Clean-Up at
Birth
If you
have ever given birth to a child or if you have ever witnessed this amazing act
of God’s grace, you know that a child does not come out very clean. That newborn infant is not fit to be held and
coddled the second it is delivered because gunk needs to be sucked out of the
nose, crud has to be cleaned off the body, and a blanket needs to be wrapped
around that little human being for warmth and protection and comfort. Only after the child has been washed and
wiped off and wrapped up is that tiny boy or girl given back to the mother or
father to be held.
And
that’s true for any and every child, isn’t it?
No matter who the child is or who that child will grow up to be, no
matter who the parents are or how cute they think their child is, no matter
where the baby is delivered or what cultural traditions surround its birth,
every child comes out dirty. Helplessly
dirty. It cannot wash itself; it cannot
wipe itself clean; it cannot wrap itself up.
Someone else has to do those things for this little child before it is cradled
in the arms its loving parents.
We Needed
Cleaning
The
Bible describes us in a very similar way: We are born dirty. In fact, the moment we came into existence
inside the wombs of our mothers, we were spiritually filthy. “Surely
I was a sinner from at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” King
David says in Psalm 51. We are covered
in the awful and disgusting effects of sin the instant our hearts start to
beat. And it is a filth that we cannot
get rid of ourselves. We cannot wash
ourselves off; we cannot wipe ourselves clean; we cannot wrap ourselves
up. We are helplessly dirty just like a
newborn infant seconds out of the womb.
But it’s
not just a surface problem like it is at a physical birth. The grime of our instant imperfections and
the sludge of our natural rebellious attitude and the slime of our inbred
selfishness isn’t just something on the outside that can easily be cleaned
off. It’s on the inside. It’s intertwined with the very nature of who
we are. It infects us and injects us
with the bad and the wrong and the evil that spill out of us every day. And we can see the effects of that all the
time, can’t we? The moment a baby is
born, what does it do? It screams and cries. And if not right away, then soon after. Why?
Because it is cold or hungry or tired or bored. But does the baby care if the mother is
exhausted? Does the baby care if the
father is preoccupied? Does the baby
care if it is inconvenient for everyone else?
No! The baby wants something and
that baby wants it now. “But a baby doesn’t know any better!” someone
might argue. That’s exactly right: a
baby doesn’t know any better. All a baby
knows is “Me, me, me. I want it right
now. I don’t care about anything or
anyone else. Make me happy.” A baby truly doesn’t know any better than
complete selfishness because it is dirty from the inside out.
Or watch
a pair of two year olds fight over one toy while 50 other toys lie in the same room. Watch a four year old steal a cookie. Watch a six year old instinctually tell a lie
to stay out of trouble. Watch an eight
year old get jealous of her mother’s love.
Watch a ten year old try to cheat in school. Watch a twelve year old hate someone
else. Watch a fourteen year old bad
mouth someone behind their back. Do we
have to go on? Because no one has to
teach children to do these bad things, do they?
They just naturally do those things.
Have you ever noticed how it’s so easy to be bad but so difficult to be
good? There’s a reason for that. Everyone is dirty from the inside out. And that includes us still today.
Don’t we
still fight and deceive and lie and get jealous and cheat and hate and
gossip? It might not be so obvious now that
we’re a little older, but that’s because we’ve gotten so good at hiding it over
the years! We are able to cover it up
and screen it from sight and brush it under the rug a lot better now than back
then! But nothing has really
changed. “At one time we too were foolish,” Paul once wrote to a man named
Titus. “[We were] disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions
and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one
another.” Nothing has changed. Human beings have always naturally been this
way from the time Adam and Eve had their first child. Because their sin was inherited by their
children and their children after that and their children after that. Which is why we were born dirty. We were conceived filthy. There are no exceptions.
A Washing of
Rebirth & Renewal
“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. 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.”
There is
no doubt that we were born dirty. But
because Go was also our loving Father, he reached down, washed us off, wiped us
clean, and wrapped us up. He saved us, but
not because we were so good, because of his mercy. “He saved us through the washing of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
The word
“washing” in this verse is only used twice in the entire New Testament: here
and in Ephesians chapter 5. In the book
of Ephesians Paul writes, “Christ loved
the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word”
(5:25-26). Christ cleansed us by the
washing with water through the Word; and
here in Titus, God saves us through the washing
of rebirth and renewal. Both passages
are referring to the power and the importance of baptism. It is a washing, not of the outside but of the
inside. It is cleansing, not from dirt
but from sin. It is a renewal, not in a
feeling of refreshment but an actual rebirth.
Those who are baptized are “born again” in a very real way by the power
of the Holy Spirit! The first birth was
a birth into this world covered in sin.
The second birth is a birth into God’s family: washed off in Jesus’
blood, wiped clean with Jesus’ burial clothes, and wrapped up in the same robe
of righteousness that Jesus now wears.
Because baptism cannot work if it is not connected to Christ.
Notice
that Paul explains that to Titus right here in these verses: “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.” Baptism is simply a way
in which our Lord connects us with Christ and his cross, his death and his
sacrifice, his resurrection and his ascension.
Baptism is not something we are doing; baptism is one way through which
God gives us what Jesus has already done.
That’s how he can save us through
baptism. Not by baptism or because of
baptism, but through baptism. Baptism is not a cause of our salvation;
Jesus is. Baptism is nothing more than one
of the delivery methods God uses to give that very same salvation to us.
My
parents bought a camera for us for Christmas.
Unfortunately, when we opened the camera box on Christmas morning, the
camera was not in the camera box. The
cords were there and the software was there… everything but the camera. And so the next day my parents went down to
the store they had bought it from and the owners immediately gave them the
camera without any hassle. But my
parents live in Ohio. And so although
the mix up had been fixed and although the camera was technically our gift, we
didn’t have it. My parents had to get it
to us somehow. And so they had three
options: mail it, delivery it personally, or send it with someone else. Fortunately, my youngest brother and his
family were just over there for Christmas and we were going to see my brother’s
family this past week. And so my parents
sent the camera back with them and we picked it up a few days ago. Technically, the camera had been ours from
the moment they bought it, but we could not benefit from it until it was
delivered.
The
forgiveness that the Lord has won for us on the cross was technically ours the
moment he died. But we could not benefit
from it until it was delivered. God has
decided to deliver that forgiveness to us through three different delivery
methods: God’s written Word, God’s Word connected with the water of baptism,
and God’s Word connected with the Lord’s Supper. He gives us that same forgiveness earned by
Jesus in those three different ways. Not
a different cause of salvation; the same
salvation distributed in three unique methods. That’s why these are the marks of the
Church. Where Jesus’ forgiveness is
distributed correctly, that is where the Capital “C” Church is: a gathering of
believers.
And so think
of how important baptism is for an infant.
An infant cannot understand the spoken Word of God yet; an infant cannot
examine him/herself as Scripture requires in order to take the Lord’s Supper
yet; but God promises forgiveness, the gift of faith, and salvation in
baptism. And so when that infant is
brought up here to the font and water is poured on that child with the words “I
baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
the forgiveness that Jesus won up there [on the cross] is delivered to that child
right down there [in baptism]. And that infant
once born in dirt and slime and sludge is now washed and wiped and
wrapped. And the Father cradles them in
his arms as his own dear child and loves them with a love deeper than they have
ever experienced before. And that
promise is true for anyone. Whether that
person is a child or a full grown adult, the promises of baptism are still the
same. The washing is the same. The cleansing is the same. The renewal and the rebirth are the
same. Baptism is an incredible gift of
God for any and everyone. No exceptions.
Keep Going Back
to the Waters
Immediately
after every single one of us was physically born into this world, we were
washed and wiped and wrapped. But I know
that was not the last time you washed dirt off of your body or wiped yourself clean,
was it? Because no matter how hard we
might try, we get dirty again and we get covered in germs again: whether by our
own fault or just because of the world in which we live. Washing and wiping and cleaning is a constant
cycle in everyone’s life. But you don’t
use a different kind of water than what was used to clean you after you were
born, do you? You wash yourself with the
same basic plain water that you were washed with the very first time. And you don’t attempt become cleaner than you
were back then, you just want to stay clean.
The same
holds true for baptism. At your baptism
you were washed and wiped and cleaned in that water attached to God’s specific
words and promises. And although those
promises from your Lord will never fail, as you go about your life you will
inevitably get dirty again. And so it is
important to stay clean by going back to the washing of your baptism. You don’t need to be rebaptized time and time
again just like you don’t need to have a post-birth cleansing time and time
again; but you do need to use the same kind of washing. Because how were you washed in baptism? You were washed in your baptism by the power
of the Holy Spirit through God’s Word about Jesus. You must go back to the cleansing power of
God’s Word. You must be constantly
dipped in the flood waters of forgiveness and the crystal clear waves of your
salvation found in the Bible. This is a
way that the Holy Spirit has a chance to preserve that washing that he gave you
at the font, that precious gift given to you out of the mercy of the Lord.
Baptism is a precious gift. It is an act of God’s grace for the sake of sinners. It is a spiritual cleansing. It is a delivery method of the purifying
blood of the cross. It is a “washing of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously
through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Praise
your God for this precious gift. And continue
to give him every chance to preserve that gift through the same pure waters of
his Word.
Amen.
“You were washed,
you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the Spirit of our God.” 1 Cor. 6:11
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment