himself for our sins on the cross. He was the perfect righteousness of God who took upon Himself our sinfulness, guilt, corruption, rebellion, helplessness, our death. God in turn poured out His wrath upon Jesus instead of us and then He did a most remarkable thing. God imputed Christ's righteousness to us through the divinely given gift of faith. Through faith God declares sinners righteous and just in His sight. But again I ask how does this come to pass in a person's experience?
Although a one is saved in a moment, as far as his experience, is concerned it helps to consider the sequence of events that take place when one is entering the kingdom of God.
First, God the Holy Spirit comes to the helpless corpse called sinful man. He does not ask for his cooperation. Nor does he ask his permission. It would do no good anyway for the sinner is dead. At the appointed time and in the blink of the eye He brings him to life. He raises the sinner from his tomb of death. This is called regeneration or re-birth. Second God convicts this person of his sin. That is, He shows him who he really is before God, vile, wretched, and unworthy. Third, God the Holy Spirit gives this now enlightened, regenerate, sinner the gifts of repentance and faith toward Jesus Christ. He cries out for forgiveness and God declares him just. He is saved from the wrath to come. This once dead, vile, helpless, hopeless, sinner becomes the very righteousness of God in Christ. This is the good news. God saves believing sinners. God saves them while they are yet dead in trespasses and sin. He does so without their permission or cooperation. He does so in spite of them not because of them. For prior to a work of grace in the sinners heart he is a spiritual corpse. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit cooperate with one another to accomplish salvation but sinful man is out of the picture. Therefore when we see a sinner come to Christ we can be sure that God has been at work behind the scenes raising the dead, doing the impossible. The cry of faith, "Father forgive me the sinner," does not bring about a work of grace. Rather the cry of faith, the plea for forgiveness, that running to Christ, is proof that a work of grace has already been accomplished by God's majestic power.
If you have come to Christ it is the power of God that enabled and caused you to do so. If you are here today crying out for mercy and forgiveness, rejoice. Rejoice, for the dead do not sorrow for and hate their sin. The dead do not desire Christ. The dead know nothing! Only those who have been raised from the dead by the power of God grieve, and morn for sin. Only the living cry out for mercy. Praise be to His most Holy name!
This is the Gospel according to the Bible. This is good news indeed. God has never been frustrated or put off by men. He is not wringing His hands hoping that men will let Him save them. The sinful objects of God's love are not born willing, they are made willing in the day of His power. What a pure and remarkable Gospel! God saves those who cannot save themselves! Will you run to Christ today? Are you willing to go to Him? All who have been raised from spiritual death do exactly that, they cry out to Christ like a new born child for all that is necessary for life. Go to Jesus dear friend and you will be saved from the wrath to come. Then thank Him for bringing you to Himself.