The Meaning of Baptism
Romans 6:3-6
Imagine that you had been living in Italy in 1944, in a the village of Lucca, under the control of Nazi Germany. Imagine living in a police state, with no civil rights, as soldiers could freely steal your food, kick you out of your home, take your wife, kill your husband, abuse your kids. Imagine what that would have felt like.
But then think of how you would have felt when you heard the clank of American tanks and saw armored personnel carriers full of American soldiers drive into the town – and you saw some German soldiers fleeing from the town and others waving white flags with their hands up and surrendering. Imagine what that would have felt like. You were freed! Your town was liberated!
So can you understand why years later they would schedule a reenactment of that event? They did – in 2008. The town organized a reenactment of this moment – with many of the same soldiers and same people celebrating what happened 64 years before.
But now think about this: because you are trusting Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ liberated you from something infinitely worse than enemy soldiers; 2,000 years ago on the Cross Jesus Christ liberated you from sin.
And God has given us a way to reenact what Jesus did; it’s called baptism. When you first trusted Jesus Christ and were baptized, you got to reenact how Jesus liberated you from sin. And, when you see someone else baptized, you get to watch a reenactment of how Jesus liberated you from sin. Baptism is a reenactment of how Jesus Christ liberates His people from sin.
To see this, let’s turn to Romans 6. If you need a Bible, raise your hand and we will bring one to you. Romans 6 is on page 942 in the Bibles we are passing out.
Look at what Paul says in vv.3-6 --
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.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6 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.
In v.3 Paul says that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. So what does it mean to be baptized into Christ Jesus?
This is a description of water baptism. In the New Testament, when someone repented of sins and trusted Jesus Christ, as soon as possible they were baptized in water, they were immersed under the water, and raised up from the water. So here in v.3 Paul is talking about baptism.
But there’s a lot of misunderstandings today about baptism, so here’s some explanation:
First, you are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not by baptism. If someone at work this week asks you – what must I do to be saved? What would you say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, just like Paul does in Acts 16:31. Paul does not say: believe and be baptized. He just says “believe.” Because the moment you trust Jesus Christ, you are completely saved, even before you are baptized.
So let’s say you pray and trust Jesus Christ, and then the next moment you die. Are you fully saved? Yes. Yes, because we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
Second, everyone who trusts Jesus is called to be baptized. In the New Testament, everyone who trusts Jesus was baptized as soon as possible. Baptism was part of the conversion process. The New Testament assumes that every believer has been baptized. That’s why here in v.3 Paul can talk about “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus” – and all the believers reading this letter in Rome would have been nodding their heads – because they had all been baptized.
Third, without faith, baptism means nothing. What makes baptism meaningful is that the person being baptized is trusting Jesus Christ. If the person is not trusting Jesus Christ, then all that will happen is that the person will get wet. That’s it. Without faith, baptism means nothing.
So here in v.3 when Paul talks about being baptized into Christ Jesus, he’s talking about men and women who have come to trust Jesus Christ and are expressing that faith in baptism.
And Paul says that everyone who has been baptized into Christ Jesus has been baptized into his death.
What does it mean to be baptized into Christ’s death? The best way to answer questions like this is to search in the immediate context to see if the author gives any more clues. And Paul explains it in a couple of different ways.
Look at the beginning of v.4 – “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.” Look also at the beginning of v.5 – “For if we have been united with him in a death like his.”
So when Jesus died on the Cross, and was buried, we died and were buried with him. What does that mean? What helped me was reading v.6 -- “We know that our old self was crucified with him.”
“Our old self” is our sin nature. All of us by nature and choice don’t want to bend the knee before our perfectly wise, infinitely good, flawlessly loving Creator. Or like Jeremiah 2 says – even though we are all thirsty, and God is a fountain of cold, crisp, living, thirst-quenching water – we’d rather be thirsty than humble ourselves to drink from Him.
That’s our sin nature – our old self. Do you ever have times where you wish like anything that your sin nature would be destroyed? Do you ever have times when you are sick of how your pride makes you say mean things? How your lust destroys your love for God? How your fear makes you silent instead of sharing the Gospel? How your anger makes you dishonor Christ?
Well, here’s the good news. Your old self was crucified with Christ. It was killed.
When did that happen? It happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus was crucified on the Cross. Because you are trusting Jesus Christ, then 2,000 years ago when Jesus was crucified, your sin nature was crucified with Him. When Jesus cried out “it is finished,” it meant two things. One – all the guilt of your sin had been paid for – so you can be completely forgiven. And two – all the power of your sin had been destroyed – so you can be completely free from sin. That happened 2,000 years ago on the Cross.
But then fast forward into your lifetime. The moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God takes what Jesus did on the Cross, and applies it to you. God brought His saving power upon you and crushed your sin nature – mortally wounding it. Not killing it entirely; but mortally wounding it. And throughout your live He will be wounding it more and more until the day when you die or Jesus returns and you receive the complete destruction of sin Jesus accomplished on the Cross.
So let this sink in. When Jesus was crucified, your sin nature was crucified, killed, put to death. It has been killed. And because of that, at your conversion God mortally wounded it and will progressively kill it until it is completely taken away when you stand before Jesus. “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last!”
But Paul not only says that our sin nature was crucified with Christ. He also says that we were raised with Christ. What does it mean that we are raised with Christ? Look at vv.4-5 –
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.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Because you are trusting Jesus Christ, not only were you crucified with Christ 2,000 years ago. Paul says that you were also raised with Christ 2,000 years ago. Which means that when God raised Jesus from the dead that Easter Sunday, God also raised you from the dead. Which means it’s absolutely certain that the day is coming when you will be raised from the dead in the new heavens and earth, living an absolutely sinless life, full of joy in the presence of God and the presence of the Lamb.
But you don’t need to wait until then. Paul says that the moment you trust Jesus Christ, you get some of that resurrection life right now. You will still die. But you get a real taste of resurrection life now. You get some of God’s real presence now. You get a sample of the joys of heaven now. You will walk in more and more righteousness now.
And again – how did this happen? This happened because 2,000 years ago when Jesus was crucified your sin nature was crucified. And 2,000 years ago when Jesus was raised up into new resurrection life, you were also raised up into new resurrection life.
So what does this have to do with baptism? Baptism reenacts what Jesus did for you 2,000 years ago.
Here’s how it works. The Greek word “baptize” means “to immerse.” And so when you are baptized, you first are immersed completely under water. Being immersed completely under the water is a picture of dying. And so, because you are trusting Jesus, it’s a picture of how 2,000 years ago your sin nature died with Jesus on the Cross.
But we don’t leave you immersed under water. No. We lift you out of the water. That is a picture of Jesus raising you from spiritual death to life. Because you are trusting Jesus, being raised out of the water pictures how 2,000 years ago you rose with Christ into brand new life.
So when you are baptized – it’s a beautiful reenactment of what Jesus Christ did for you – and you get to act it out. You get to be plunged under the water – picturing how Jesus killed your sin nature; you get to be raised up from the water – picturing how Jesus has given you new resurrection life.
And when we who have already trusted Jesus and been baptized see a baptism – we get to be reminded of what Jesus Christ has done for us. We get to see how our sin nature was crucified with Christ; we get to see how we were raised up with Christ to new life.
So let’s do that now.