Dr. Rodney Plunket

"Baptized Into His Death"

Romans 6:1-23
November 15, 1998

This morning we continue our series on Christian baptism; and I want to focus upon Romans ch 6, a portion of which served as our Scripture reading this morning. To aid in our understanding of this chapter I want to look at several verses which precede it; so, if you have your Bibles, please take them and turn to Rm 5. Look first at v 14 of that chapter. Notice that early on in that verse Paul says that "death exercised dominion" or "death reigned from Adam to Moses". Then look forward just a few verses. In Rm 5:17 we read,

If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion (or reigned) through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion (or reign) in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Now look at the final verse of this chapter. In v 21 Paul writes, "so that, just as sin exercised dominion/reigned in death, so grace might also exercise dominion/reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord".

The Greek verb translated as "exercise dominion" or "reign" is found only ten times in all the writings of Paul, and six of those ten times are in the book of Romans, and five of those six times are right here in the fifth chapter of that book. The sixth occurrence of this term in Romans is found in the next chapter. Please look with me at Rm 6:12 and you will see that sixth occurrence. Paul says, "Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion (or reign) in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions".

What I want us to see is that Paul in this section of Romans is concerned with the power struggle between death and life, between the power of sin unleashed by Adam and the power of righteousness released into our world by Jesus Christ. And in ch 6 of Romans Paul is specifically concerned to show the ethical dimensions of that "righteousness power" which Jesus has provided by His death, His resurrection, and His ascension to the Father. What Paul focuses upon in Rm 6 is not forgiveness. He focuses instead upon the ethical power which Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension provide for those who have come to Him for salvation.

And we can see even more about this ethical power by focusing upon Paul’s use of slave words in Rm 6. Romans 6 is full of slave words, and I want us to notice them. Look first at Rm 6:6. I will be reading that verse from the NRSV except where that version has the word "destroyed" and where the NIV has the phrase "done away with", there I will read "rendered powerless". I will do that because I believe it is a more accurate translation of Paul’s meaning here. By the way, it is also the rendering chosen by Joseph A. Fitzmyer in his 1993 Anchor Bible commentary on Romans. Paul says in Rm 6:6, "We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin". Hear the slave word? "[W]e might no longer be enslaved to sin." In Rm 6:16-23 at least one of the slave words is found in all but two verses. Please follow along as I read this entire section. I will emphasize each occurrence of these slave words as well as words or phrases that report a reversal of slavery to sin. Hear the words of Paul in Rm 6:16-23.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death. But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul could not be clearer. There has been a transfer from one power to another power, and that transfer is so complete that it is analogous to a slave being bought from one master by another master. We were once slaves to sin. That’s how thoroughly we were under its power, its control. But the person who has put his or her faith in Jesus has "been freed from sin and enslaved to God" (v 22). The hold of sin is broken, because a new power is now in control of our lives.

Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension to the Father released enormous power which delivers the believer from slavery to sin. It is a deliverance so complete that Paul says in v 11 that we should consider ourselves "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus".

Now look back at Rm 6:1. There Paul says, "What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?" Then look down at Rm 6:15. There we read something very similar. Paul says, "What then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace?"

In ch 5 Paul has described a change of rule. Adam’s sin unleashed the rule of sin and death which dominated the world. The grace of God in Christ Jesus countered that evil and destructive reign with the power of eternal life and righteousness––that is the power which now reigns over, in, and through the Christian.

The questions which such a presentation may have raised are: ‘Does that mean we do not have to worry about sin any more? Paul, does what you have said mean that I actually show forth the wonder of God’s grace by sinning a whole bunch so that everyone can see that grace is even more abundant than my sin?’ And, by the way, Paul has already made clear in Rm 3:7 that some people actually accused him of proclaiming a libertine gospel which promoted sin.

Paul responds in Rm 6 by declaring the breaking by Christ Jesus of sin’s power over us, a breaking which means that we are not "to let sin exercise dominion in [our] mortal bodies, to make [us] obey its passions", v 12; and he makes clear in the very next verse that "we are [n]o longer [to] present [our] members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but [we are to] present [ourselves] to God as those who have been brought from death to life", and we are to "present [our] members to God as instruments of righteousness". Paul is declaring that to keep living a life controlled by the power of sin is a denial of something fundamental to the work of Christ; it is a denial of His power over sin.

Our sermon this morning is entitled, "Baptized Into His Death"; and yet I have said, to this point, nothing about baptism. Why? Because it is so important for us to see Paul’s words here within a context of the power struggle between sin and righteousness, a power struggle which Jesus has won resoundingly. So now let’s read again Rm 6:1-4. You can follow along by looking at the first four sections of the reading found inside your worship bulletins.

What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Paul only uses the verb, "baptize", two times in the book of Romans; they are both here in v 3. Paul only uses the noun, "baptism", one time in the book of Romans; it is found here in v 4. These references to baptism are found in a context of clarifying what it means in life for Christ to have won the power struggle between death and eternal life, between sin and righteousness. And Paul wants every Christian who thinks it is okay to live a life controlled by sin to know that such is not the case. And the event he goes back to as he begins that presentation is the event of being baptized, the experience of Christian baptism. He does not argue for baptism. He assumes it; he assumes that all of the Christians to whom he writes have been baptized; he assumes that because in the early church all people who called themselves Christians were baptized. So Paul is not arguing here for baptism; Paul argues from baptism. He argues that baptism is the time when a believer is placed in a direct and dynamic relationship with the death of Christ, a relationship with Christ’s death that is so direct that Paul says we are "baptized into his death". Paul goes on in vv 5-6 to reveal that the Christian has

"been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin".

Sisters and brothers, please do not present baptism as something we do to impress God. And please do not speak as if the water were the main ingredient. The power of God is the main ingredient, for it is the power of God which unites us with the power of Christ’s death; and it is the power of Christ’s death that removes the yoke of sin from our necks. We are God’s now. We belong to Him. We are delighted to be His slaves and we show Who is our Master by the lives of righteousness which we live because of the great victory that He has won.

Baptized into His death––Hallelujah, I have been baptized into the saving power of the death of Christ. Hallelujah, I have been raised from a sinful life leading to death by being baptized into Christ Jesus through which God has set me free from sin’s dominating and damning power! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!!

Come to Jesus. Let God break the power of evil over your life. Break free from sin’s slavery and let the new Master take hold of your life. Be baptized into the death of God’s Savior and Lord. Come to Jesus, and let the power of eternal life reign and rule in your life. Come now as we stand and sing.