Baptismal Meditation, July 25

Rom 6:1-4

Today, we�ve looked at several passages in Romans that display Paul�s interest in the redemption of the body. For Paul, salvation is ultimately about the resurrection and transfiguration of our bodies into bodies of glory, and in the present our salvation is about submitting to a new authority over our bodies, obeying a new lord, and learning new forms of bodily service.

For Paul, this is what baptism is all about. Romans 6 begins with a question: If grace comes flooding in precisely where sin has been most abundant, perhaps we should stay in the place where sin abounds so we can gain full experience of grace. Paul rejects that reasoning. It is just as absurd to stay where sin abounds as it was for Israel to want to go back to Egypt. Once Israel had passed through the water, there was no going back. And every Christian has passed through the water, leaving behind the Egypt where Death and Sin reign and entering into a new world where Life and Righteousness have the throne.

As Paul goes on with his discussion of baptism, he emphasizes that this has implications for how we use our bodies. Because we have crossed the sea, we are no longer to serve Pharaoh, expending our bodies and using our members to build Pithom and Raamses. As the baptized people of God, we are to use our bodies to build the temple of God, and to wage a war of righteousness.

That is what happened to Israel several millennia in the past; that is what is happening to Israel Cummings today. Today, he is passing through the water, dying to the world of sin and death, being joined to the death and resurrection of Jesus, so that he can live in newness of life. Several weeks ago, he was born into the Cummings family; today, he is being born again into the family of the Church, which is the body of Christ. And that means that he is called to devote his body to service to God. God brings Israel through this water as surely as God brought Israel through the water at the Sea of Reeds.

Aaron and Katy, this of course also lays obligations on you. You will have to train him to use his body for righteousness and not as a slave of unrighteousness. That begins early, when you train him not to use his body to throw a screaming fit. It develops as you teach him to use his tongue for praise and his hands for service. It culminates when he devotes his body to a wife, and his hands to productive work. Throughout his life, Israel will be called to use his body to worship God in everything he does.

But you can�t do anything to train him this way, apart from the gifts and graces of God. When you hand Israel to me for baptism, you are confessing your impotence to raise him as God�s child. You are confessing that Israel needs a heavenly Father. And the good news is that he has one, for in baptism Israel not only passes through the waters but Israel is claimed as God�s beloved Son. Don�t trust in your own power; trust in Israel�s heavenly Father.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, July 25, 2004 at 08:30 AM

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