Ian Galloway - Being in Christ (Baptism, Faith and Obedience)

Who knows their grandmother’s date of birth? Who knows their mobile phone number? Who knows their bank card pin number? The more important the information is to us the more likely we are to know it. The more often we use something the more likely we are to know it. Importance helps us to remember. Familiarity helps us to remember. Today I want to help you get familiar with something very important: where you are in Christ.

Do you know where you are as a Christian? I realise that you may be here today and you haven’t yet become a Christian. Living in Britain doesn’t make you a Christian (I was born and raised in England, but I didn’t become a Christian until I was nineteen). Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian (I’ve been going to church twice on Sunday since before I was born, but it took nineteen years before I gave my life to Jesus). Having relatives who believe in Jesus doesn’t make you a Christian (I’m descended from a French Hugenot who had to flee to England because of his Christian faith, but that did not make me a Christian). I want to explain how you can become a Christian at the end of my talk today and give you an opportunity to say yes to Jesus and become a Christian. First I want to talk about what a Christian is, and particularly where a Christian is.

It sounds strange at first. Do you know where you are as a Christian? And I don’t mean how far you have progressed in your spiritual journey. I mean do you know where you are? Do you know where you are located? Do you know where you are sitting? Do you know where you are living?
To help explain the question I am asking and help answer it let’s read some verses from the bible in the book of Romans 6. Romans is a letter written to a church a bit like ours in a big city. It is written by a first century Christian leader called Paul.

ROM 6.3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 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.

Don’t you know, he says, don’t you know? Don’t you know where you are? All of us who were baptised in Christ Jesus were baptised into his death. When Paul uses the word baptism here, he isn’t just thinking about a baptism service and people getting wet. That is included, but he is thinking deeper and bigger! Let’s dig a bit deeper. We need to start with baptism.
The first question to ask is what is baptism? What does it mean? It is a funny word in English. It is not a word we use normally. Unfortunately it has become a rather religious word. The bible wasn’t written in English it written in Greek.

They wrote the word baptiso. It was a very common word. It was a normal word. It means to dip, to immerse to soak or to plunge. That’s why in our church when we baptise we set up this plunge pool. It isn’t very big and it isn’t very deep. And if I am looking after the baptisms and they don’t go fully under, I make them do it again. We may as well do what the word means.
Why get baptised? What is that all about? The best way of describing it is that baptism is an act of obedience that flows from a living faith. Let me explain that. It is actually very like a wedding.

Normally in western culture, you don’t get married to find love. You get married because you have (In many cultures it is quite normal to have arranged marriages, but my understanding is that although your parents may help you find a wife or a husband much more than they do in the west, they still want you to love each other before you get married). Getting married flows from something much deeper – a love for each other and desire to share that love for the whole of life.  Getting baptised is the same. Getting baptised flows from something much deeper - having a living relationship of faith and trust in Jesus. To get married you need to have love. To get baptised you need to have faith

But faith, like love, is not merely a confession. It isn’t something you just say. If I say to Heather I love you and do nothing, I don’t really love her. I can say I love her all I want, but if I don’t do anything to express that love, it isn’t love. It’s just words (making the bed). If I say I believe in Jesus, but do nothing, I don’t really believe in Jesus at all. Faith connects to action or it isn’t really faith. Because faith in Jesus and trusting in Jesus means coming to him and recognising him as he really is.

These are some of the things the bible says about who Jesus is:
REV 19:16 King of Kings and Lord of Lords
PHP 2:9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
  and gave him the name that is above every name,
COL 1.17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
MATT 28.18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
The bible describes Jesus in these cosmic terms: Lord, King, above all things, in charge, ruler, having all authority. That is just one of the extraordinary aspects of the bible story. That Israel’s Messiah turned out to also be ruler of all. If you truly believe that this is Jesus, then the only right response is to submit completely to him and to do what he wants. Faith in Jesus leads to obedience to him (My story – swearing, Pam’s story, Mick’s story).

Now we can understand where baptism fits in. Baptism in water is one such, very public, act of obedience that comes from faith in Jesus. It is a way of getting a practical handle on your faith. It is a way of expressing that faith, just as me making the bed is a way of expressing my love. If we look at the next bit of that scripture in Matthew:
MATT 28.18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Our faith in the authority of Jesus leads us to obey Jesus and being plunged in the water is one of the first expressions of this new obedience.
But Paul’s thinking doesn’t stop there. Baptism is because of faith. Baptism points to the existence of faith. But you know what, faith isn’t the endpoint. Faith isn’t the goal. Faith is the entry into something much greater. We need to dig a bit deeper.

We saw from that passage we read that Paul describes baptism as being into Christ Jesus, into his death.
ROM 6.3 ‘Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death?’
To get baptised you have to get into the water. But he says you are also he says getting into something else. You are getting into Christ.
To understand this we have to remind ourselves that baptism is a very Jewish idea. Baptism basically means getting a complete wash. When a Jewish priest went into God’s presence in the temple he had to get baptised, he had to wash all over. When there was a new king of Israel he had to get baptised. At the time of Jesus, if a Gentile converted to Judaism they were circumcised (if they were male) and baptised. To the Jewish mind, getting baptised conveyed several ideas:
• Being cleansed and made acceptable to God so you could enter his presence
• Being joined into God’s people
• Entering into the covenant promises of God’s love
• Starting a new life
Baptism was really all about entering in. The priest entered in to God’s presence. The king entered into his reign. The new Gentile believer entered into the covenant, and became loved by God and became one of God’s people and in Jewish thinking they started a new life. What Paul does is he takes all these ideas and he puts Jesus in the middle of them.
You are baptised not just in the water. You are baptised into Christ. You have been joined to him. In Christ you enter God’s presence. In Christ you are now joined to God’s people. In Christ you have entered in to the covenant promise of God’s love. In Christ you have started a new life.

It is a very like boarding an aeroplane. The act of going up the steps and sitting in your seat and being in the plane means you get the benefit of all the plane does just by sitting there inside it.
This is right at the heart of Paul’s thinking.

Let’s read on in Romans:
RO 6:3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.
RO 6:5 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.
RO 6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

What is really startling from that reading is how often Paul repeats the idea of being in Christ. He actually says it nine times:

1. Baptised into Christ
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus

2. Baptised into his death
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

3. Buried with him
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death

4. Just as Christ… we too live
5 just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5. United with him in his death
6 If we have been united with him like this in his death

6. United with him in his resurrection
7 we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

7. Crucified with him
8 For we know that our old self was crucified with him

8. Died with Christ
9 Now if we died with Christ,

9. We will live with him
10 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
This whole idea of being in Christ is the very centre and heart of what Paul is trying to communicate. Let me put it another way. Baptism is the handle on the door of faith that takes you into Christ (enact going out of the room).
Where are you? In Christ. Everything that is true about Christ is now true about you. A Christian is someone who has entered in to all that Christ has accomplished and all that Christ is.
What does that mean?
Well it means a great number of things, all of them good, but to finish I want to focus on just one which is that when we are in Christ we are dead to sin.
ROM 6.6 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.

Jesus died a brutal shameful shocking painful death on the cross. To the Roman authorities they were just getting rid of a little political difficulty. To the Jewish religious authorities they were getting rid of a rival and a threat to their power. But to God he was doing something much bigger that no-one realised at the time. He was getting rid of sin.
Sin is more than some things you have done wrong. Sin is also a power. It is an oppressive power that rules us. If you look honestly inside yourself you will be forced to admit that even knowing the right thing to do does not mean that you will actually do it. Because sin is a power at work deep within us (enact being caught and overpowered by sin).
What Paul says is that when Christ died he took that power on. And it looked like it had won. Friday night. Saturday night. But then Sunday morning. Christ rises from death, the power of sin is utterly broken.
Where are you? You are in Christ? Everything that is true about him is true about you. What has happened to you? You have died in him. He died. You die in him. You don’t have to die to be dead to sin. Being in Christ means you are. What has happened to you? The power of sin has been utterly broken. Eternal life has already begun in you:
Rom 6.10 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.

Jesus lives. He was gloriously raised. He lives eternally. When God did that the future was brought back into the past. The new age began. The resurrection that the Jews mostly were expecting, but expecting at the end, began in Christ. God has begun the way things are going to be.
In eternity is there going to be any sin? That reality has started now in Christ. In eternity is there going to be any death? That reality has started now in Christ. Eternal life has begun. The power of death has been swallowed up. In eternity is everything living for God? That has begun now in Christ.
Eternal life is a life without sin, it is a life without death, without end, it is a life lived for God. That is what God has given you in Christ. You are alive in Christ. You live in him. The way things are going to be has already come to life in you.
We don’t try to live up to the life of Jesus. We live out the life of Jesus.
God gave Israel the law. The problem with the law was not the law, it was Israel. They could not live up to it. When it first arrived in Moses hands as he came down mountain they were already breaking it. The law said don’t have any idols and they already had one. The law says have no other gods but me and they already had.
Israel lived in this terrible tension with the law. They knew what God wanted and indeed agreed with it in their heart and mind. But they could not live up to it. What the law did was to reveal the problem of sin. Actually the law did not solve the problem of sin, it made the problem of sin worse.
What Paul says here is in Christ the problem has been sorted. The power of sin has been broken and new life has come. New creation life has come. Resurrection life has come. The way things are going to be has started now in Christ and therefore in you. We are not people who are trying to live up to a standard we can’t attain. We are people who have been brought to life and are now living that out from within.

Questions:
1) Ask who has been baptised in the group -why did they do it, what was it like?
2) Why is baptism important for Paul in this passage.  what does it show? where does it take you?
3) Does anyone in the group want to get baptised? what are their reservations and questions?
4) Talk about the benefits of being in Christ.  Talk about the illustration of getting on a plane.
5) Ian asks us “Where are you? In Christ.” This means everything that is true about Christ is now true about you. A Christian is someone who has entered in to all that Christ has accomplished and all that Christ is.
What does that mean? what does that look like?  How does that effect our everyday lives?
6) Ian talked about Christ’s victory over sin.  How do we live in the good of this?  How do we claim Christ’s victory for ourselves?