Baptismal Exhortation

Romans 6: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? . . . our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is justified from sin.

Paul describes baptism in this passage as a means of union with Christ. Through baptism, we are removed from the realm of the First Adam, who introduced Sin and Death into the world, our solidarity with the First Man is broken, and we are inducted into the realm and into the body of the Last Adam, where Life and Righteousness dominate. Paul describes baptism as a transition from death to life.

We like to hear that. But it's critical to notice how Paul says we move from death to life. He doesn't describe a simple movement from the Death-realm of Adam to the Life-realm of Jesus. Instead, Paul says that before we can be raised in newness of life, we have to die. The path from the Death-realm of Adam to the Life-realm of Jesus runs through a deeper death than Adam's. We must be crucified with Jesus if we are going to live with Him.

This is not what we want to hear. We want to be rescued from troubles, trials, death in whatever form it comes. We want to find a path to glory that does not lie along the path of death. We want to enter the castle without having to pass by the dragon. We want to find a back door into the kingdom of heaven, a back door that lies along a broad path that leads not to destruction but to life. Paul does not permit that: There is only one path to life, only one road to the kingdom, and that road is narrow, as narrow as a cross.

Baptism is a rebirth; and today we are celebrating Esther's rebirth in the church. Baptism joins us to Christ as our husband, and therefore baptism is a wedding ceremony. Baptism is also a death; and this event is a funeral.

As such, baptism sets the pattern for the whole of the Christian life. We don’t enter into Christ except by death to Adam. We aren't raised up with Jesus unless we are first crucified and buried with Him. That is true here at the font, but it is also true throughout our lives. Your calling as parents is not to help your child avoid the challenges, difficulties, and small deaths that flesh is heir to. Your calling is to teach her to trust in the God who raises the dead. Your calling is to teach her she must daily take up her cross, deny herself, die to herself, and follow Jesus, the Crucified Lord. Your calling is to teach her that, narrow as it is, death, the death of a cross, is the only way to life. Your calling, in short, is to teach her to live her baptism, not only on the day of her baptism, but every day of her life.

posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, March 26, 2006 at 07:59 AM

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