From Death Into Life (Romans 6:1-11)

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Baptism is first an act of faith. Second, an act of obedience. Third an act of belonging. 

First: we get baptized as an act of faith. 

In the vocabulary of the scripture writers, water represents both death and life. 

Water is chaos and destruction. Oceans and floods and storms at sea. It's the Red Sea pouring back down onto the Egyptian army as they pursued the people of Israel, trying to bring them back into slavery. It's the ocean threatening to sink Jonah's ship and Jonah asking to be thrown into the water, fully expecting to die. Water was a threat to the apostles, several of whom were fishermen. 

...A violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we are perishing?” Mark 4:37-38

Even when water is not dramatic and terrifying, it still wears things down. It erodes. It takes things away slowly. There's a quote that I love from Doctor Who: “Water is patient. Water just waits. Water wears down the cliff tops, wears down the mountains, and the whole of the world. Water always wins.” 

In much of the imagery of scripture, water represents death.  

But water is also life.  

Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.  Genesis 1:2

...And with the power of God, with the voice of God, with the Word of God going forth, the breath of God over those waters, out of those waters came everything that lives. Out of those pre-creation, swirling, waiting waters came the earth. The earth formed the rock that Moses struck with his rod when his people were dying of thirst in the wilderness, and water came out of the rock.  

The prophet Zechariah delivers this message for the people of Israel from Yahweh God. 

Ask the LORD for rain in springtime; 

The LORD makes the storm clouds, 

And He will give everyone showers of rain 

And crops in the field.   Zechariah 10:1

In the vocabulary of scripture, water is the stuff of creation. It's a rescue in emergencies. It is sustenance in need. It is promise, and it is fulfillment.  

Water in scripture represents life and death. 

In Romans 6:1-11, Paul connects life and death in the waters of baptism, because in going into the waters of baptism we are dying and we are being resurrected. This is the math of Christ. This is the logic of Christ: that life follows death.  

One commentator puts it this way: “Resurrection is seen as an effect that logically follows from identification with Christ and His death.” Death is the cause. Resurrection is the effect.  

In baptism, we entrust ourselves to the water. We entrust ourselves to each other. We entrust ourselves to the hands of the person who is baptizing us, because baptism is an act of faith. We go down into death, expecting resurrection.  

Second: we get baptized as an act of obedience.  

Just a heads up, iIf you're considering getting baptized. When it's time to take that step, everybody is nervous. Nobody knows exactly what to expect. Nobody is entirely in control, and nobody—absolutely nobody ever in the history of baptism from 2000 years ago to today, nobody—ever looks cool.  

But we get baptized because we're following in Jesus’ footsteps.  

Jesus said, “Follow me.” That was His command to His disciples: follow. 

John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins...  Mark 1:4

That last phrase makes us stop and think: John is baptizing people for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus came to John to be baptized. He had no sins to confess. No need to be forgiven, or to repent. So why did Jesus come to John to be baptized? What was the point? Why did Jesus do this?  

In short:  

People came to the Jordan from Jerusalem (the centre of the Jewish faith) to repent, to change their minds, to change their attitudes towards their sins, and to be forgiven. Even though they knew that these were things they would do again. They would fall into the same traps again, but they came. They repented, they confessed. They were baptized.  

Jesus came to the Jordan from Nazareth (a region not known for being faithful to the Jewish Torah, to the Law) with no sin to confess. He stepped into the river (this is a compressed version) because in that moment—Jesus is Israel. Jesus is the child, the son, the representative of God on earth. He is standing in the place of the nation of Israel, representing their journey from the wilderness through the Jordan River and into the promised land, where they were to become a nation and become established. So Jesus steps into the river, taking their place. In stepping into the river, He identifies with His people who were never, ever going to get it right. He takes on the weaknesses of His nation. He takes on their failures. He takes on their need for repentance and He surrenders to God for whatever it is that God has for Him to do.  

Jesus goes down into the water of the Jordan River and stands there representing Israel. He fulfills the role of all Israel. He completes the mission of all of Israel, of all of the people of Yahweh God, because that is what He was sent to do. He was sent to take our place, and this is where it all began: 

John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  “Let it be so now,” Jesus replied. “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way.”  Matt 3:13-17 

Jesus is saying, “I am going to fulfill all righteousness. I am going to fulfill the purpose of the nation of Israel by bringing God's blessing into this people, and to the world beyond, and to everyone, everywhere.” (Genesis 12:1-3)

This is where it began, and we know where it ended: with Jesus taking our place.  

Why do we get baptized? Because Jesus did. Because Jesus says, “Follow me.” And... because Jesus commands us to.  

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father [who, over the chaos waters in the darkness, spoke the command, “Let there be life”], and of the Son [who was the Word that went out and echoed in the nothing until there was something], and of the Holy Spirit [who was the power of breath and of life].  Matt 28:18-19 

We get baptized as an act of obedience.  

And finally, we get baptized as an act of belonging.  

There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6 

You are all sons and daughters of God [part of His family, carrying His resemblance, bearing His name, acting in His authority, inheriting His estate) through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise. Galatians 3:26-29

Paul uses that phrase, “clothed with Christ.” In order to put on the new life of Christ, first we set aside our old clothing, our old identity. We set aside our old team jersey before we put on the new team jersey. In our church we have a room behind the baptismal tank, filled with white robes hanging on hangers. Those white robes have been worn by people, by generations before us. Before the next person puts one on and steps down into the tank, that robe has already been worn by someone who was their brother and their sister, someone who shared with them the waters of baptism.  

Paul uses the word ‘co-buried.’ We are co-buried with Christ in the water. We are co-buried with our brothers and sisters, with our mothers and fathers in the faith. And then we are raised up again into the family of those who have believed before us. The family of those who believe today. The family who have obeyed. The family who, like me, have been set free from cancelled obligations, set free from cancelled debts, set free from the consequences of sin, and into the freedom of following Jesus.

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I got baptized because baptism is an act of faith. It's a new birth. It's a new life. When I live my baptism well, it is a gift I received from God.  

I got baptized because it was an act of obedience, following Jesus’ example, setting an example for others. I obeyed Jesus’ command. When I live my baptism well, it's a gift I give back to God.  

I got baptized as an act of belonging. As a change of allegiance off that team, onto this one. Renouncing my old citizenship, taking a new passport. Taking on a new identity, as part of a new family. When I live my baptism well, it's a gift I give to other believers. And it's a gift that I give the world.  

We get baptized not because it's a box to tick. Not because it's a rite of passage or a ritual. 

We get baptized because baptism is a gift that God has given us. This visible, memorable, sensory experience of going down into death, coming back up out of death and into a new life, and a new way of being.  

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