Sermon audio Sermon manuscript: Our epistle reading last week was Romans 6 verses 1-11. Our epistle reading this week is Romans 6 verses 19 to the end of the chapter. Both last week’s reading ad this week’s reading are from the same chapter. It isn’t surprising that there is a connection between the two readings. So I’d like to refresh your memory of what was said last week. Our reading began with Paul’s rhetorical question: “What then, shall we remain in sin so that grace may abound? By no means!” What Paul says after that is not what we would naturally expect. So let’s start by talking about what we would naturally expect. When we are talking about sinning or not sinning we immediately, naturally assume that we are talking about knowing what is right and wrong, and then revving up the will power to do what is right. All the self-help books, all the ethicists and philosophers, say the same thing. What sells their books is some new, clever twist that they come up with. They say stuff like, “You see, where you went wrong is that you were thinking about it in the right way. All that you need to do is think about it in this way! If you think about it this way you will find that everything will go splendidly. You will look better, feel better, and have money coming out of your ears.” If the sales pitch is clever enough we just can’t help ourselves. We say, “Mmm, that sounds good.” And we give them our credit card number over the phone. As we all well know, a lot of times—dare I say, practically every time—the self-improvement program fails. But it’s never the clever salesman’s fault. He can always say, “Well, you didn’t try hard enough. It’s not my fault; it’s your fault! If you had just continued with my program you would have the results that you were seeking.” And who can argue with that? When they’re right, they’re right. So when Paul brings up the topic of sinning, we immediately assume that he is going to talk to us about how we should improve ourselves. Perhaps he’s going to give us some new knowledge so that we think about it in a better way; so that it is easier for us to rev up our will power. That’s not what Paul does though. Instead he talks about what baptism has done to you. He says, “Do you not know that when you were baptized into Christ Jesus you were united with him in his death? In Jesus you died to sin, because Jesus died to sin once and for all people. United with Jesus in a death like his you are also united with him in a resurrection like his. So this is how it is: you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Now it is very tempting to us to turn Paul’s words into something that we can more easily, naturally process. It is very tempting for us to turn this talk about baptism into some kind of object lesson where baptism is merely an empty symbol. The logic would go like this: Being dunked in the water is kind of like dying. Being pulled out of the water is kind of like being born. With this simple object lesson in hand, Paul is understood to be like a high school football coach who says, “Go get ‘em boys! Pretend that you have died. Pretend that you have been raised. Go, fight, win!” Baptism doesn’t do anything (so it is assumed). So it’s all up to you. But what if baptism actually does something? What if God is active in baptism? Then we have a rather different picture. Then God has killed you with all your sins and evil desires. God has also raised you from the dead to live in the only true righteousness that exists, which is Christ’s righteousness. With this way of understanding Paul (which is the correct way), we are dealing with God’s grace, God’s working, rather than with yet another self-improvement program. What’s more is that this is at the very heart and soul of our salvation and the story of the universe. We are being saved by being crucified in Christ, God’s Son, who died for our sins, paying our ransom. We will rise from the dead when our Savior comes and rends the heavens wide. When w