Title: Baptized into Christ is baptized into life!
Text: Matt. 3:13-17
16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Dr. J.B. Gambrel tells an amusing story from General Stonewall Jackson's famous valley campaign. Jackson's army found itself on one side of a river when it needed to be on the other side. After telling his engineers to plan and build a bridge so the army could cross, he called his wagon master in to tell him that it was urgent the wagon train cross the river as soon as possible. The wagon master started gathering all the logs, rocks and fence rails he could find and built a bridge. Long before day light General Jackson was told by his wagon master all the wagons and artillery had crossed the river. General Jackson asked where are the engineers and what are they doing? The wagon master's only reply was that they were in their tent drawing up plans for a bridge.
Pulpit Helps, May, 1991.
We too find ourselves on one side of the river so to speak, separated from God and his loving forgiveness by sin. Through the “river” of Baptism we are washed clean and rise on the other side, cleansed, renewed and forgiven by Christ, because:
Baptized into Christ is baptized into life!
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
Jesus came down to John … and we might ask why? Why would Jesus come to John? He certainly didn't need to repent, because He was not born in the natural way and conceived in sin. He also didn't come down to John like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who came in unbelief, in an arrogant and mocking manner … rejecting God’s council against them. But he came as those who were sinners and who needed repentance … though He had no sin.
John was certainly surprised to see Jesus coming:
14 … saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
John’s recognizes Jesus for who He is … “the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
So the question is why does Jesus come and seek Baptism - as there is no sin and uncleanness in Him which Baptism would remove?
For He here takes your place and my place and stands - in place of all - who are sinners, and since all, especially even the arrogant people who do not acknowledge that they are sinners, Jesus must become a sinner for all; He assumes the form of our sinful flesh and proclaims, as many psalms testify to and on the cross … and in His passion, of the weight of the sins which He bears.
P.E. Kretzmann
“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42)
Because of Christ and His Baptism you and I can know that we are:
Baptized into Christ … that is baptized into newness of life!
Sinfulness is easy to see in another; especially those sins which are quite public and visible. But we all know that if measured against God’s scale, we would all fall short, we would not measure up, could not measure up and that we would all be condemned seen as we are sinners deserving God’s punishment.
So Jesus answers John:
15 … “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
The Reverend Phillips Brooks who lived in the 1800s in Massachusetts said:
“No man in this world attains to freedom from any slavery except by entrance into some higher servitude. There is no such thing as an entirely free man.”
Phillips Brooks (1835- 1893)
That is true in one sense. We are always in this life bound to our sin. All that we say and do is filtered through our sinful flesh. We are a slave to sin or as Martin Luther has taught in his book the “Bondage of the Will” … “we are all in Bondage to our sin.”
But Paul brings joy to light in our epistle for today when he says:
6 … 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.
Baptized into Christ is baptized into life!
Ill.
One of the church Fathers – Tertullian wrote of baptism in this way:
The primary principle of Baptism is that the Spirit of God, who hovered over (the waters) from the beginning, would continue to linger over the waters of the baptized.”
Tertullian – De Baptismo IV (ANF 3:670)
This is made possible for you and me because:
16 … when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
In Christ the favor and pleasure of God rests:
For just as, after the waters of the (flood), by which the old iniquity (or sinful world) was ( killed and taken away) —after the Baptism, so to say, of the world—a dove was the (voice or herald) which announced to the earth the (removal of God’s) wrath, when she had been sent her way out of the ark, and had returned with the olive branch, a sign which even among the nations is the (fore-token) sign of peace; so by the self-same law of (God’s) heavenly effect, to earth—that is, to our flesh—as (we) too emerge from the (Baptismal) font, after (our) old sins, flies the dove of the Holy Spirit, (the same Spirit that rested on Christ and in whom God is well pleased) … bringing (you and me) the peace of God, sent out from the heavens, (through) (Christ’s) Church, (which is a type) of ark.”
Tertullian – De Baptismo VIII (ANF 3:672
Baptized into Christ is baptized into life!
As we celebrate Epiphany this weekend and the manifestation of God becoming man and the taking on of human flesh. We understand the visit of the Magi and the gifts that they bring to worship our lord. But the real gift is given by Christ.
His gift is his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. By His taking on humanity He was he was marked with His creation and with you and me. When He was baptized by John he received the weight of sin poured out and marking Him as the chief of sinners, though he remained sinless.
He went to the cross with the full weight of sin on him and received the wrath of god’s punishment that you and I deserve. And because of his atonement you and I receive what we don’t deserve … forgiveness.
Madelyn Deckard received that same forgiveness last Sunday. She was marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified. She was washed in the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit and was given New Life and New Birth of water and the Spirit! She was made God’s Child and has been adopted into His family and given the inheritance of heaven and life eternal in Him.
Baptized into Christ is baptized into life!
The river was crossed by Christ. He has made a way for all to be found in Him on the other side of the river. The means is faith in His finished work and is given to you and me as a gift by God’s Holy Spirit in and through Baptism. Daily rejoice in God’s simple way of bringing you to him through water and the word.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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