Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : January 11, 2004
Baptism: God's Tool of Salvation
Epiphany 1
Hopefully this past Christmas season you were able to enjoy a large meal that had a ham or a turkey as the centerpiece. In my family, we have the tradition that dad cuts the turkey or the ham because he is the head of the household. Actually, I think that cutting the turkey or ham is the only thing my wife will let me do with the meal because otherwise I would certainly ruin something. In any case, that is what I was able to do a few weeks ago. And as I was cutting the ham, I was thinking how bad of a job I was doing -- every knife cut was crooked, and all the pieces of ham were too small or too large. But then I thought how much worse it would be if I weren't using a knife at all.
Tools are like that. They make our lives a little easier. Just think how difficult life would be if you had no tools around the house, but instead you would have to do everything by hand. Could you imagine trying to carve a turkey or ham with your hand? It wouldn't work too well, would it? If you want to dig a garden, you rent a rototiller or do it the hard way yourself by getting a shovel out of the garage and digging it up by hand. But how easy would it be to dig a garden if you actually had to dig it up with your bare hands? Now that winter has finally set in, I'm sure we'll be seeing some more snow. How easy would it be to clear off your driveway or sidewalk if you had no shovel or any other tool to help you? Tools not only make life easier for us, but they actually become almost necessary for life.
This morning we are going to talk about a tool that God uses for creating and sustaining life. It's the tool that the Holy Spirit worked through for most of us so that we could have life here on earth and the hope of eternal life in heaven. That tool is baptism. It is God's Tool of Salvation. Through the Apostle Paul's words to Titus, we will see that this tool of salvation was fashioned by God and also fashioned for us to make us heirs of eternal life.
When you think of God, you might have all kinds of pictures that come to mind. You might picture him seated on his throne in heaven dispensing justice and grace to whomever he sees fit. You might picture him when you look at nature. It shows the majesty of God and the power of his hands. Really, any picture of God that we come up with can't do justice to God as he actually is. But have you ever thought of picturing God as a blacksmith? When we look at baptism, God's tool of salvation, we see that it is a tool that God fashioned. So, in a sense, he is a divine blacksmith.
Since God fashioned baptism as his tool for salvation, that means that it is not a tool of human design. Since we didn't fashion that tool, we can't understand how it works unless God tells us. If I gave you a galvanometer, chances are that you probably wouldn't know what it is or how to use it. But if I told you that it is a tool for measuring electric current and then showed you how to use it, you would be able to see for yourself how it works.
In the same way, when a child is baptized, we can't see anything happen that would tell us that God's tool of baptism is working. When we see a child baptized, we don't hear the voice of God from heaven saying, "Now this sinful person is a child of God." God spoke from heaven when Jesus was baptized at the beginning of his ministry, but that was a special sign to show that this was not just a man, or even a sinful man, but that Jesus was the very sinless Son of God himself. But that doesn't happen when we see a normal, sinful person baptized. We don't see any special glow that comes from heaven as soon as the water hits the child's body. Since nothing seems to happen when a child is baptized, many people, including some Christians use their own reasoning and say that it must not be working. But just because we can't see anything happening outwardly, doesn't mean that nothing is happening inwardly. Because actually when a child is baptized, the most important change is taking place. Paul tells us what that change is: "[God] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit." This washing refers to baptism that the Holy Spirit uses to bring people to faith. We are reborn as children of God. We are renewed to be like the perfection and image of God that mankind lost in the fall into sin. How do we know that this change has taken place since we can't actually see the change? We know it because God tells us so in his word. We heard it in the verses before us today and we hear it unmistakably in Peter's first letter: "Baptism now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21).
Since God was the one who fashioned his saving tool of baptism, we know that it works, even though we might not know how. We have God's word on it through the Apostle Peter: "Baptism saves." But the words in Peter direct us also to the second point in our text. "Baptism now saves you." Listen to those words echoed in our text: "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior." God's tool of salvation was fashioned by God, and it was fashioned for us.
You would never use an ice pick to drink water. Instead, you would use a cup or a glass. You probably wouldn't use a glass or cup to break ice either. Every tool has a special purpose -- it is used for something. So it is with baptism. It is God's tool of salvation -- your salvation. That means that God had to save us from something. Paul mentions that something in the verse preceding our text: "At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another." That's not a very pretty picture. And all of that is contained in only one verse.
In the ancient world, many people believed that the world was made up of only four elements: water, fire, earth and air. Every living and non-living thing in the universe was made up of these four elements in differing amounts. They were called elements because they were elementary or basic to life. If something was made up of one of these elements almost entirely, it would also be very powerful. A tornado was made entirely of the element of air, and so was very powerful. A forest fire was made up almost entirely of the element of fire, and could very destructive and powerful. Obviously, we know much more about the make-up of creation today.
But it can give us a good idea as to what sin did to us. Sin is powerful. We were born with it. We can't escape it. It brings us death as a consequence. It is so powerful, in fact, that in God's eyes we could do nothing to please him. It ruled us entirely and would not let go, giving us no hope no matter what we did. We could only sin and sin, and there would be no end to it because we are sinful by our very nature. It is part of us. Paul used a good word to describe it: 'enslaved'. Today we still show signs every day that our sinful nature wants us to go back to being enslaved. We continue to sin against God. We show hatred to others, even within our own families by how we treat family members. We show that we still have sinful pleasures and passions that we would rather follow instead of following God and his will. You know the sins I'm talking about all too well, as do I.
But baptism changed us. We still sin, certainly. But we are no longer slaves to sin. Through the gospel, which gives baptism its power, God has given us new life. We were sinners who were on our way to hell, but now even while we are still sinners, we are saved and on our way to heaven. Paul says, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy." Paul wants to make it absolutely clear that there was nothing in us that caused God to save us and that we had nothing to do with saving ourselves. But he saved us simply because he loved us. He sent his own Son to live a perfect life for us and to die in our place, even though we deserved to go to the cross instead. Then he poured out his Holy Spirit on us who brought us to faith in Jesus as our Savior. For most of us that was through baptism when we were infants. For others, we heard the word of God which the Holy Spirit used to create faith in our hearts. That gospel message says that we have "been justified by his grace," so that "we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." The blood of Jesus washed away all our sins and all of the world's sins, just like water washing the filth off of a car. Now we are entirely clean in God's eyes.
Throughout the ages of the world many people have made tools to help out in the kitchen, in the garden, at work. Really in every facet of life, people have made tools so that our lives could be easier. I'm sure we are thankful for all of these tools when we use them, even though we might not think of it at the time. How much more do we praise God who fashioned baptism as a tool for our salvation! We show that thanks and praise to God by remembering our baptisms every day, and through the work of the Holy Spirit, drowning our sinful natures and living our lives in thanks to him. Amen.
