“The Baptism of our Lord”
Luke 3:15-22
1/7/07
During the season of Advent we heard John the
Baptist referring to the crowds who were listening to him as a bunch of
vipers. And, of course, we have to include ourselves under that
designation, too. According to God’s Word, that’s how
we stand before God as we come into this world - as children of the
devil, the serpent of old, who is by nature our father, of whose
kingdom we are citizens by birth, by whom all of us are held captive to
do his will. And in this state we are powerless to free
ourselves, since the devil is stronger than we are, and we are
powerless to change ourselves and become something other than we are,
since we are dead in our trespasses and sins. There’s no
doing anything good for God, no resolutions to change for the better,
no showing off what a good job of repenting, confessing, and believing
we can do, no making deals or bargaining with God to get Him to turn
away His justifiable wrath. We have to confess that even the
Baptist’s command to repent and be baptized is something we
cannot do for ourselves. We are creatures, and fallen ones at
that! There is nothing we can give to God; we can only be given
to by Him. The Bible leaves us in no doubt about who we are and
how we stand before God. We are a bunch of vipers, hating God and
hating one another, powerless to save ourselves, unwilling to be saved,
bound for the eternal punishment of hell. That’s how we
stand in our sins before our holy, righteous, almighty Creator.
And that’s where the sermon would end, if it
weren’t for the Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, because it was
at His Baptism that Jesus stood where you are, in order that you might
stand where He is. It was at His Baptism that Jesus put Himself
in your place, so that you might be put in His. It’s
because of His Baptism that you could say things about Jesus that you
couldn’t say about Him otherwise, and it’s because of His
Baptism that you can now say things about yourself that you
couldn’t otherwise say. With Him standing there in the
waters of the Jordan soaking up your sins in His Baptism, you can say
that Jesus stood there as a sinner - in fact, the sinner of all
sinners. Jesus became the blasphemer and unbeliever. He
became the murderer, adulterer, and thief. He became the
disobedient, the coveter, the liar, and the gossip. He became the
sinner that you are by being given your sins at His Baptism. This
is why Jesus received a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. Jesus didn’t have any sins of His own that He needed
to repent of. He was in no need of forgiveness for Himself.
But He underwent such a Baptism because your sins were laid upon
Him. Like the scapegoat in the O.T. upon which the leaders of
Israel placed their hands while confessing their sins, in order that
they might let that animal carry their sins away with it into the
wilderness, so Jesus was made your Scapegoat at His Baptism.
There He was burdened with your sins, in order to carry them away from
you to nail them with Him to the cross.
The Apostle Paul writes that “God made [Jesus]
who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus became the sinner that
you are at His Baptism. But this statement of the Apostle Paul
not only says something about Jesus; it also says something about
you. Since Jesus at His Baptism became sin for you in your place,
you who have been put in His place by way of your Baptism are now the
righteousness of God in Him. You, formerly called a sinner and a
viper, are now called the righteousness of God in Christ. And
this was not your own doing; Baptism was not something you did for
yourself; neither did you save yourself by your repenting and
believing. But as Paul writes, “[God] saved us, not on the
basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to
His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy
Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our
Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs
according to the hope of eternal life.”
Jesus put Himself in your place as sinner at His
Baptism, so that you might be put in His place as a holy, righteous
child of God at your Baptism. Jesus became what you are, so that
you might become what He is. Formerly, God called you a sinner
and a viper, but Jesus took those names upon Himself, so that you might
be called by another Name. This is illustrated in the O.T. by the
account of the bronze serpent which God told Moses to erect on a
pole. The people of Israel had sinned in complaining against God
and disbelieving Him. And so God sent a bunch of poisonous vipers
among the people, so that whoever was bitten by them died. Then,
the people cried out to Moses to intercede for them before God.
God then commanded that Moses erect a bronze serpent upon a pole with
the promise attached to it that whoever was bitten could look at that
serpent and not die. That serpent pointed to Jesus. Jesus
became the viper that you are. At His Baptism He allowed Himself
to be infected with the poison of your sin, in order that by way of His
crucifixion He might become the antidote. Now, just like the
bronze serpent in the wilderness, God’s promise is connected to
Jesus on the cross, so that all who look to Him in faith may not
perish, but have everlasting life.
At His Baptism Jesus became the sinner and viper
that you are, so that you might become a holy and righteous son of God
at your Baptism. Jesus stood in your place, so that you might
stand in His. With Jesus standing there at His
Baptism in your place, He stood before God as the sinner, so that you
might stand before God as a righteous saint. So, now, where are
your sins? If your conscience is bothering you on account of
them, if the devil is making you feel guilty because of them, if you
are burdened with some annoying habit and cannot free yourself from it,
Jesus’ Baptism tells you where God has put your sins - on His
Son, who took them to His cross to answer for them there with His
blood. Your sins are no longer located with you; they’ve
been separated from you as far as the east is from the west. They
were put on Jesus, and even He doesn’t have them anymore.
They’ve been atoned for, buried, and forgiven. And with
your sins given to Jesus, you no longer stand condemned before God
under the devil in his kingdom of darkness, but you stand before God
under His declaration of righteousness in His kingdom of grace.
But to stand in the Lord’s place also means to
follow Him where He went. And where did He go? To the
cross, to the grave, to the resurrection, and then to the Father.
And that is where He takes you. He takes you to the cross - to
His cross and to your own. He takes you to His cross through His
Word and Sacraments, delivering to you the forgiveness of your sins,
life, and salvation He won for you on His cross. Then He takes
you to your cross. Your cross cannot earn the benefits of
Christ’s cross for you, but your cross is the daily dying to your
sinful nature that the Holy Spirit works in you through your
Baptism. Baptism will continue to have its way with you until it
brings you to the grave. Since Jesus died and was buried, there
is nothing to fear from death and the grave. They have been
sanctified by Jesus. The sting of death has been removed, and
death is as harmless as sleep to the Christian. Death is a
condition from which you will be awakened. Jesus did not stay
dead; so, neither will you. Jesus is going to bring you to the
resurrection. Baptism will only be complete at your bodily
resurrection from the dead on the Last Day, when Jesus comes for
you. He will then take you to your heavenly Father in His kingdom
of glory, where you will live and reign with Him forever and
ever. These are the places where Jesus takes us, whom He has now
put with Him at Baptism. Where you stand there He stands, so that
where He stands there you may also stand.
The Baptism of our Lord, then, is great comfort for
us, because it was there that Jesus stepped into our place, in order
that God’s wrath might be poured out on Him instead of us, so
that we might live under God’s grace. Jesus became what He
was not, so that you might become what you are not. He put
Himself where you are, so that you might be where He is. He took
on your sins, so that you might be clothed with His
righteousness. Now, baptized into Him, you no longer stand before
God in your sins, but you stand before Him in Jesus who stands with you
and for you as your Advocate before God. The next time you feel
guilty, condemned, or accused by the devil on account of your sins,
remember where you stand on account of your Baptism into Christ.
Remember that on account of His Baptism Jesus stands with you in your
place, and that through His work on the cross He has put away your sins
once and for all. You now stand before God clothed with Christ,
and in joy you will stand before Him face to face in His kingdom of
glory, to live and reign with Him forever and ever. Amen.