Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity

Romans 6:1-22 - You Are Baptized into Jesus

July 27th, 2025

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Jesus promised that anyone who keeps His Word will never taste death (John 8:51). To keep His Word is to believe it. You will never taste death. How do you know this promise for you? Because are baptized into Jesus. And baptized into Jesus means you are baptized into a death that comes back to life. Jesus death. Therefore you will never taste death. Believe it.

Death is now simply a portal into life eternal with Jesus because you died at the font in Jesus and now you live and walk in newness of life that never ends.

Several weeks ago during the Divine Service we dedicated a new funeral pall. It’s that large white cloth that is draped over the casket at a funeral. It’s a reminder to everyone at the funeral of the hope that our dear brother or sister who died in Christ carried with them from the font to the grave. The funeral pall is a beautiful image of the spiritual reality of their baptism that took them into Jesus and covered them in His perfect righteousness from the font to the grave. Right now all those who lived and died in Jesus are experiencing their baptismal life beyond what we can ever imagine on this side of glory.

As you sit through a funeral, the funeral pall should bring to mind the day you died at the font with Jesus and then rose to new life. The day God took you and all of your sin and imperfection into Jesus. Baptized into Jesus your sinful flesh was drowned, buried with Jesus and then raised from the dead with Jesus. On that day you were born again and given a new life. Jesus changed every one of you that day at the font. You became a baptized child of your Heavenly Father. No one can take that away from you. That is your eternal identity, and your eternal identity is your guarantee of your eternal destination. Paradise with Jesus.

You didn’t chose to be baptized. You were dead in your trespasses and sins, and yet Jesus still came to you and chose you and made you alive in Himself. He called you by name and said, today you are Mine. He took the debt you owed and nailed it to the cross in Himself. Your sins were forgiven, you were filled with the Holy Spirit and given faith and a new life. From that day forward you have been covered in Jesus perfect righteousness. Jesus perfect life, suffering, death, and resurrection became yours.

All of you who are baptized into Christ are covered in His blood and righteousness. In both life and death the blood of the Lamb covers and cleanses you from all of our sins. Lavished with and covered in the abundant grace and mercy of your God who’s steadfast love never ceases; who’s mercies never come to an end.

All of this purely a work of God who loves you because of the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of His dear Son. For this reason you have eternal comfort that transcends this mortal life with all of its suffering and death.

Romans 6 isn't just beautiful imagery of baptism. This is your spiritual reality as a baptized Christian today. It saves you and changes you because everything Jesus is and has done you are made a part of. It becomes your life, your suffering, your death, your resurrection to eternal life. You carry this comfort with you in sickness and health; in life and death.

Knowing this is your reality as a Christian doesn't make life easier though. In some regards it makes it harder. Jesus said, "The way is hard, and the gate is narrow that leads to eternal life." You don't face any easy path as a Christian. That’s why you take daily comfort in your baptism.

Even in your baptized life you still face the tension between the flesh and the Spirit. Your sinful flesh, even though dead and buried in baptism, still clings to you on this side of glory. Along with the world and satan it tries to destroy your faith.

There are two temptations you face as those baptized into Jesus when you are confronted with the ongoing battle in the flesh even as you are saved now and filled with the Holy Spirit. On the one side you are tempted to throw up your hands in despair because your sins are too great and certainly can't be forgiven. You continue to fail and keep falling into sin. Addictions, lust, anger, hatred, resentment, jealousy, greed, the list goes on. The temptation to despair in your sin is strong. The flesh wants you to give up.

On the other side is complacency. You are tempted to think that your sins don't really matter because you can't keep God's Law perfectly as He demands anyway. So why even care? You are going to sin no matter how hard you try, and in the end, you are baptized, all is forgiven, so why does it matter? Sin big and expect even bigger grace. Your flesh deceives you. So you make excuses and justify your sins.

Both temptations threaten true faith in Christ. In your baptized life you are in a battle between the flesh and the Spirit.

Despair on one hand, deception and complacency on the other. How do you deal with the ongoing battle between the between the flesh and the Spirit in this baptized life? You live in the now, not yet Christian life. All the promises of Jesus are yours today and yet you don’t experience them as you desire. You aren’t as strong as you want to be. You tire of your sin and weakness and failing.

You must see your baptized life not as perfection but as an ongoing battle that you’ve been equipped to fight. As those baptized into Jesus every day is one in which the old man with all its sins and evil desires is drowned and put to death in Jesus again. And then new man rises to live before God in righteousness and purity.

This is the baptismal life. Death and life over and over. This is the ongoing Godly rhythm of the baptismal life. It's a holy struggle made possible only by the continuous work of the Holy Spirit as you abide in and immerse yourself in God’s Word. Read the Bible, pray the Psalms, come to church. The Holy Spirit works in you with God’s word to drown the old and raise the new every day. This Godly rhythm keeps your faith alive.

This Godly rhythm of the baptized life is how you fight despair and complacency; fear and sin. And this Godly rhythm has a shape and an order to it. Picture every week of your life as sort of an electrocardiogram heart test (ECG test). That test that provides vital information on the health of your heart. Picture that monitor and the blips on the screen. The big blip, the QRS wave blip, shows when the heart pumps and sends blood out into your body. It’s a sign of life. You want to see the big blip or you have problems. When there is no big QRS blip it’s a sign of a serious condition; you are dying. The Divine Service this morning is the big QRS blip in your baptismal life. Today your spiritual heart is filled with Jesus, it contracts and sends the life blood of Jesus surging through every fiber of your being, and you live. You are now equipped and ready to go do battle against satan, the world and your sinful flesh. Without this weekly heartbeat, big blip, you won’t live long. With time you can spiritually flatline.

What you receive today pumps life into the days ahead. Today you will have feasted on and been filled with Jesus. Your sins forgiven and your faith strengthened. You can and will endure and persevere through all things when you leave here today. Today Jesus picks you and sets you on your feet to continue walking in Him in newness of life given in baptism. You are no longer slaves to sin. Baptized into Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit you have new impulses and desires that help you resist sin and temptation. The Holy Spirit is the power working in you with God’s Word keeping your faith alive, leading you to continually repent, resist sin and strive to do good. To live like a Christian.

This week when your sin accuses you, don’t despair. You are baptized into Jesus; His blood has cleansed you from all unrighteousness. When your lusts, addiction, anger, fear, and anxiety attack, you are baptized into Jesus. Everything that is sin and corruption and weakness in you has died in Jesus at the font. You have newness of life. You have new Godly strength to resist and stand firm against the evil foe.

You may hurt for a bit, you will suffer, but you won’t be destroyed. Through it all God is strengthening you in your baptismal life under the cross in Jesus. Take heart, the bloody cross of Jesus has claimed you at the font. Jesus has slammed the door shut on hell, on all of your fears, on all of your sin. You are His. You are forgiven and set free. You are saved today.

You will never find perfection in yourself, but you will find perfection every day in your baptism. Your baptism is Jesus. Your baptism is the Gospel. Your baptism saves you. Cling to it. Let the waters pull you under and drown you. Jesus will lift you up, save you, and carry you into eternity. Thanks be to Jesus. In Jesus name. Amen.