Baptismal Exchange

The Baptism of Jesus and the Great Exchange

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 Rosebrook.

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 3rd chapter. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?

But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.

And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. This is the Gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Isn't it interesting that when you follow a lectionary, one of the things I like to tell people is that every single calendar year we cover all the major doctrines of the Scriptures, and then in the following year we do it again.

And then we do it again, and we do it again. You'll note there's a little bit of repetition here. You're sitting there going, didn't we preach on, didn't you preach on the baptism of Jesus last year?

Yep.

Didn't you preach on it the year before?

Yep.

How about the year before that? Funny enough, it was Epiphany on that one, so we missed it. But all that being said, you'll note that this is an important text. And here is where not only do we cover the doctrine of baptism, but a key component of our salvation.

And that component is this. By faith is a great exchange that takes place. If you were to think of it this way, here you have Jesus showing up to John the Baptist's baptism, which seems, well, how do the kids say it nowadays?

Awkward, right? Because Jesus hasn't committed any sin. I mean, we all heard John the Baptist railing at us just a few weeks ago during Advent. You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the fires of hell and bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and don't you dare say that we're Norwegian, therefore.

No, you get the idea, right? I added the Norwegian part, right? But all that being said, he railed against us, and we learn in Scripture that many people came out from Judea, from all around Judea, to hear John the Baptist preach.

They repented and then were baptized by him in a sinner's baptism, which means Jesus now shows up. And Scripture's clear. Jesus has been tempted in every way that you and I have been tempted, and yet is without sin.

So what's he doing? Ah! My mind is bending at the moment. I'm not liking it. I feel like it's going to snap. So, in fact, John the Baptist had this same dilemma. So our Gospel text reads, Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.

John would have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And John is making a good confession here. The same John the Baptist who told Herod and everybody else, including the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees and everybody who came to him, they needed to repent of their sin.

He, by no means, is some kind of self-righteous, smug, arrogant person. He knows full well he also is a sinner. And when Jesus shows up, it's like, Dude, you're holy. I'm not. I'm a sinner. You're not.

I need to be baptized by you. This is backwards. This is wrong. But Jesus said to him, Let it be so for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. You'll note then, the sinless, spotless son of God humbles himself to the point where he submits himself to a sinner's baptism despite the fact that he has committed no sin.

In fact, this really strongly begins to hint at what God is going to do later when Christ ultimately suffers and dies for our sins. The prophet Isaiah says, This God has laid on Him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

You see, what happens in our atonement is that God takes our sin collectively, places it on the sinless, spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. But then the other half of the exchange is that those who are brought to penitent faith in Christ through the means of grace, whether it be through the preached gospel or through the waters of baptism and thereby given faith, that what ends up happening is that Christ's sinless righteousness is then placed on them.

That's the great exchange. Baptism is not some mere symbolic aquatic ritual. Isn't that how they put it in Monty Python? Some quack aquatic ritual. They throw a sword at you and stuff like that. Yeah, you get the idea.

Baptism isn't anything like that. Baptism is something actually legit. In fact, one of the things I do with my catechumens is I walk them through the clearest texts regarding baptism and we put together a confession of what the scriptures say about baptism.

So I take them to Acts chapter two and in Acts chapter two, Peter preaches that great sermon and at the end of it, the people go, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter says, repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus, every one of you, for the forgiveness of your sins.

You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promises for you and for your children. And so I work with my catechumens and I say, all right, so let's kind of put this together. If I will say baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, it's for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, that it's for adults and it's for children, have I said anything different than what the Bible says?

And they go, nope, that's what the text says. All right, so then I take them to Acts 22 when Paul, the apostle Paul, is having his conversion experience. You'll note that Jesus confronted Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus at that time, while he was heading to Damascus to round up Christians in order to beat them, well, beat faith out of them and really show them that they shouldn't be believing in Jesus.

Jesus confronts him, blinds him, he's blind for three days, and then sends a fellow by the name of Ananias. And when Ananias shows up, he preaches the gospel and he says, what are you waiting for? Rise and be baptized, washing away your sins.

And so I ask my students, well, if I were to say that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, it's for adults, it's for children, your sins are washed away. Have I said anything different than what the Scriptures say?

And they say, no, you're saying exactly what the text says. And then I take them to our epistle text for today, which is from Romans chapter six, and I read out a large portion of it. Listen to what the words say in Romans six.

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? Isn't it great? Jesus likes to forgive sinners and I like to sin. That's awesome. So we should just sin like all the more.

No.

Did your mama drop you on your head?

No.

Okay, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? You sit there and go, wait a second. When did we die to sin? Listen to what it says. Do you not know that all of us who've been baptized into Christ Jesus, we were baptized into his death?

We were therefore buried 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. For if we have been united with Jesus 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 and so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For the one who has died has been set free from sin.

And those who've been baptized by me here at Kongsvinger, I always like to sit them down and have a chat with them before they get baptized and I like to tell them, by the way, you're not gonna survive the event.

You're not gonna survive the ordeal. You're actually gonna die. Every single person I've baptized, they're dead, all right? We're murdering them all up in here. Well, you get the idea. I'm a serial killer, right?

Because in our baptisms, we die. But now, for the one who has died has been set free from sin and if we've died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. So then I ask my catechumens this question.

I say, so all right, if I were to say baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, it's for adults, it's for children, your sins are washed away, you're baptized into Christ's death, you're buried with Christ, the person who is baptized dies and is set free from sin.

Have I said anything different than what the scriptures say? In fact, Brenda can attest to this. In my catechism class this week, we did this exact thing because we're talking about baptism, right? So I ask them this question.

They all go, nope, you're not saying anything different than what the scripture says. And consider then our epistle text from last week. There was a portion of it that I kind of left out and let me put it this way.

Not that I left the reading out, but there was an emphasis that I didn't quite make. And I saved it for this week. I kind of previewed it at the church council meeting this week. But listen again to our epistle text from last week from Galatians chapter three.

Here's what it says. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. Now here's the missing bit. If you're not familiar with how things worked in the ancient world, and especially the ancient Near East, let me ask you kind of this.

So you are a father, you have children, you have an estate, and which of your children is the one that gets the whole thing? Your first born son, right? Okay, second born son, what does he get? Honorable mention, okay?

He gets like nothing. We have lovely parting gifts for you, but they get nothing. They get absolutely nothing. So here's the thing. In the ancient Near East, it was never the second son that was put under a guardian.

It was always the first born son because the first born son was the one who was going to inherit the whole kit and caboodle. That being the case here, here's a little bit of the subtext. By saying that we were all put under a guardian, Scripture is making it clear that everybody in Christ, male and female by the way, Jew and Greek, slave and free, all of them, that they are being treated by God as first born sons.

Let that sink in for a second. And then something else happens here in this text. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ.

Say what? You've what?

Put on? Is Christ a garment?

You know,.

Put a little Jesus on. I need a little more Jesus than most people do,.

But that's,.

You know, size double XL for Chris Rosebro of Jesus, right? But the whole point here is it says that we've put on Christ. Well, what on earth does that mean? What does it mean to put on Jesus? And here's where we're going to use a little bit of help.

We're going to go back into the book of Genesis and we are going to look at a much misunderstood and poorly taught portion of Scripture as it relates to Jacob and Esau.

All right,.

You all familiar with Jacob and Esau? Let me recount for you how their birth came about because they were twins, obviously not identical. So these are the generations of Itzhak and that's how you pronounce his name,.

By the way.

It's Itzhak, it's not Isaac,.

It's Itzhak.

Abraham's son, Abraham fathered Itzhak. Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Paddam Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. And Itzhak prayed to Yahweh for his wife because she was barren and she didn't have kids for 20 years, right?

So he prayed and Yahweh granted his prayer and Rebekah, his wife, conceived and the children struggled together within her and she said, if this is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of Yahweh and Yahweh said to her, two nations are in your womb.

Two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. The older shall serve the younger. Now, who told her that?

Yahweh.

We don't know who the human being was that was the prophet acting here. Maybe it was Abraham, but the text doesn't say. So when her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.

The first came out red and all his body was like a hairy cloak. The skid, obviously, was taking testosterone in the womb and they all called his name Esau, which means red. And afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel so his name was called Yaakov.

Yaakov means heel grabber. It has the implications that he's a deceiver. And Itzhak was 60 years old when she bore them. The boys grew up. Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Yaakov was a quiet man dwelling in tents.

And Itzhak loved Esau because he ate of his name, but Rebekah loved Yaakov. And here's where everybody messes up because they sit there and go, well, obviously, the problem here is that we have a dysfunctional family where we've got a mama's boy and we have a boy who's strong and mighty and really male-like and his dad favors him and stuff like that.

That's not the issue. The issue is that Rebekah has heard the Word of the Lord and she believes, right? She believes what God has said. And she's going to even stake her own life and risk being cursed for following through so that God's Word is fulfilled.

Fast forward then after Esau sells his birthright to Itzhak for a bowl of soup. Who does that, right? Who does that? That's kind of a foolish thing to do. Then we get to this account. Again, much misunderstood.

Here's how it goes. When Itzhak was old, his eyes were dim so that he could not see. He called Esau his older son and said to him, My son. And he answered him, Here I am. And he said, Behold, I am old.

I say this to myself every time I look in the mirror. Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore, take your weapons, your quiver, your bow, go out into the field and hunt game for me.

Prepare for me delicious food such as I love. Bring it to me so that I may eat that my soul may bless you before I die. Uh-oh.

We've got a problem here.

Itzhak is not behaving according to the word of Yahweh that God spoke to Rebekah before the boys were born. He wants to give him the blessing. But the older will serve the younger. Now Rebekah was listening when Itzhak spoke to Esau.

So when Esau went into the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son,.

Yaakov,.

I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Bring me game.

Prepare for me delicious food so that I may eat it and bless you before Yahweh before I die. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock. Bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father such as he loves.

And you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Yaakov said to Rebekah, his mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man. I'm a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing.

His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice. Go bring them to me. Now here's, I mean, this is ultimately deception that is going on here. Deception of the highest magnitude.

We're deceiving dad to steal a blessing. And Rebekah's in on it and it all seems so wrong. But then again, God said that the older will serve the younger. One's acting in faith and one is acting contrary to the word of God.

And Rebekah is acting in faith. So he went and took them, brought them to his mother. His mother prepared delicious food just as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her older son.

You could almost think of them as like vestments. Hmm, is Esau a type of Christ? Oh, you betcha. Because he's the one who ends up getting the curse while Yaakov gets the blessing. Keep this in mind. So Rebekah took the best garment of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house, put them on Yaakov, her younger son, and the skin of the young goats she put on his hands and on the smooth parts of his neck.

And then she put the delicious food and bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Yaakov. So he went into his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you, my son? Yaakov said, I am Esau, your firstborn, right?

I have done as you've told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Itzhak said to his son, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? And he answered, because Yahweh, your God, granted me success.

Then Itzhak said to Yaakov, please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Yaakov went near to Itzhak, his father, who felt him and said, the voice is Yaakov's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.

Then he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. He said, are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, bring it near to me that I may eat of my son's game and bless you.

So he brought it near to him. He ate, and he brought him wine,.

And he drank.

Then his father Itzhak said to him, come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him, and Itzhak smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, see the smell of my son is the smell of a field that Yahweh has blessed.

May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and the plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you and nations bow down to you. Be, Lord, over your brothers that your mother's sons may bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be everyone who blesses you.

It worked.

Right?

It worked.

Now, come back to our epistle text.

From last week.

In our epistle text, we hear again these words. As many of you as were baptized into Christ, you have put on Christ. You see, that whole story of Jacob and Esau is kind of in the types and shadows a picture of what happens with each and every one of us.

When we are baptized, we are baptized into Christ's death and into his resurrection. Our sins are forgiven, but Paul here says that we put on Christ. Think about just how important that is to put on Jesus because you standing before God the Father in your clothes, in your righteousness, which isn't any righteousness at all, you aren't going to get a blessing from God the Father.

You're going to get a curse. And God the Father chooses to be like Itzhak, blind in this way. So we put on Jesus. We are clothed in his sinless righteousness. Remember, he was clothed in our iniquity on the cross.

We are clothed in his sinless righteousness. We put on Christ. And God the Father says, is that you, my son Jesus? And you say, yes, I'm Jesus. And God says, you sound like Roseboro. You sound just like Roseboro, but I'm Jesus.

Come near to me. And he comes near and he takes a whiff. You go, well, you smell just like Jesus. And he touches you. You feel just like Jesus. Sounds like Roseboro, but it's Jesus. So what does God the Father do?

He blesses us. You see, that's how the great exchange works. We have put on Christ. And as a result of it, rather than receiving the curse, we receive the blessing. And Jesus, he's our older brother. And what did our older brother receive from the Father?

The curse, right? And this we know is true because Galatians goes on to say that cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. You see, Jesus is cursed so that we can be blessed. Alright, so coming back to our list.

If I were to say that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, the receiving of the Holy Spirit, it's for adults, it's for children. Your sins are washed away. You're baptized into Christ's death, buried with Christ.

The person who's baptized dies and is set free from sin. And that person puts on Christ. Have I said anything different than what the Scriptures say? Colossians 2 goes on to describe our baptism as receiving the circumcision of Christ which is performed by the very hands of Christ.

And that we are raised with Christ through faith and made alive together with Christ. That's what Colossians 2 says. And all of our transgressions are forgiven. Titus 3 makes it clear that baptism is not a human work at all.

You see, for when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not by works done by us in righteousness, but through the washing of regeneration, which is what baptism is, a washing of regeneration.

And of course, I always like to ask my catechism students, so if your sins are forgiven, you've received the Holy Spirit, your sins are washed away, you've been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection, you've been buried with Christ, you've died and been set free from sin, and you've put on Christ, and you've received the circumcision performed by Christ, and you've been raised with Christ, made alive together with Him, all of your trespasses are forgiven, and you've been washed in the waters of regeneration, are you going to hell or are you going to heaven?

Are you saved or are you damned?

You're saved.

And so you'll note that this is not a small thing. In fact, I then always like to ask this question at the end. We've said all the same things that Scripture says, so let me throw a curveball at you. If I were to then say to you, well, baptism is the thing that you do to show the world that you've made a decision for Jesus.

Have I said the same thing as Scripture?

No!

No Scripture says that. Not even one. So, brothers and sisters, as we again consider Jesus' baptism, we must be reminded of the fact that the sinless, spotless Lamb of God had no reason at all, well, at least that we can understand, for Him to submit Himself to a sinner's baptism because He's committed no sin.

And that is all a foreshadowing of the fact that He would bear your sin and mine on the cross. That He would die in our place, be cursed, so that rather than receive from God the curse of eternal damnation, we would instead be treated as firstborn sons, each and every one of us, and that in the world to come, each and every one of us firstborn sons would all receive the entire inheritance.

Is it any wonder then that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek slave, nor free male nor female. We're all one in Christ. It is a great mystery, but it also provides us with great comfort. So the fact that Jesus, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, submitted Himself to a sinner's baptism reminds us of the fact that when we were baptized, we have put on Christ and have been forgiven of all of our sins.

So let us not despise these promises that are given in the waters of baptism, but instead hold firmly to them so that we may stand before Christ on the day of judgment and hear, Well done, good and faithful servant, because all of our sins have been washed away.

The only thing left are the good works that He's created for us to do. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Baptism, Sonship, and the Inheritance of Christ

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