Greetings to you, my friend. Welcome to our Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. I pray we will both be blessed.
My friend, it is great to have you with us In Search of the Lord's Way. I pray we will both be blessed by our study of the Bible together. From the beginning of Christianity, to be a Christian has never been a matter of inward conviction only, neither has it been outward forms only, but it has been a combination of a heart-rendered obedience to God and to Christ. In the book of Acts, which is the Holy Spirit's inspired history of the beginning and the early growth of the Lord's church, every conversion in which the details are given, the person was baptized. Furthermore, every major denomination administers some act which it defines as baptism. So a study of the subject should never be surprising or offensive among people seriously concerned about becoming a Christian. It is our purpose today, not to enter into or add to the controversy over the subject, but in a positive way search the Scriptures for the beauty and the meaning of baptism. We are giving our message the title, Shall We Continue in Sin? Right now Ken Helterbrand will lead us in a hymn, then we will be back for our scripture reading which will be Romans chapter 6, verses 1 to 6.
We are reading Romans chapter 6, beginning at verse 1. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Now let us go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we bow our heads and our hearts now in your presence with thoughtful reverence and respect to You. We seek your presence in all of our lives, but especially today in the study at this time. Through the appointed High Priest that You gave us in the person of Jesus Christ we pray, Amen.
Friend, if you read the Bible any at all, you already know that baptism is a frequent subject in the New Testament. In fact, the word "baptize," in its various forms is found more than a hundred times there. To enhance the beauty and the meaning of the baptismal experience, let us just examine this one of those many passages in our study today.
It must be observed first that it is not the purpose of the passage we are studying to establish the necessity of baptism in the process of conversion or regeneration. Oh, it does that alright, but that isn't the Holy Spirit's purpose in writing what He did at this point. People didn't debate that until many years later. Neither is it the purpose of the passage to prove that baptism is immersion, because that is what it was in the New Testament. Always! Every time! The word from which we get our English word "baptize" in its various forms, just means "to dip" or "to immerse" or to plunge. And anyone who is prepared to be in your church's pulpit nowadays knows that, and he (or she as in the case in some modern denominations) also knows that the practice of sprinkling didn't come until centuries later. The text does establish baptism as immersion, but the question of "immersion" or "sprinkling" is not the subject of Romans chapter six.
Let us put the passage in its setting then. In that part immediately preceding our text (which we know as the fifth chapter), the writer declares that "When we were yet without strength (or we were powerless) Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Wherefore," he says, "As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Then in verses thirteen through twenty-one, he shows clearly that where sin abounds, the grace of God abounds even more abundantly to man's salvation. He talks of the enormity of sin. He addresses the multitudinous of sin. He affirms that regardless of the magnitude or the multitude of a person's sins, God's grace (the unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor of God) is sufficient to save him, to reach him for salvation. He says "That as sin has entered unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." So the passage is about grace-- salvation by the grace of God. And that is what He is saying in this passage.
And at this point, the Holy Spirit anticipates a contention that we sometimes hear nowadays, that if what He has just said is true, the convert to Christ, the disciple, is free to live as he pleases; there is nothing to prevent his living any lifestyle he chooses, in unrestrained lust and sin if he chooses, because all his sins are covered by the grace of God, and God does not impute sin to the redeemed so we are told. Hence, he asks the question in verse one: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" The answer is a resounding "No!" Absolutely not! Why? Why can't we live as we please in the lust of the flesh?
Well, this is where He introduces the subject of baptism. And He does it to show that we cannot live anyway we want to live in the lust of the flesh. There are some things about baptism that denies one, a person those unrestrained liberties. It is because of the meaning of baptism that a person cannot continue in sin. Listen to him: "How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer in it? Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?"
In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 the same writer speaks of being "dead in sin." And in baptism a person becomes "dead to sin." There is a death that occurs in baptism; it is the death of the sinner. And what comes forth is a new creature (John 3:5; Titus 3:5 and other places). "Death" literally means "separation," friend. When a person is "dead in sin," he is separated from God (Isaiah 59:1-3). And when he is "alive to God," he is "dead to sin." In verse ten, with respect to Christ, the Holy Spirit continues the discussion about baptism: "For in that He (that is Christ) died," He says, "He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Well, the "law of the excluded middle" says a person cannot be "dead in sin" and "dead to sin" at the same time. Therefore, there must be a precise moment in human experience when a person passes from death in sin to a new life in Christ. And this Scripture establishes that as baptism. In verses five through seven of our text, the writer explains, "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that the old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin." There you have it-- a part of the answer to the question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound." It is because the old man of sin died in baptism, and what came forth from the burial is a new creature.
But, there is more. Verse three asks, "Know ye not (or don't you know) that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Baptized into Christ-- in baptism the person becomes attached to Jesus Christ. It is through our attachment to Christ, not of any of our own merits or our own works or anything that we have done, are we reconciled to God and have peace with Him (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). It is through our attachment to Christ, certainly not of our own doing, that we are entitled to all the spiritual blessings (Ephesians 1:3) and even redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 1:7). In the next chapter (and please remember now, that the Holy Spirit did not divide the Bible into chapters and verses. We did that for our own convenience; so chapter seven is actually a continuation of the discussion in chapter six.) he illustrates that attachment to Christ-- as marriage to Christ. The woman is joined to her husband as long as he lives, he says, but if he dies she is free to marry another man. However, if she marries another man while she is attached (or married) to this one and while she is still living with him, she is called an adulteress. And he applies that to our attachment to Christ, which is secured in baptism. You don't continue in sin because, in baptism you have been attached to or married to Christ. You are His now. And to continue in sin would make you guilty of spiritual adultery. Now you belong to Christ!
And there is still more. "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?" Therefore, we have to consider these three fundamentals truths about Christianity-- three things that one must believe about Christ to be His. They are Number One: He died for our sins, Number Two: He was buried, and Number Three: He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1 to 4).
The death of Christ for our sins is the central theme of the entire Bible. It is the crux, the center, the very heart and soul of the Christian message and faith. It's stated very succinctly and very clearly in Romans chapter 5, verse 10, "We were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Romans 5 and 10). To profess to be a Christian and to deny that is unthinkable, friend. To think one might circumvent, or by-pass the death of Christ in the process of becoming a Christian is equally as absurd. So, we are baptized into the death of Christ. Now, we are not baptized merely into the water, but into the death of Christ.
All through the Scripture Jesus is said to be "the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world" (John 1:29). Such passages are numerous, and are obvious references to the animal sacrifices of the atonement of the Old Testament faith. Once a year, the lamb was slain on the altar outside the tabernacle. Once a year, the high priest then took the blood of the slain lamb into the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle, and later the temple, to offer it for his own sin and for the sins of the people. Thus, there was a remembrance made of sin every year. And Jesus, the Lamb slain for our sin, as our High Priest, Himself, entered into the Holy of Holies (that is heaven) to offer His blood once for all, not for His sin, but for the sin of the people, having obtained eternal redemption for us. That is Hebrews 9:12.
Please notice now, whereas under the Jewish system, the sin offering was from the person's own flock (or his possessions), and whereas we are spiritually bankrupt when we come to Him, our sin offering is not from our own resources, but supplied of God who gave His only begotten Son. So, the baptized believer does not make his own sin-offering in his own baptism, as it is sometimes said of him, but it isn’t anything that he offers of himself, his works, or his possessions. In baptism he accepts the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, shed in His death, and offered by Him as our High Priest.
When Philip had explained this beautiful truth in Isaiah fifty-three to the Ethiopian, he promptly responded, "See, here is water, what hinders me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:35 and 36) It is no wonder! That is a typical and logical, anticipated response because, you see, in submitting to baptism, we are acknowledging our inability to provide our own sin-offering-- and we are baptized into His death. Furthermore, Revelation 1:5 says that Jesus Christ "loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." And Peter says, we are "not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1, verse 18). Then surely there must be some point at which it can be known that the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin and we pass from the unredeemed state to the redeemed state. Oh, there is, my friend! It is in baptism. That explains why Ananias told Saul of Tarsus to "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). It wasn't, or it isn't the water of baptism that washes away sin. We are baptized into His death-- where He shed His blood-- and it washes away sin. That is another reason we cannot continue in sin.
"Therefore," wrote Paul in verse four, "we are buried with Him by baptism into death." His burial is the second fundamental truth a person coming to Christ must believe. I said awhile ago that Paul is not arguing the case for immersion in this passage because that is what baptism was then-- and is now. That is what the word means. But the passage does confirm it. You can see that now, can't you? "That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even we also should walk in newness of life," and that is why we cannot continue in sin.
Peter also addresses the beauty and the meaning of baptism. He said of the great flood of Noah's day, "...wherein few, that is eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:20 and 21).
The idea is not that baptism is the figure, but salvation of the eight souls saved by water is the figure of what was to come in baptism. Bible students know that the Old Testament contained many shadows, the figures of the spiritual realities to come into New Testament Christianity. Hebrews 10:1 says, "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things. . ." It will help us to understand this, too, if we read it and omit the parenthetical thought, then come back to it and get it later. That way it would read, "The like figure whereunto baptism doth also now save us by the resurrection of Jesus Christ." Don't you see, my friend, that a person isn't just obeying some church ordinance in baptism; he isn't just performing a cold ritual, or keeping an empty command or tradition; he is reliving the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in so doing he is saved. To strengthen that, Peter inserts the parenthesis: "Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh," he says. It isn't merely taking a bath (this is another confirmation of the fact that the general practice was by immersion), but it is "the answer of a good conscience toward God" (King James Version). The New American Standard Version says, translates that "an appeal to God for a good conscience." Baptism, then, is not merely being immersed in the water to wash away the dirt from the flesh, but it is "an appeal to God for a good conscience" not on the person's merit, but on the virtue of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Thank You, Lord, for this beautiful teaching in the subject of baptism and grace. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
People who say baptism is a "work" by which a person tries to merit his salvation, just simply fail to see the beauty and the meaning of baptism altogether. And that is shallow thinking. When properly understood, Bible baptism actually is a denial of salvation by meritorious works and an affirmation of salvation on the merits of Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. My friend, if you have not been baptized, we would love to assist you today.
Our program is presented free of all appeals for money by your friends in churches of Christ because we love and care about you. And we would also like very much to have you worship with us. I pray you will do that very soon. If we may assist you in locating a congregation near you, please get in touch with us. If you would like someone to come by your house to study, and for Bible study, or for prayer, you may do that. Simply write us. We will not send anyone by unless you request it.
If a printed copy or an audio cassette tape or a CD of today's program is desirable, Shall We Continue In Sin? is the subject, just simply write us In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. And our telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. You don’t have to send money, but we look forward to hearing from you this week. God bless you now. We love you.
|