First Baptist Church Litchfield
August 30, 2026

      • Isaiah 55:1–3ESV

  • Better Is One Day
  • Come Thou Fount

      • John 4:21–26ESV

  • Jesus Strong And Kind
  • Just As I Am
  • There Is A Fountain
  • In 1812, Adoniram Judson and his wife, Ann, sailed from America for India as Congregationalist missionaries. They had been commissioned to take the gospel to the nations, and when they boarded the ship, they were convinced of the practice of infant baptism.
    But during the long voyage across the ocean, Judson began studying the New Testament carefully on the subject of baptism. He expected his study to strengthen the position he already held. Instead, Scripture changed his mind. Ann studied the issue as well, and eventually both became convinced that Christian baptism was the immersion of a professing believer in Jesus Christ.
    That conviction came with a cost. They knew that becoming Baptists would separate them from the Congregationalist missionary organization that had sent them, jeopardizing their financial support. Yet Judson wrote that they desired to profess their faith in Christ by being baptized “in obedience to his sacred commands.”
    So on September 6, 1812, in Calcutta, India, Adoniram and Ann Judson were baptized by immersion by the Baptist missionary William Ward. Their baptism publicly declared something about them:

    We belong to Jesus Christ, and we intend to follow Him wherever obedience leads.

    Brothers and sisters, that is what Christian baptism does. Your baptism says something about who you are. It declares that your old life has died, you belong to Jesus Christ, and you have been raised to walk in a new life.
    And that is precisely where Paul takes us in Romans 6.
    Paul does not suddenly introduce baptism as an isolated subject. Romans 6 grows out of everything he has been teaching about the gospel from the beginning of the letter.

    Summary of Romans 1–5

    Paul writes Romans to a church he did not establish and had not yet visited. He desires to come to Rome, enjoy mutual encouragement with the believers there, strengthen their understanding of the gospel, and eventually receive their support as he carries the gospel farther west toward Spain. But before Paul arrives in Rome, he wants these believers to understand clearly the gospel he preaches.
    That is why Romans contains one of the fullest explanations of the gospel anywhere in Scripture. Paul announces its great theme in Romans 1:16–17: the gospel is the power of God for salvation because in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith. From there, Paul begins unpacking why everyone desperately needs this gospel.
    In Romans 1:18–3:20, Paul brings the entire human race into God's courtroom. Gentile and Jew alike stand guilty before a holy God. Humanity has suppressed the truth, exchanged God's glory for idols, violated God's law, and fallen short of His glory. There is no righteousness within us capable of making us right with God. As Paul concludes, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10), and “by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight” (Rom. 3:20).
    That is the problem with all of fallen humanity. We are not people who occasionally commit sins; apart from Christ, we are sinners standing guilty and condemned before God, unable to produce the righteousness He requires.
    But beginning in Romans 3:21, two of the sweetest words in Scripture break into our hopeless condition: “But now.” God has provided the righteousness we could never produce. Sinners are justified freely by His grace through the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ. Christ bears God's wrath as our substitute, and His righteousness is received through faith rather than earned through works.
    Romans 4 then demonstrates that this has always been God's way of salvation. Abraham himself was not justified by works but by faith. Salvation has always rested upon God's gracious promise rather than human achievement.
    Then Paul reaches Romans 5 and begins describing the glorious consequences of justification. Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:1). We have access to grace. We rejoice in hope. God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. And all of this is possible because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).
    Paul then takes us even deeper. In Romans 5:12–21, he explains humanity through two representative heads: Adam and Christ. In Adam come sin, condemnation, and death. In Christ come righteousness, justification, and life. Adam's disobedience brought condemnation to those united to him; Christ's obedience brings righteousness to those united to Him.
    And that brings us directly to Romans 6.
    Paul anticipates an objection to the gospel of free grace: If God's grace increases wherever sin increases, why shouldn't Christians simply continue sinning so that grace may abound?
    Paul's answer is emphatic: “By no means!” (Rom. 6:2). Why?
    Because the gospel does not merely change our verdict before God; it changes our relationship to sin. The Christian has been united to Jesus Christ. His death has become our death. His burial has become our burial. His resurrection life has become our life.
    And Paul points to baptism as the visible sign of that transforming union:
    “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3).
    Baptism does not just look backward and say, “My sins have been forgiven.” It declares something even larger: “I belong to Jesus Christ.” The old life under the dominion of sin has been buried with Christ, and through union with the risen Christ, the believer has been raised to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).
    That is why Romans 6 is such an important turning point in the letter. Paul is moving from the gospel that justifies the sinner to the gospel that transforms the justified sinner. He will spend Romans 6–8 explaining the implications of our union with Christ for sin, sanctification, the law, suffering, the Holy Spirit, and ultimately glorification.
    So Romans 6:3–11 teaches us that the Christ who justifies us also unites us to Himself, and everyone united to the crucified and risen Christ is called to live out the reality of His death and resurrection.
    That makes baptism much more than a religious ceremony. It is a God-given picture of the believer's new identity in Christ.

    Baptism declares that Christ has changed our relationship with sin: the old life has been buried with Him, and a new life has begun in Him.

    Baptism announces that the person you once were in Adam has gone into the grave with Jesus Christ, and the life you now possess is bound to the risen Savior. Therefore, your baptism declares I will live like someone who is alive in Christ.
    So this morning, let us see four ways to live out your baptism in your new identity in Jesus Christ.

    I. Live By Being Buried with Christ: Your Old Life Has Ended — vv. 3–4

    Paul writes,
    “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.”
    Notice how Paul begins: “Do you not know?” Paul is reminding these Christians of something they should already understand. He takes them back to the beginning of their Christian lives, to their conversion and baptism, and essentially says, “Do you remember what happened when you became a Christian? Do you understand what your baptism declared about you?”
    Paul says, “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.”
    Now, we need to be careful here. Paul is not teaching ex opere operato (Latin by the work worked)—that the physical act of baptism automatically regenerates a sinner or produces union with Christ simply because blessed water has been applied to the body. Water cannot regenerate a sinner. Water cannot justify the guilty. Water cannot unite a spiritually dead sinner to the living Christ.
    We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
    But neither should we weaken Paul's language. In the New Testament, conversion and baptism belong closely together. A sinner hears the gospel, repents of his sins, believes upon Jesus Christ, confesses Him as Lord, and is baptized in His name. Baptism was the public, visible identification of a converted sinner with Jesus Christ.
    So when Paul speaks about being “baptized into Christ Jesus,” he is speaking about Christians who have been united to Christ in conversion and who have publicly identified themselves with Christ through baptism.
    Kent Hughes points to Paul's similar language in 1 Corinthians 10:2, where Israel is said to have been “baptized into Moses.” Paul does not mean that Moses somehow spiritually regenerated Israel. He means that in passing through the Red Sea, the Israelites became publicly identified with Moses as God's appointed leader. They belonged with Moses. They followed Moses. Their destiny was bound up with him.
    Something infinitely greater happens with the Christian.
    When you repent of your sins and believe upon Jesus Christ, you are united to Christ, and in baptism you publicly confess, “I belong to Him.”
    That is why Jesus commands His disciples to baptize believers “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). Baptism marks us out as belonging to the Triune God.
    Paul uses this same language in Galatians 3:27: “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Our identification with Jesus is so complete that Paul describes us as being clothed with Christ.
    But Romans 6 takes that identification one step further. Paul says that if you have been identified with Christ, then you have been identified with His death.
    “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.”
    And then Paul intensifies the picture in verse 4:
    “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death.”
    Christian, think about what your baptism portrayed. You went down into the water because Christ went down into death. You were buried beneath the water because Christ was laid in the grave. And when you came out of that water, you were confessing that the person you were apart from Christ no longer defines you.
    Your baptism was a funeral. It was the public declaration that your old life under the dominion of sin has come to an end because you have been united to the death of Jesus Christ.
    R. C. Sproul puts it this way:
    “My baptism signifies my identification with Jesus’ death on the cross, and that I am mystically crucified with Christ.... As Christ was taken down from the cross and buried in the ground, so I, in terms of my old nature, am put to death and buried.” R.C. Sproul
    Paul's argument here becomes so powerful. Remember the question that started this chapter: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (v. 1). Paul's answer was emphatic: “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (v. 2). Now he explains why.
    Because the Christian's relationship to sin has fundamentally changed through union with Christ.
    The person you were in Adam, under sin's condemnation, authority, and dominion, has gone to the cross with Jesus Christ. You have passed from Adam into Christ, from death into life, from the old humanity into the new. You buried the old you with Christ.
    This does not mean that Christians no longer struggle with sin. Paul is not teaching sinless perfection. Sin remains present, and we must fight it every day. But while sin remains present, sin no longer reigns as your master.
    When temptation comes, Satan wants you to say, This is just who I am. I have always been this way. I will always be this way. This sin owns me.
    Romans 6 says, No, it doesn't.
    Look back at your baptism and remember what it declared.
    I belong to Christ.
    I died with Christ.
    My old master no longer owns me.
    My old life no longer defines me.
    I have been buried with Christ.
    But brothers and sisters, baptism does not end with burial. We do not leave a person beneath the water. Paul takes us into the grave with Christ in the first half of verse 4 because he intends to bring us out of the grave with Christ in the second half:
    “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.”
    The gospel does not simply give your old life a better ending. In union with the risen Christ, God gives you a new life altogether.
    Paul, therefore, makes a second declaration about living out your baptism:

    II. Live United with Christ: Sin’s Dominion Has Been Broken — vv. 5–7

    Romans 6:5 says,
    “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”
    Notice the word “united.” The Greek word symphytoi carries the idea of being grown together or joined together. The picture is something like two things that have been grafted together so that their lives are now inseparably connected. Think of a branch being grafted into a tree.
    That is what has happened to the Christian. You have been united to Jesus Christ. His life has become your life. His story has become your story. His death became your death. And now His resurrection guarantees your resurrection.
    Too many of us in the church neglect to live in the truth, goodness, and beauty of our union with Christ.
    Christians are not merely religious people, as the world would see us. We do not read the Scriptures as self-contained repositories of spiritual truth. We do not get up every day merely trying to imitate Jesus as though moral imitation were the means to our salvation. God forbid!
    When you repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, God unites you to a living Savior so that all He has accomplished for you, all the spiritual blessings are yours in Christ Jesus.
    Paul says to the Galatians,
    “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).
    Being crucified with Christ and His life living in you means you cannot be united to a living Savior who conquered sin and death without your relationship to sin and death fundamentally changing.

    Your Old Self Was Crucified with Christ

    In verse 6, Paul says,
    “We know that our old self was crucified with him.”
    Your old self is your fallen condition, your nature in the old Adam. But when God united you to Christ, something decisive happened to that old identity:
    “Our old self was crucified with him.”
    Your old self was nailed to the cross. God slew it. That means you don't crucify your old self. You don't need to continue crucifying your old self as though you could improve your righteousness by flogging your soul over and over again. God's crucifying work is a finished work, releasing you from the power of sin.

    Sin Is No Longer Your Master

    Paul says,
    “in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
    Being brought to nothing means to render sin ineffective in our body. The idea is that sin has been rendered powerless with respect to its former dominion over you.
    Paul tells us exactly what he means: “so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
    There is the great change. The tyrant has lost his throne. And when God united you to Christ, Christ's victory fundamentally shapes your relationship with sin.
    Paul says in verse 7:
    “For one who has died has been set free from sin.”
    Think of a slave under the authority of a cruel master. Every morning the master calls and the slave must answer. The master commands and the slave obeys. But then the slave dies. The master can stand over the grave shouting commands all day long, but his authority over that slave has ended. Death has broken the master's claim.
    That is what Paul wants us to understand about our relationship to sin. Sin may still call your name, tempt you, and demand your obedience, but it no longer possesses the authority it once had. You died with Christ, and the old master's claim has been broken. You can now live feely united to Jesus. Your new risen King, who transferred you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light, frees you to live under his dominion.
    But our salvation is greater than liberation from an old master. Christ did not just die; He rose again. And union with Christ means that we share not only in the benefits of His death but also in the life and hope of His resurrection.
    That brings us to a third declaration about living out your baptism:

    III. Live Raised with Christ: Your New Life Has Begun — vv. 8–10

    Paul now moves from Christ's death to Christ's resurrection. If we have been united with Christ in His death, then we will also participate in His resurrection.
    Christian, your resurrection is as certain as Christ's resurrection. Our physical bodies may die, but the grave cannot have the final word over someone who belongs to Jesus.
    Paul explains in verse 9:
    “Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”
    Remember what Paul taught us in Romans 5. Through Adam, sin entered the world, and through sin came death. Paul says, “death reigned” (5:17) and “sin reigned in death” (5:21). Sin and death became tyrants over fallen humanity.
    But then Christ entered the realm of sin and death. He took our sin upon Himself. He suffered its penalty. He entered the grave. And on the third day, He walked out victorious.
    In the gospels we see others who had been raised from the dead only to die again. Lazarus eventually returned to the grave. Jesus never will. Death met a Man it could not hold.
    Paul explains why in verse 10: “For the death he died he died to sin, once for all.”
    Jesus did not die to His own sin. He had none. As our sinless substitute, He bore the penalty our sin deserved and decisively dealt with sin through His death. And He did it “once for all.” Christ does not need another cross. He does not need another sacrifice. His work is finished. Sin's penalty has been paid, and therefore death's dominion has been broken.
    That is why Paul contrasts Christ's death with His present life: “but the life he lives he lives to God.” And because you are united to Christ, His resurrection life becomes the source of your new life.
    One day we will be physically raised and live with Christ forever in the new heavens and new earth. That is the future hope of the resurrection. But, brothers and sisters, resurrection life has already begun in us. Paul said in verse 4 that we now “walk in newness of life.”
    Church, I hope you can see that the grace of God does more than forgive you. Christ delivers you from sin's penalty, breaks sin's power, and gives you a new life. You have a new Master, new desires, new loyalties, new power for obedience, and a new eternal hope and home.
    There are a couple of ways ressurection life works out in your day to day living. First, it changes how we face death. Unless Christ returns first, these bodies will enter the grave. But death cannot keep what belongs to Jesus. His empty tomb guarantees our resurrection. Secondly, it helps you to live in resurrection power today.
    That brings us to our final declaration:

    IV. Reckon Yourself Alive: Live According to Who You Are — v. 11

    Paul now draws the conclusion:
    “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
    Notice those words, “So you also.” Paul is saying, “Everything I have just told you about Jesus has implications for how you understand yourself.”
    Christ died to sin once for all and now lives to God. And because you are united to Christ, you must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God.
    The word translated “consider” is logizomai. It means to reckon, calculate, or count something as true.
    Paul is not telling you to pretend you are dead to sin, and he is definitely not saying, “Think positively about yourself until you become something different.”
    He is saying, “Believe about yourself what God says is already true because you are in Christ.”
    That is important because the Christian life begins with gospel truth before it moves to Christian obedience.
    Paul does not say, “Defeat sin so that you can become dead to sin.”
    He says, “You are dead to sin in Christ; therefore, live according to who you are.”
    Sin is still present. You will still experience temptation. You will still stumble and need to repent. But sin is no longer your master. Its dominion has been broken because you died with Christ. Sin remains, but sin no longer reigns.
    Therefore, Christian, being made alive in Christ, you have been given the Holy Spirit to empower you to say no to sin.
    When temptation says, You belong to me, The Holy Spirit says, reckon yourself dead to sin.
    When your past says, This is who you have always been, The Holy Spirit says you are a new creation in Christ, reckon yourself dead to sin.
    When Satan says, You will never change, The Holy Spirit says the old is gone and the new has come, reckon yourself dead to sin.
    And don't miss the other half of Paul's command. You are not only dead to sin; you are “alive to God.”
    Christianity is not only saying no to your old master. It is living for your new Master.
    You are alive to worship God.
    Alive to obey God.
    Alive to love God.
    Alive to serve God.
    Alive to pursue holiness.
    Alive to enjoy God.
    And all of it is “in Christ Jesus.”
    That little phrase is the foundation beneath the entire passage. Your confidence is not in the strength of your resolve. It is not in your ability to reform yourself. It is not even in the strength of your faith.
    Your confidence is Christ.
    You died with Christ.
    You were buried with Christ.
    You are united with Christ.
    You will be raised with Christ.
    And right now, you are alive to God in Christ.
    So, brothers and sisters, live according to who you already are.
    That is what your baptism declares you to do.
    You went down into the water confessing, “My old life has ended.”
    You came out of the water confessing, “I belong to the risen Christ.”
    So when you struggle with sin, remember your baptism, remember your baptism visibly declared the gospel reality upon which your whole Christian life rests:

    I belong to Jesus Christ.

    I died with Him.

    I will rise with Him.

    Sin is no longer my master.

    Christ is my life.

    Therefore, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, and live like it. Amen.
  • As You Go
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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