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“Death and Life”
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
We often talk about an emergency as “a matter of life and death.” But as logical as that order may seem—life and death—St. Paul begs to differ. For you, for me, and for all the faithful of Christ, death precedes life. You die…and then you live. But how can this be? The evidence speaks rather powerfully to the contrary. We have all known faithful Christians who have lived, and then they have died. We have seen their lifeless bodies, perhaps even seen those bodies lowered into their earthly resting places. In response, St. Paul says, “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.”
Throughout this text, St. Paul speaks much about our death as Christians. He speaks of crucifixion; he speaks of burial. And these things sound very strange to our ears because we don’t consider ourselves dead at all! To the contrary, we feel very much alive! Those among us who are few in years are full of energy and vitality, with no thought about ever dying. And those of us with more years, even more than we may care to acknowledge, still cherish life and prize it, and seek by all means to preserve it.
Still, St. Paul insists that death is the first order of business for us. Listen to what he says: “We were buried, therefore, with Him...” “We have been united with Him in a death like His...” “...our old self was crucified with Him.” “...we have died with Christ.” “So you must also consider yourself dead...” Of course, St. Paul is not referring to death in a merely physical sense. He means that Christians, through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and through the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, are dead to sin and even to death itself. You are no longer under death’s awful power; no longer under the sway of the devil and his power of darkness, the ruler of the realm of death. And how has this happened? It has taken place in Holy Baptism. That is what Paul says. In Baptism you enter into the death of Jesus and receive from Him everything that His death has accomplished. And this is not just some symbolic dying on your part, but a real death that takes in everything that is Christ’s death!
What great comfort is found in your Baptism! Recall those wonderful words from the Small Catechism: “What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Which are these words and promises of God? Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Mark: ‘Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.’”
Baptism works the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness means that sins are gone, every last one of them, never to haunt or hurt you again. Baptism rescues from death and the devil. Baptism spares you from the consequences of death. Because you have gone through death with Jesus, you need never fear death again. Yes, you will experience physical death. After all, as Scripture clearly teaches, the wages of sin is death. Your body must enter the realm of physical death where it will rest, awaiting the call of Christ at His return to come out of the grave. But for you and for all the faithful of Christ, the death of the body is nothing more than closing your eyes to this world, only to open them again in your heavenly home, where the devil can never again reach you to taunt you and tempt you and hate you. Baptism gives you eternal salvation, a salvation that not only will not end, but will enjoy the unending presence of Christ Himself in all His fullness and with all the richness of His gifts! All of that is death for you! All of that is dying with Christ and being buried with Him in Holy Baptism, and all so that you might then rise to newness of life. And while that newness of life is certainly known in its fullness only in eternity, there is newness of life to be known now and to be lived now.
Newness of life is to be “in Christ,” to be truly alive with Him now! It is to faithfully walk with Him here and now because, after all, He is already walking with you. There is not a single step you take in this life that He is not with you. “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” That is His promise to you. And that is true above all when life and livelihood are threatened. Paul said: “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” And that’s not just life hereafter. That promise is our present reality as well as our future hope. Present or future, it is all one life because there is but one Christ, who lives and reigns to all eternity.
And the very fact that we are united with Christ in His death and in His life means that we daily share in the blessings of His resurrection, even as it raises our lives now above mere routine existence. It makes of our lives something glorious, even though that glory might, for now, be hidden by suffering or affliction. It makes every day an opportunity to rejoice in that life which is the creation of the Holy Spirit, to open our ears to the life-giving and comforting Word of God, to raise our voices and our hearts in prayer to our heavenly Father who has given us His sure and certain promise that He will hear and answer our prayers.
And all of this is what makes life worth living and death worth dying, for death and life now means that there is life to come that surpasses anything we have known, anything we can now comprehend. Christ’s death is ours, and His life is ours, too. And we live eternally because He died and then rose to life again. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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