What does each of the following images suggest? A bride and groom walking down the aisle. A graduate receiving a diploma. A miner being rescued. A baby being born. A seedling emerging from soil. A butterfly leaving its cocoon. A tadpole growing legs and becoming a frog. A hatchling emerging from its shell. Jesus’ resurrection from the grave. And then what about this image? Baptism. All of these images represent transitions.
All of these images represent a stark contrast from a prior state of existence to a new more desirable state of existence. The bride and groom were each alone. The graduate was buried in books. The miner was trapped in darkness. The baby was sheltered in the womb. The seedling was buried in dirt. The butterfly was imprisoned in a cocoon. The tadpole was confined to water. The hatchling was confined to its own shell. Jesus was crucified and buried in a tomb. But through the miracle of life, all made a transition. They underwent a conversion. They morphed! They left the old behind and put on the new.
Transitions are the spice of life!
Such transitions are the spice of life! Transitions are what we live for. They are the defining moments of life and existence. Without transitions like these, life would be boring, our existence would feel mundane, and our outlook in life would be pessimistic. But that is what is so awesome. We don’t have to worry about a transition-less life. Because God wants to do a new thing in each of us. He wants to do for us spiritually what we just saw happen physically in that series of pictures. He wants to transition us from the mundane into the refreshing. God wants to give each of us new life in Jesus Christ.
This morning we talk about the climatic transition from ungodliness to godliness. Up to this point we’ve been talking about ungodliness in general. Ungodliness is the willful choice of an individual to cast God into the margins of his life. The ungodly suppress all truth about God, starting with denying his existence. They deny what is obvious about God in creation. They deny his power and his divine nature. They suppress their own God-given consciences. They harden their hearts. They declare independence from God. They assert their autonomy. They begin feeding the evil nature, with its corrupt thoughts and desires. Without any moral bearing they begin a progressive slide into ever increasing evil. As the evil grows, over time the ungodly person finds himself or herself unable and even unwilling to change. They lack any power over sin.
As they face one failure after another, they grow increasingly empty inside. They find themselves defeated, powerless, dissatisfied, joyless, and impoverished. They have no hope beyond what this life offers, so they cling to this life with desperation. They are always bored because there is nothing captivating in their lives that points them beyond themselves. They are a law unto themselves. They are motivated intrinsically by their selfish impulses. They are alone and disconnected. The Bible says that they are without hope and without God. They are under God’s curse and his righteous wrath because they’ve chosen to be!
To put this in the language of metaphor or image, the ungodly are like a bride or groom standing at the altar alone. Lonely. Abandoned. Rejected. The ungodly are like a student buried in books, searching for answers, searching for wisdom, trying to make sense of life, looking for meaning, and looking to find purpose. They are like a miner trapped in darkness, disconnected from God, desperately crying out for salvation, not knowing if their voice is being heard above. They are like an unborn baby waiting to be born out through water into new life. They are like a seed full of potential, waiting to explode and push its way toward the light.
They are like caterpillars, crawling on their belly and waiting for wings and a new body to fly. They are like tadpoles swimming through the muck and mire of life, trying to grow legs. They are an unhatched bird imprisoned in a shell, but not yet formed. They are like the crucified Christ buried in a manmade tomb, mortally wounded from sin, full of fresh scars and gashes, and ravaged by evil.
God wants us to make a transition from ungodliness.
The irony is that none of us were destined for ungodliness. God wants us to make a transition. The scriptures tell us that we were predestined for new life in Christ! Consider a familiar passage from Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV). Notice that in this passage there is a clear transition that transpires.
"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
I wonder this morning if you have been made alive in Christ? Have you been raised up? Have you transitioned from the old to the new? The tragedy is that there are so many who irrationally fear transitions. There are many who are afraid to leave behind the old life, the single life, the wisdom of the world, the darkness, the womb, the soil, the cocoon, the water, the shell, or death, sin, and ungodliness. There are some who find security in the things of the old life, and who never capture the heavenly vision of this transition from ungodliness to godliness. There are so many who prefer the mundane over the spiritual and the glorious.
Romans describes the transition from ungodliness to godliness.
If this describes you, I hope that you will consider breaking free from the mundane existence of ungodliness to begin a new life in Jesus Christ. I said a moment ago that God has destined us for this new life in Christ. This is where the book of Romans is most eloquent. Romans walks us through this transition from ungodliness to godliness. Romans has us begin by walking down the dead end street of ungodliness. In Romans 1 we witness the death of truth. We are taken down the slippery slope of wickedness where we crash and hit rock bottom. In Romans 2we experience the curse and wrath of God. We are given a taste of death, which is the ultimate universal consequence of sin. In Romans 3 we discover that all of us are equally in need of a savior and that there is no one righteous, not even one. We learn that apart from Christ, we are dead in sin. But then moving into Romans 4 and Romans 5 God’s intervention bursts into creation through the cross of Jesus Christ. At just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for us. He reached out to save us. He did a miracle. A narrow way was opened up for all of us.
And so in Romans 6 with God’s dramatic intervention, we have been brought to a perplexing moment of decision. We are like those miners with that escape capsule dangling into their mine. There is only an opportunity for salvation. Through God’s grace and only because of God’s grace, and not because of anything we could do, God has opened up a way to heaven above. He has extended salvation down to us. God sent his Son to make a powerful descent through all the sin that separated us from God. And now through Christ, there is a narrow pathway to God. Jesus Christ is our capsule, our vessel of salvation.
But now God is calling us to step out on faith and act on the opportunity he has provided for salvation. He wants us to leave the old and get on with the new. He wants us to get into Christ and be delivered from death into a new life. He wants us to choose Christ. To accept Christ. To entrust our lives to Christ. All the hard work has been done. The dividing wall of hostility has been penetrated. The impossible is now possible. But now it is our turn.
We willput this in other terms, perhaps more familiar to you. Faith brings us to a point where we say, "Yes, I know God can save me. I know he is powerful enough. I know he has opened up a way. I know that it is only because of God’s grace and not by my own might."
Faith acting in repentance brings us to a point where we say, "I’m tired of my old ways. I’m tired of the emptiness and dissatisfaction. I’m tired of a life without God. I’m tired of the darkness. I’m tired of the isolation. I’m tired of the progressive, degenerative slide toward evil." But did you know that it is faith acting through baptism that actually transitions us from ungodliness to godliness? In baptism, our faith is reaching out to Jesus Christ to be saved. In baptism, we are getting into Christ, whereupon we are whisked into the security of God’s kingdom.
As we read Romans it's hard not to notice that Romans 6 is a pivotal chapter. In Romans 5 Paul starts talking about the intervention of God and faith. But in Romans 6 he talks about our baptism! As we let the word of God speak for itself, notice specifically what Paul is saying about the significance of baptism in a believer’s life. Romans 6:1-3 (NIV) begins, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?"
In baptism, we die to sin.
I spoke once with a woman who believed that she had come face to face with death. She was a godly, upright person. A model Christian, in my estimation. Selfless. One night her heart began fluttering. She broke into a cold sweat. Panic sunk in. Her chest grew heavy and it seemed that her heart was about to leap from her chest. In desperation she called 9-1-1 for help. She thought sure that she was about to pass out! She was taken to the hospital where they ran tests and calmed her down. She was actually okay. But in those few hours, wrong though she was, she truly believed she was dying.
She told me that when she was laying on the gurney, nothing else in life mattered. She didn’t think once about any of the things she thought she might care about if put in that circumstance. She loves her family, but everything that was of concern to her earlier that day evaporated. It didn’t even register. Her work stress. Her bills. Her husband. Her needs. Not even her grandchildren. She said, "I could only think about meeting God, and wondered if I was ready or not."
I cannot speak from any experience of facing death. But I envision death for each of us being just like this lady explained. When we die, none of the things that concern us right now will matter. None of it. In fact, our relationship with Jesus Christ is going to be of extraordinary concern. Suddenly, God’s holiness is going to matter. God’s justice and wrath is going to be terrifically frightening. All the games we have played will be over. There will be no more procrastination in matters of faith and repentance. And how we will wish we had prepared ourselves for that moment.
In Romans 6 Paul is telling us that baptism is about dying. In baptism, in dying, a total transformation in thinking takes place. God becomes of ultimate importance, while the things of the old life pale in comparison. In baptism, we die to the infatuation, the love affair, the seduction, the fatal attraction to sin, and come face to face with a living, holy God. In baptism, all the sin that entices the old man is buried in the watery grave. It is nailed to the cross and we are washed clean with the blood of Jesus Christ. In baptism, sin loses its power over our lives. It is exposed forits weakness and destructive power. The concerns of the old sinful nature begin to erode. In baptism, we get the dying over with now, so that we can spend the rest of our lives preparing for eternity with Jesus Christ. In this way baptism is essential preparation for eternity. Baptism is dying in order to live.
Throughout the New Testament, Paul uses the seed as a metaphor to describe this spiritual transition of death. In 1 Corinthians 15:36-38 (NIV) he says, "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body."
In baptism, we are planting the old man in a watery grave. We are dying. We are burying the old man. And then through faith we are embracing the new life that God wants to give us in Jesus Christ. This brings us to a second major idea about baptism. Notice how Paul continues with his description of baptism in Romans 6:4 (NIV). "We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."
In baptism, we are raised to new life.
In Romans 6:4 Paul is telling us that the life that is buried in the waters of baptism is different than the body that is raised in the waters of baptism. The body that is buried is the sinful man, corrupted by the sinful nature, hardened, and as good as dead. But the body that is gets raised from the water is an entirely new life. Returning to the metaphor of the seed, the body of the seed that dies and gets buried is entirely different than the body that emerges above the soil. There is little resemblance between a kernel of corn and a corn stalk or between an apple seed and an apple tree!
The body that we sow in the waters of baptism is not the body that will be, but just a seed. But God will grant that seed a new body, a new life, as he sees fit. In baptism, God is giving us a new life that is capable of receiving the blessings of his spiritual kingdom in heaven. Our sinful bodies do not have the capacity of receiving such blessings. In John 3:5-6 (NIV) Jesus tells Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the spirit gives birth to spirit."
In 1 Corinthians 15:50 (NIV) Paul says, "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." In other words, the old sinful nature cannot sustain the spiritual blessings of God’s kingdom. We must die and receive a new spiritual body. We must be born again. The seed must first die to receive its new life from God. In baptism we die but then we are promptly raised to live a new life in Christ.
In baptism, we pursue a new way of life.
So what does this new life in Christ look like? If the Christian has truly died to sin and is alive in Christ, then why does he still struggle with sin? Perhaps a spiritual transformation hasn’t really taken place after all! To this we would respond once again with the metaphor of the seed and ask you to take note of a third idea about baptism. In baptism, we pursue a new way of life. We all know how terrifically vulnerable fledgling seedlings can be. If a seedling is not immediately nourished and strengthened in its new life, its new body can quickly wilt, dry out, and then crumble.
Likewise, the Christian in his new life must immediately be strengthened and nourished. Just because the old body of sin has been done away with, doesn’t mean that the new body cannot also be affected by sin. The difference is that the new body is much more resilient. It is empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. It is no longer a slave to sin. It is a slave to righteousness. The new life is no longer captivated by sin, it is infatuated with the righteousness of Christ. It is mastered by grace and not by sin.
Briefly consider Romans 6:5-14 (NIV). "If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin."
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God."
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."
In every way baptism is the transitional breaking point for the Christian. In baptism, the Christian is formally dying to sin. Through faith, he buries the old body of sin in the waters of baptism, like a seed planted in soil. In baptism, the Christian is being raised to new life. Through faith in Jesus Christ, he is receiving a new life from God and emerges from the waters of baptism with a new spiritual body, just like the seed planted emerges from the soil with an entirely new body. In baptism, the Christian offers himself as an instrument of righteousness. He nourishes his new life in Christ by offering himself up to God as one brought from death to life. He lives out his baptism each and every day. He reenacts his Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection and sets his affection on loving God.
So this morning a simple invitation is before you. The waters of baptism invite you to die to sin once and for all. Bury the old man. The waters of baptism invite you to receive a new life in Christ. This is a life capable of conquering sin. A life empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. A life capable of inheriting the spiritual blessings of Christ’s kingdom. The waters of baptism invite you to daily pursue a specific way of life, a life yielded in absolute surrender as an instrument of righteousness and not of wickedness.
Baptism does not mean instant sanctification or instant perfection, but it does mark the beginning of positive growth away from sin and toward righteousness. Away from ungodliness toward godliness.
Are you tired of the mundane? Are you bored with existence? Why not accept this new life in Christ this morning through faith, repentance, and baptism?