Law & Grace - Romans 6:1-10 Baptized into Christ - Part 1
Romans 6:1-10 · Vern Peterman · Aug 5, 2012
Law & Grace, No. 76
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926323543328

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. Thanks for reading this kind of unusual version here. One of the things I found in this passage is that many of the translations seem to fall short in what they bring forward. And so it's one of the reasons for coming up with this rather special version of it here.

One of the things we presented last week, we gave this analogy, we drink from the Niagara Falls of grace. Grace that is immense. Grace that is amazing. Grace that is infinite. As a matter of fact, Niagara Falls is not quite an adequate representation because it's limited. It's not infinite, is it? But at least it starts to get the idea across. We drink from the Niagara Falls of grace.

In Romans 5 we saw that by faith we have been made to stand in grace. That's in the first 11 verses there of Romans 5. This grace in which we have been made to stand. In Romans 5 we also saw that grace, last verse, verse 21, is the reigning principle for us as believers. Now, this is something for those of you who have an engineering or math background would particularly appreciate. And this is Albert Einstein.

By the way, he was not a believer, so this is somewhat in jest here. So grace is an infinite series, and then law is zero. That is, it doesn't count for anything because nobody can live by it. But grace plus law is law. Anyway, figure that one out. We'll work on that some more. We also observe that sin abounds, but grace super abounds. That is what the last half of Romans chapter 5 is telling us.

Grace doesn't need any help from the law. Grace is not like just barely sufficient. Grace doesn't need any help from the law, but the law does help sin. We saw that. Matter of fact, in two ways, it defines sin and allows the accounting of sin. So that's part one. But in fact, the law increases and even stimulates sin. What do I mean by the law stimulates sin? Well, we'll get into that some more. But for starters, we'll go with this little cartoon here.

The cartoon says, absolutely no machete juggling. And so you see this fellow standing by it saying, suddenly I have an urge to juggle machetes. It says, I have presented more than once, suppose I come to you and tell you, do not under any circumstances think of a pink hippopotamus. I am telling you, do not ever at all, I don't want you ever to think of a pink hippopotamus. Now listen to me! Do not, what are you thinking of?

That's the problem with the law is that it brings to mind exactly the thing that it's telling you to do or especially not to do. The law of Moses has 365 do not rules. And so there was a great deal of the problem. Lots of things to do and not do, zero empowerment.

Now, for all of Romans chapter 5 up to Romans 6.10 here, and in fact all of Romans up to Romans 6.10, there is nothing for us to do. There are no commands. That's why the twiddle your thumbs thing here, right? There's nothing for us to do. It is all statements in here. It is all statements of what is true, but not of things to do or not do.

That's why we have this to-do list that's blank. So far, and it's true even up to this passage here, so far in the book of Romans, five and one half chapters with nothing to do yet. Why is it that the Apostle Paul does not give anything to do until several chapters after he's begun here? Five and a half to be exact.

Anything that God, this is big, anything God asks us to do is based on everything that God has already done and is doing and will do. Anything that God asks us to do is based on what He has already done, is doing, and will do. Got that? God has not asked you to do anything otherwise. It's all based on what He has done, is doing, and will do first.

So Paul asks the question, starting off in this passage, shall we continue in, and I'll expand it here, the sin nature so that grace may increase? If the sin nature abounds, as the last part of Romans chapter 5 says, but grace super abounds, that is, abounds even more, then one might ask if we ought to put the sin nature in gear. Engage it. Get it going. Because after all, won't that make even more grace abound? Grace is going to super abound. Shouldn't we put the sin nature in gear so that grace will increase? That's the question.

Paul's response to that? May it never be. Not a chance. No way! That's the wrong conclusion. Matter of fact, it's the wrong question. The reason being that it's the logic taking us the wrong way. We have died, he says right off, we've died in relationship to that sin nature. Therefore, engaging it is the wrong solution.

We don't need to engage the sin nature in order to have more grace, in order to have grace abound. It makes no sense at all to live with the sin nature in gear and engaged. Now, as we look in this passage, we see this word baptized and baptism come out. The question is, is there any water in this verse? Or is it just completely dry? What do you think? Well, nobody's answering, so I will. Okay.

In the church context, we oftentimes jump to this mental picture of water baptism when we see the word, you know, baptized, baptism, etc. Right? But, What this is telling us is not anything having to do with water directly. Our identification with Christ is stated in this passage in a few different ways. One of them, prominently and early in the passage, is we're baptized into. It also uses the term united with or just simply with. The idea in all three of those terms is that we are identified with Christ. We'll talk more about what that means. All three of these expressions are telling us that we've been joined to Christ, we who believe, not everybody has, we who believe, have been joined to Christ so as to share a spiritual identity. Now, how do we know this?

Do you remember being baptized into Christ's death? You remember that? You recall that, of course, right? No? Well, neither do I. And it's because it's not from a memory of what took place, it's a truth that's been revealed to us. When Christ was crucified, each one of us who believes was there on the cross. That's what Paul is telling us, spiritually speaking.

Now, let's talk about what this word baptism We think of water baptism, and of course it wasn't that many weeks ago we had a baptism right behind the screen here, several of them. But what would they think of when they would think of baptism? Here are a couple of ways in which the word was used in the culture of the time and what the people reading this passage would have thought of. The basic meaning of the word is to immerse something with the idea that it's changed in character as it's immersed and permanently changed.

Here's an instance. Cloth was baptized into a vat of dye to color it purple or red. And they would get that from some shells. There were shells that they would have to gather about 10,000 of to get an ounce. Or there was a crimson worm that they would also have to gather a great many of in order to get the dye. Either way, the dye cost more per ounce than gold. But they would take the cloth, something white or off-white, and they would dip it in this very expensive dye, and when it came out, at least with the technology of the time, it would permanently change the color to a red or purple color from that time forward. So immersed, baptized into the dye to come out permanently and radically different and changed.

There was another way that this word baptism was used, and of course those in Rome where there were lots of Roman soldiers, right? would particularly see that and that is the heat treating, the case hardening of swords and other military implements. They would take a sword that had just been formed and they would heat it white hot. They would get it as hot as they could possibly make it and dip it into a vat of cold water quickly and that would change the crystal structure and make it hard so that you wouldn't get a dinged up bending sword. easily, and so that would end up with a good quality sword edge and sword surface and you could sharpen it. So that was also called baptism, but it's the same idea.

You immerse something into something else and it's radically changed and permanently changed as a result. Same idea. Those are two ways in which the word baptized was used and that's what people would have thought when Paul said you're baptized into Christ. You're immersed into him so as to be permanently changed by that immersion.

Those who have believed in Christ and therefore have been saved are spiritually immersed into Christ and permanently and very substantially changed by that one immersion into Christ. That's what this word baptism is intending to convey. Scripture connects that baptism with being united or identified with, so as to share an identity, with Christ.

And in this passage, specifically in his death, his burial, and his resurrection, those three things. We also have from other passages, not this one, other passages that we are identified with his ascension and his seating in the heavenly. So those five things. Scripture teaches all totaled. Paul sticks to the first three. Death on the cross, burial, and resurrection are the ones he talks about in this passage.

All of you who believe were baptized into Christ. God did it, not you. And it's true because it's revealed, not because you and I remember it. We, of course, don't. We who believe now share Christ's spiritual history in those five things. And it's those first three that he focuses on in this passage. Now, one of the principles that scripture lays out repeatedly is that death means separation. A lot of people will read death in the Bible and they'll think annihilation or termination or cessation of some kind. No, death is separation.

In Ephesians 2.12, at that time you, that is the unbelieving Gentiles, were separate from Christ, being aliens and without God in the world.

Ephesians 4.18, just a couple chapters later, you were excluded from the life of God. It's that separation that's being communicated here.

Colossians 1.21 says a similar thing. You were formerly alienated So that message is conveyed in scripture.

There are a number of places, including the passage we're looking at right now, that say that we're dead to or alive to. Now, that doesn't mean if we're dead to sin, and specifically the sin nature, it doesn't mean the sin nature doesn't exist. It means we're dead in relationship to it. Alive to God, we're alive in relationship to Him. Death releases from marriage, and we'll take a look at this in a few weeks, Romans 7, 1-6. Died to the law, joined to Christ.

And 2 Corinthians 5, 14, and 15. Dead to ourselves, alive to Christ. And on through several of these passages here. On to Colossians 3, 5, and 20. Dead to sin, died with Christ to the world. 1 Peter, and we don't often think of 1 Peter as teaching these truths, but he does.

For Christ also died for sins once for all, and that word there means once done perpetually valid. It's done once, its consequences carry on forever. Died once for all, the just Christ, for the unjust, us, so that he might bring us to God. Well, that bringing us to God, bringing us close to him, implies that we were far away before, right? So bringing us close to him implies that we were separated, alienated, and far away from God. Death is, in fact, separation.

1 Peter 2.24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross so that we might die to sin, die in relationship to sin, and live to righteousness, for by his wounds we were healed.

Spiritual death in scripture is about separation, spiritual separation of relationship. It's not about termination, cessation, or annihilation. Spiritual life in Scripture is about the establishment of relationship with Christ as the sole source of life. You want life? There's only one place, no, one person who can provide that, and that's Christ.

You have here on page 3, there's kind of a moving diagram From Romans 5.12 to 6.23, there's a set of truths presented, and this is presenting it graphically.

The unbeliever is joined to the sin nature and separated from Christ. So we have in the illustration, here's the sin nature close to this black line there, representing that, and Christ is apart, distant. That's the unbeliever's position. Joined to the sin nature, and separated from Christ. The sin nature is stuck to them. They have no choice but to engage the sin nature. There's no other way for the unbeliever to live. They are joined to the sin nature.

It is in gear. It is going to operate. Now, we have here this cross, and we show on it the old man and faith. What do we mean by that? By the cross and the words old man and faith, we mean that One believes that Christ died for his or her sins, was buried and rose again, and that he is identified with Christ and his death as the starting point to change one's spiritual anatomy, how are you made up spiritually, and to change one's position. So that's what we mean by this old man and faith there with the cross. Now, so we have this situation. Here is the unbeliever joined to the sin nature and separated from Christ. Now we have the one who has believed that Christ, now here's the gospel, Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again. That's the basic gospel.

The one who believes that, then, is one where God acts upon their heart, acts upon them spiritually, God acts so that the old man, all of who they were in Adam, was crucified and they died in relationship to three things, and this passage only talks about one, the sin nature, the law, and the world. When you believe, and by the way, an awful lot of Christians don't even understand this, When you believed, you died in relationship to, you were separated from, the sin nature, the law, and the world. Those three things.

The believer is placed into and joined to Christ, and separated from the sin nature. Doesn't mean you don't have one. Just like the unbeliever is separated from Christ, but that doesn't mean that Christ doesn't exist, right? Separated from the sin nature is a key thing and that's what this passage talks about actually repeatedly.

Some of the things that come out from looking at this passage is we see knowing. And we have it bolded in your handout and up on the screen when Wayne read it for us here. Verses 3, 6, and 9 talk about what the believers in Rome know about being identified with Christ. And what's interesting is as the Apostle Paul wrote to them, though he had never been to Rome as far as we know, he knew that they understood and knew these truths. He knew that they knew and understood these truths. He knew that they understood and knew about being identified with Christ. Verses 3, 6, and 9 all put that way. 6 and 9 actually are structured in such a way that it says, since you know or because you know. One message of this passage is that we can know revealed truth with certainty.

Have you ever talked to some Christians who talk about, well, nobody really has any idea what the Bible means? We had a visitor here some years ago. Nancy and I had the visitors over for lunch, and it was interesting to talk to them. A professor at Colorado Christian University had told this young man that if anybody tells you that they know what the Bible actually means, that's heresy. I would say that what this fellow was told was heresy.

Because that's exactly what this is saying. It says, you know it, you know it, you know it. 1 John, these things are written that you might know that you are in Him. They're written so that you know, not so that you go, huh? Right? The Bible is not inspired by God word for word so that we go, huh? You know, what? or so that we're scratching our head, or this is what I think, or that's what I think.

There is an ability to know with certainty, and to live on it, and to count on it. Now, someone might ask, well, Vern, wait a minute, there's a couple of ifs in this passage here. Those ifs are there not to cast doubt, but to invite you to join in the Apostle Paul's thinking through what the passage means. This is very important because you're going to see various places in the Bible where it talks about if. It is not questioning a truth, it's inviting you to think through with the Apostle Paul or the other author of Scripture through the truth that's being presented. The next point is that knowing is intended to impact how we live.

Just packing our heads full of Bible knowledge is not the end goal. God is not impressed if you know a lot about the Bible. You can have multiple doctorates from seminaries and go to hell. Just knowing a lot doesn't do anything at all. There's been a hazard among Christians, thinking that, boy, if I know a lot of stuff, that that somehow does something. It doesn't do a thing. Seminaries and Bible colleges, of course, are prime places to collect lots of stuff to know. Churches can have that hazard as well. Boy, we sure know a lot around here. Uh-oh. That could be trouble.

In Romans 6.4, Paul writes this, Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. It's to impact life. That's why it's written.

The other reason for knowing is that it's about relationships. It's about who we are in Christ. It's about what we've been made dead in relationship to in the sin nature. It's about being made alive in relationship to God. Knowing is about relationships, not just packing your head. These are spiritual relationships. They matter now, and they impact how we live, and they impact who does the living.

One of the things that we've said from time to time, and I don't mind repeating it, is do not try to be a good Christian. That's not your job. Galatians 2.20, it's no longer I who live, or let me expand that, it's no longer I who do the living, but Christ who lives in me, who does the living in me. It's His job, not mine. It's His job to do the living. Do not try to be a good Christian. That's not your job. It's his. Another point we'll bring out of here is there is no greater spiritual intimacy. The word intimacy sometimes gets lost on people.

But having been identified with Christ in His death, His burial, and His resurrection isn't a matter of just kind of being close to Christ. It's not just feeling close, it's not being in some closer proximity. It's a matter of being intimately identified with Him such that we have a new history and it's His. It changes who you are spiritually. We don't get just sort of close to Christ as a result of being identified with him. God has made us to have this spiritual intimacy with him such that we share an identity. Get that? Share an identity in these things now and forever. Nobody is going to be identified with Christ for just like 14 and a half years or something like that. Right? Whoop, I slipped out. That's not going to happen.

This is a once done, perpetually valid, always true, on into eternity change. It's a complete and permanent change. There is no greater spiritual intimacy. We share forever. A history with Christ that changes who we are forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you as we look at this passage and we'll be looking at it some more. We thank you that as we look at it, we see what you have done. You have radically changed who we are and who we are is now defined by who Christ is and what he has done and what has happened to him is now what has happened to us. And Lord, we pray that you would give us understanding and insight as we continue to look at this passage here over the next couple of weeks. We just pray that you would give us understanding. We pray that you would help us to understand how radically different we have been made to be because of what you have done and what you've accomplished. And we pray that you'd bring this home to our thinking and our understanding as we live each day. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.