Baptism

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, chapter 28, verses 16 -20. Now the eleven disciples went into Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him, they worshipped Him, but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus. A few years ago, I was teaching high schoolers and junior high schoolers at a church in Greenfield, Indiana.

And when we got to the text that we were reading tonight from Exodus,.

It was a great story. The kids loved it.

You know, an amazing story of how God rescues His people through water. God rescues His people through water. And then you realize, wait a second, didn't He do that in the flood, too? Yeah, see, there's a theme here.

God likes to telegraph in big, broad letters. And so what I told the kids in my Sunday school was, come over to the baptismal font. And at that church, their baptismal font is literally at the back of the church.

And when you open up the doors, it's like right there. And they've got, like, some kind of a circulating machine, so you can actually, like, you know, it kind of keeps it clean and fresh. And so what I did is I took them to the baptismal font and had them all stand around it.

And what we did is I said, now what I want you to do here, I want you to imagine, if you would, this is the Red Sea. And what you can't see is that on the day that you were baptized, all the demonic forces of the devil were drowned, and they're all lying dead on the side of the baptismal font.

Now, the kids loved it.

They thought that was just a great way of looking at it. And so that's what I want you to think about when you think about your baptism, that God has miraculously rescued you from the clenches of the devil.

And you heard it in our hymn that we just sang, Satan, hear this proclamation, I am baptized into Christ. Remember, the children of Israel, they left Egypt, and they left, how, the text says, defiantly.

So sing along with the Israelites tonight. Satan, hear this proclamation, I am baptized into Christ. Drop your ugly accusation, I'm not so soon enticed. Now that to the font I've traveled, all your might has come unraveled.

And against your tyranny, God, my Lord, unites with me. That's the promises of baptism. It's funny to me that Lutherans are called Lutherans and Baptists are called Baptists. I really think that Lutherans should be called Baptists, and Baptists should be called something different, because Baptists don't believe that God's doing anything in baptism.

They don't. In fact, they call it an ordinance. And what is an ordinance? It's a law. So you ask the majority of evangelicals out there, what is baptism for? Baptism is my declaration to the world that I've made a decision for Jesus.

It's me going public with my faith. Well, there's a couple problems with that, huge problems. Number one, the world doesn't come to church to see you make your public proclamation that you've made a decision for Jesus.

The world is at home, sleeping on Sunday, as they're prone to do, or watching football. Hopefully not the Vikings.

Sorry, I just had to say that.

So that's kind of a silly way of putting it. The other thing is that there's no biblical text that says that. Not one. And when baptism is something you do, then it's law. But we're going to find out tonight, when we take a closer look at the baptismal texts, that baptism isn't law.

It's not an ordinance. All of the promises associated with baptism all rest on God. He's the one doing the work. You're the one being worked on. In other words, all of the promises, and they're really amazing promises, all run through the gospel, not the law.

And so we'll take a look at that. Now, let me read a little bit from the catechism, because we are working our way through the catechism, our midweek Lent services. Here's what it says. As the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.

First, what is baptism? Well, here's the answer. Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God's command and combined with God's word. Remember what I said on Sunday. Picture of water.

Water is water. Water can't do nothing. But water combined with God's word, now we're talking, right? So Luther asks the question, which is that word? Well, Christ our Lord says in the last chapter of Matthew, therefore go and make disciples of all nations.

How? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, which is kind of a big deal if you think about it, because it says in the name, singular, of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In other words, when you were baptized, God put his holy name on you, right? God has caused his name to be placed on you. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. And when we look in the Old Testament, remember when Solomon finished the temple, right?

And the presence of the Lord comes down, right? And God announces that he has caused his name to dwell there in Jerusalem. Well, in your baptism, God has caused his name to be put on you, which is why, for millennia now, Christians, when the Trinity is invoked, name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, some of them do this to remember their baptism, because that's the time when God put his name on you, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So what benefit does baptism give? Here's what Luther says. It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death, and the devil, gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.

It's a big deal. Think about that.

Really?

Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death, and the devil, gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Well, how can water do such great things, Luther asks?

Well, certainly not just water, but the word of God in with the water does these things, along with faith, which trusts this word of God. Now, there's the important thing, kind of the important distinction here, is that all of these promises are there, which calls for faith.

Faith believes and clings and grabs onto those promises. And we learn in Ephesians that faith itself is given as a gift from God. What the gospel demands, the gospel supplies. And so the very faith that is required, it's not coming from you.

That faith is given to you by God, and that faith then clings to these promises. So you want to hear these promises of God regarding baptism. So what we're going to do, and this is where you get to take notes, I'm going to have the siren go off right now.

Warning, nerd alert.

You have been warned, that's all I need to say. We're going to look at several passages, and I'm going to read the passages to you, and then I'm going to read to you what the earliest Christians said about these passages and see if these people sound like good Lutherans or not.

Acts 2, verses 37 -39. That's our first text. Acts 2, verses 37 -39. It's the day of Pentecost. Peter has preached this amazing Holy Spirit-inspired sermon to people who heard it from around the world.

They were cut to the quick, and this is what it says. When they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you and for your children and all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord God calls to himself.

I'm going to point something out here. In English, it's not as easy to spot as it is in Greek, but in Greek, where it says be baptized, in Greek, there are verbs that are passive verbs. There are verbs that are active verbs.

Active verbs are things that you do. Passive verbs are things that happen to you. For instance, if I were to go and cut my hair, you know, just grab a pair of scissors and start snipping away, and somebody said, Pastor Rosebro, what happened?

And I said, well, I gave myself a haircut. Now, that's the way we'd say it in English, and you realize that I actively did the hacking and chopping, which explains why things turned out so poorly, right?

Okay, but in Greek, in ancient Koine Greek, if we were to talk about getting a haircut, you would have a haircut done to you, so the haircut, you know, I'm going to go get my haircut, that would be done in the passive verb, which means you ain't the one doing it.

Somebody's doing it to you, okay? Does that make sense? We don't have quite an easy equivalent here in English, but this is how this works. So in Greek, repent and be baptized. It doesn't say repent and go and do the baptizing.

No, be baptized. You're receiving, and what do you get? It's for the forgiveness of sins. Now, let me ask you a simple question, okay? If God has forgiven your sins, are you saved?

Yeah.

Where there is forgiveness of sins, there is salvation. So is there salvation there? Yes, because who's doing the doing? God is, and that's the fun part. Now, as a pastor, I hope someday, someday, to be able to baptize somebody.

That would be nice. It would be kind of fun, okay? But when I'm doing it, and I say, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I baptize you, right? Am I doing the baptizing?

No, I'm not.

I'm just kind of a fill-in. God's doing it, because I can't forgive sins. I can't wash them away. I can't do all the things that are promised in baptism. So God's got to be doing all the work, and this is what the church has always confessed,.

Nicene Creed.

One baptism for the forgiveness of sins. It's really kind of that simple. And see, this is the best part about how the Lutherans understand these texts. They mean what they say, and they say what they mean.

It's actually kind of that simple. So who's doing the work in baptism? God is. He's forgiving sins. Is that law or gospel? Gospel, right? Now, let me read to you. Here's the nerdy part.

Okay.

Read to you a little bit from the Church Fathers. The Epistle of Barnabas, written circa 74 A .D. Here's what he says about this text. Regarding baptism, we have the evidence of Scripture that Israel would refuse to accept the washing which confers the remission of sins.

Notice how Barnabas is talking. And would set up a substitution of their own instead. Observe there how he describes both the water and the cross in the same figure. His meaning is, blessed are those who go down into the water with their hopes set on the cross.

Here he is saying that after we have stepped down into the water, burdened with sin and defilement, we come up out of it bearing fruit with reverence in our hearts and the hope of Jesus on our souls. 74 A .D.

Sounds like a Lutheran.

Sorry.

The Shepherd of Hermas. Here's what it says.

80 A .D.

I have heard, sir, said I to the shepherd, from some teacher that there is no other repentance except for that which took place when we went down into the water and obtained the remission of our former sins.

He said to me, you have heard rightly, for so it is. Shepherd of Hermas.

Irenaeus.

Great Christian apologist. In his work entitled Against Heresies, which, by the way, is a fascinating read, especially if you ever wanted to learn the ins and outs of Valentinian Gnosticism.

Whew. Yeah.

Strange religion.

Anyway.

81 A .D. Here's what he wrote. And when we come to refute them, the Gnostics, we shall show in its fitting place that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial of that baptism, which is regeneration to God, and thus to a renunciation of the whole Christian faith.

For baptism instituted by the visible Jesus was for the remission of sins. Sounds to me like the early Christians understood this text pretty well. I'll pick some of the, I'll pick a shorter one here.

Okay.

Council of Carthage. To investigate the Pelagian heresy. May 1st, 418. Canon number two from the Council of Carthage against Pelagius. If any man says that newborn children need not be baptized, or that they should indeed be baptized for the remission of sins, but they have in them no original sin inherited from Adam, which must be washed away in the bath of regeneration, so that in their ease, the formula of baptism for the remission of sins must not be taken literally,.

But figuratively,.

Let him be anathema. Because according to Romans 5 .12, the sin of Adam has passed upon all. Canons of the Council of Carthage made it clear that if you deny that infants needed to be baptized because they didn't have original sin, you're anathema.

You're out of the church. Why do we baptize infants? Because infants die, and that proves they're sinful. Scripture says we're all conceived and born in sin, every single one of us. Let me read another one.

There's a couple in here I could do this with. Gregor of Nazianzus, 388 A .D. Do you have an infant child? Allow sin no opportunity. Rather, let the infant be sanctified from childhood. From his most tender age, let him be consecrated by the Spirit.

Do you fear the seal of baptism because of the weakness of nature? Oh, what Pulsiminimus mother, and of how little faith. Well enough, some will say, those who ask for baptism. But what do you have to say about those who are still children and are aware neither of loss nor of grace?

Shall we baptize them too? Well, certainly. If there is any pressing danger, better that they be sanctified unaware than they depart from this earth unsealed and uninitiated.

Uh-huh.

So when you read the writings of the church fathers, they understood baptism is for the remission of sin. And they understood that because it was for the remission of sins and it's God's work that we bring our children to be baptized.

Now let me ask you this question. At, um, what age were Hebrew children, male children, made part of the covenant?

Huh?

Eight days.

They were circumcised and made part of the covenant when they were eight days old. Circumcision made them part of the covenant. Now, Cyprian of Carthage, who wrote in 253 AD, let me kind of watch this big debate.

As to what pertains to the case of infants, you said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, that the old law of circumcision must be taken into consideration and that you did not think that one should be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day after his birth.

So what they're arguing here about is whether or not you baptize an infant right away or should you wait until they're eight days old. That's the argument. Okay, so, in our counsel, it seemed to us far otherwise.

No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. Rather, we all judged that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born. If, in the case of the worst sinners and those formerly sinned much against God, when afterwards they believe the remission of sins is granted and no one is held back from baptism and grace, how much more, then, should an infant not be held back who, having been but recently born, had done no sin except that born of the flesh, according to Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the old death from his first being born.

For this very reason, does he, an infant, approach more easily to receive the remission of sins because the sins forgiven him are not his own but those of another? It's amazing stuff. So when you read the writings of the church fathers, they're not debating as to whether or not to baptize infants, but do you baptize them right away or do you wait eight days because, you know, male childs in the old covenant were circumcised on the eighth day?

And their conclusion? Get them wet immediately. Get them wet because it's for the remission of sins. Another text. Titus, chapter 3, verses 4 through 7. I'm going to watch my time here. I could lecture on this for an hour and I don't want to do that.

Titus, chapter 3, verses 4 through 7. Here's what it says. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us. Now watch the verbs there. When the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared,.

He saved us.

We don't ever save ourselves, okay? Not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Now, one of the major arguments against the idea that you should baptize infants is that, well, somebody says, well, if you're baptizing an infant, then you believe in salvation by works because baptism is a work.

But this text says the exact opposite. It says he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness but by the washing of regeneration. And by the way, that word regeneration only appears twice in the New Testament, two times.

Once in relationship to the new earth, God creating a new heavens and a new earth. He's going to regenerate the creation. The other time is here regarding the fact that God regenerates somebody who's dead and trespasses and sins through the waters of baptism.

So when we talk about God regenerating people, regeneration's a big deal. It says here it's by the washing of regeneration. And the Greek word for washing, by the way, it's unmistakably. It's a ceremonial baptismal washing that it's being referred to there.

So it's not works done by us in righteousness but by God by washing of regeneration. Baptism isn't our work.

It's his.

It's God's. Let me read a couple of quotes. Theophilus of Antioch, I know you guys read him at night. I'm sure you've got books of him.

Right on your nightstand.

Here's what he said in 181 AD. Moreover, those things which were created from the waters, talking about Christians, were blessed by God so that this might also be a sign that men would at a future time receive repentance and remission of sins through water and the bath of regeneration.

All who proceed to the truth and are born again receive a blessing from God. So they always refer to it as either the bath of regeneration or the laver, L-A-V-E-R, of regeneration. Clement of Alexandria, quoting this text, he says this, and by the way, he lived in late second century, 191.

When we are baptized, we are enlightened. Being enlightened, we are adopted as sons. Adopted as sons, we are made perfect. Made perfect, we become immortal, the sons of the Most High. That's a pretty lofty opinion of what's going on in baptism, right?

This work is variously called grace,.

Illumination, perfection, and washing. It is a washing by which we are cleansed of sins, a gift of grace by which the punishments due our sins are remitted, an illumination by which we behold that holy light of salvation.

And that is taken from his little catechism that he wrote to children. Fascinating, isn't it? Hippolytus, 215 A .D. And the bishop shall lay his hand upon them, the newly baptized, invoking and saying, O Lord God, who did count these worthy of deserving the forgiveness of sins by the laver or washing of regeneration, make them worthy to be filled with your Holy Spirit and send upon them thy grace that they may serve you according to your will.

215 A .D. Cyprian of Carthage. While I was lying in darkness, I thought it indeed difficult and hard to believe that divine mercy was promised for my salvation so that anyone might be born again and quickened unto new life by the washing of the saving water.

He might put off what he had been before and although the structure of the body remained, he might change himself in soul and mind. But afterwards, when the stain of my past life had been washed away by means of the water of rebirth, a light from above poured itself upon my chastened and now pure heart.

Afterwards, the spirit which is breathed from heaven, a second birth made of me a new man. He's talking about the time when he was baptized. Think it's a big deal? It's a huge deal. It's probably one of the most important things we do around here.

You gotta be, you gotta go baptize some people.

All right.

Let me read another passage. Now this is a controversial one. Ready for some controversy? John 3, verses 5 through 6. Jesus answered. This is the Nicodemus at night passage. You familiar with that? Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.

You know, teacher we know.

Yeah, that one.

He says,.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, this is what Jesus said, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

We've all heard this passage, right? You have to be born again. Anothen, born from above, is probably a better way of putting it. And so Jesus said, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Now, ask any evangelical what that means.

And they'll say,.

Well, being born of water means the amniotic fluid. You know, the first time you're born. And the second time is when you make a decision for Jesus, then you're born again. Let's take a listen to how the early church understood this.

Irenaeus writes, 190 A .D. And Naaman, talking, and so Irenaeus is writing about Naaman. Remember Naaman the leper from the, which book is that in? 2 Kings, 2 Kings chapter 5. Naaman the leper, right?

It says, and Naaman, he dipped himself seven times in the Jordan. It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized. But this served as an indication to us, for as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord.

From our old transgressions being spiritually regenerated as newborn babes, even as the Lord has declared, except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Irenaeus thinks that Jesus is talking about baptism. Justin Martyr, who, by the way, gave his life for the Christian faith, that's why he's called Martyr. He writes this, as many as are persuaded and believe that what we Christians teach and say is true and undertake to be able to live accordingly and instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting for the remission of their sins that are past, we pray and fast with them.

Then they are brought by us where there is water and they are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For in the name of God the Father and of our Savior Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water.

For Christ also said, unless you are born again, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. It's fascinating, isn't it? You understand what's going on here. The scriptures are clear and the Christians have always understood these texts as God is the one regenerating.

God is washing away sins. God is giving the Holy Spirit through these waters. It's his work, not ours. Colossians 2, 11 -14. Here's what it says. As Paul wrote, in him also you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism.

Colossians 2, 11 -14 literally is teaching that circumcision of the Old Testament is the type and shadow. The reality is baptism itself. And so listen to what he says. In him, you, and that's including you ladies, you were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands by putting off of the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead and you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God has made alive together with him having forgiven all of our debt, all of our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside. When did he set it aside and make you alive together with Christ? When was your heart circumcised, not with human hands? When you were baptized. What amazing promises God's word attaches to baptism.

Now you see why people in the past have, when they heard the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, they do this to remember their what? Baptism.

Right.

Because it's that important. And you sit there and go, okay, now wait a second. So Pastor Roseborough, you're saying God did all this to me. And I would say, let me correct it. God's word says God did all this to you.

All of it's outside of you. All of it while you were at your worst, while you were still a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, before you had even done one good thing. God washes away your sins, buries you with Christ, raises you with Christ, circumcises your heart, washes away your sins, regenerates you.

This is a big deal. Baptism is not some tiny little thing. And by the way, the water does signify something. But the water signifies that's something we can tangibly remember.

And hang on to.

The sign is for us, not for the world. The sign is for us, so that we can remember. This is why there are places, there are churches that have baptismal fonts where you can dip your hands in the water as you're going into the church so that you can tangibly touch and remember, I'm baptized, I'm baptized.

God did all these things to me, for me, for my salvation. It's a powerful thing. God has given us something tactile, if you would. And so this is, you know, and this is when you have your grandchildren over and it's time for bath time and they've already been baptized, you can say, this is to remind you that you've been baptized.

All of these things are there for us. Let me give you a couple more texts and I'm of course waxing eloquent today, I knew I would.

One more.

1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. The verse I want is in verse 21, but we're gonna take a look at the context. 1 Peter 3, I'll start at verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.

That's a sermon right there. What a great sermon, I like that sermon. So that he might bring us to God. Who's doing all the work?

Jesus is.

Being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit in which he went, and he proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey God when God's patient waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons, were brought safely through water.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.

That's what the text says.

In the Greek, it's so clear. Baptism is in the nominative, which means it has to be the subject of the sentence. There's no way around it. Baptism is in the nominative, that's the subject. Baptism, and the verb says, saves.

Direct object, you. Baptism now saves you. Not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels in authority and powers having been subjected to him.

So who's doing the saving?

God is.

So he's using the means. He's attaching, remember over the weekend, bronze serpent, right? Bronze serpents don't heal people who've been bitten by snakes. They just don't have that ability. But a bronze serpent that has the word of God attached to it, that says if you look at it, you'll be healed, and you'll live, now that's a different bronze serpent altogether.

Because it's a bronze serpent with God's word. And that's what baptism is. Water and God's word. And it has the same miraculous abilities, even better than the bronze serpent. Because God's word is sure and certain, and he never lies.

His word says baptism saves you. His word says it's for the forgiveness of sins. His word says you receive the Holy Spirit. His word says when you're baptized, you're buried with Christ, you're raised with Christ, you're regenerated, your heart is circumcised by Christ.

And God doesn't lie. What an amazing thing. And so if you remember back to Judy Stengren's funeral, think back with me. I made a big deal about the fact that she was baptized.

Because she was.

And all those promises are sure. You're gonna see her again, because all of you are baptized too. And you're in Christ.

And you have faith.

And now your faith has even greater promises to hang onto. If you've never heard this before, or it's never been laid out like this, just believe what God's word says.

That's what faith does.

Grab onto those promises and they're for you. And Paul, in my final text, uses baptism as a weapon against the devil and temptation and sin itself. In Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. We'll start at verse one.

How did I not get there?

Hang on.

Romans six one.

Yeah.

Here's what he writes.

So what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? What a dumb question. No, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live it? Now ask the question, when did you die to sin?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we were baptized into his death. We were buried therefore with him by baptism to 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.

If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing.

So that we would no longer be enslaved to sin for one who has died has been free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all. But the life he lives, he lives to God. So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ.

Think of it this way. You all familiar with quantum physics? It's a scary word, right? Okay, you know, E equals MC squared, you know. Anyway, you've all seen Star Trek and you've seen wormholes and stuff like that.

Like if they're going through warp factor eight and all of a sudden a wormhole appears, you can actually transport from one end of the universe to the other pretty quickly through the wormhole, right?

Okay, that's all based on quantum theory. That's how that's supposed to work. Well, think of it this way. When you were brought to the baptismal font and the pastor said, I baptize you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, a time and space quantum wormhole opened up and you were put into Christ while he was being crucified and you died with him.

And because he rose from the grave, you also were raised with him. I can't explain to you how the mathematics works, but think of it this way. Baptism is a quantum thing. God's doing something amazing in it because this text says we should not continue in sin because we've died to it because we've been baptized.

We were buried with Christ. We were raised with Christ. You're already dead. We're just waiting for your body to catch up to your baptismal death certificate, right? I know it seems kind of crazy, but the fun part about it is that God, he's capable of doing stuff that will boggle our minds.

And when we, the more we meditate on the promises that God has given us in our baptism, the more we realize just how much he loves us and how he is literally, no joke, hell-bent on saving every one of us, so much so that he descended into hell, right?

But he came back up. He rose again from the grave on the third day. We're getting close. We're getting close to being able to celebrate that. Not yet, not yet, not yet, right? So that's our little bit of an education.

And what I'm going to do, I was reading from a document that I actually published a couple years back. I'm going to put a copy of that on the Kongsvinger website with this, and that should be up by Sunday.