In spite of this being “Easter Sermon IV”, it is actually a very old one I preached, years ago, in our church as well as our college chapel. It is, in part, an extended reflection on an observation by C.S. Lewis, that only a sinless person would be capable of incarnating the perfect “repentance” (i.e., return to God, the Hebrew “shuv”, which means “returning”) of which, paradoxically, he was in no need personally (being perfect, repentance is inapplicable to him). The evil person, on the other hand, being in desperate need of repentance, is incapable of performing this good work. That is one of the “conundrums”. The other is the odd sort of distinction Paul makes in Romans 4:25 with regard to the “parts” of Christ’s redemptive work, i.e., which parts accomplished what. Finally, an observation of my own on the Baptism of Christ, an observation that arose in the course of my teaching the Gospel of Matthew at our college—to the effect that the Baptism serves as a depiction, in symbolic form, of the entire redemptive act of God in Christ—helps me to tie these two “conundrums” together theologically and resolve them... in a way that seemed appropriate for an Easter sermon....
First conundrum: (Romans 4:25) “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”
Usually we think of salvation as one whole; we say, “Jesus died and rose to save us.” But in this verse, Paul seems to divide salvation into two parts. He says that Jesus died for our sins, but was raised to justify us. Now what can that mean? Why is the resurrection especially connected to “justification”? Paul said it, so it must mean something!
Second conundrum: How can a bad man do a good thing? What I mean is this: Repentance is a good thing; it means giving up your sins and returning to God. But who needs to do this good thing? A “bad” person, of course. And the worse he is, the more he needs to do it! But the worse he is, the less he can do it. Now, a perfect person could easily do it... but he doesn’t need to. So there’s the paradox! The worst person most needs to repent, and he can’t. The perfect person can easily repent, but he doesn’t need to! And even if the best person did, in some sense, repent, what difference would that make for the worst person? It doesn’t help him, does it?
So those are our two conundrums. And now, even though our focus today is Easter and resurrection, I want to spend a few minutes reflecting on the baptism of Jesus Christ. Why? Because there is a theological picture in this baptism. And I think the picture will help us to solve the conundrums I’ve laid out and at the same time help us more deeply celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection and all it means for our lives.
(Read Matthew 3:1-17)
In this baptism we can see the whole story of salvation concentrated in one moment and one person. The story is acted out symbolically, concentrating on Jesus as he embraces this “Baptism of Repentance”. Now, John the Baptist was horrified that Jesus would do such a thing. Right before this, John was announcing that the Messiah was coming to baptize with fire and the Spirit! But here Jesus appears on the scene and what do we see? Do we in fact see the terrifying Lord of hosts radiating fire on His enemies, like John’s words would lead us to expect? Not in the least. Instead we see a simple man at the riverbank, humbly waiting in line for his turn. You know, it reminds me of Revelation where the elder tells the apostle John, “Look! The Lion of the tribe of Judah!”, but when John looks, what does he see? A Lamb.
John the Baptist did his best to stop Jesus. He knew exactly what this baptism meant, and what it meant was: Jesus didn’t need it! Because it meant repentance. He seriously tried to stop Jesus from going into the water, probably several times, saying, “You mustn’t do this; it isn’t right; I can’t baptize you– you should baptize me!” (Just think about what that means....)
But Jesus says, in effect, “Come on, John, let’s get on with it! This is the way it’s meant to go. We’re supposed to do exactly this, to accomplish the total fulfillment of God’s righteousness.” And with that Jesus goes into the water and... repents.
Now you’ll tell me, of course: “Wait! Jesus didn’t repent, because he never sinned. Besides, the text doesn’t say that he repented.”
In answer to the first objection: yes, I know Jesus never sinned. We’ll talk more about that in a moment.
In answer to the second objection, the Scripture clearly says that this mass baptism John was holding out there on the Jordan River was a baptism of repentance. It was “Repentance Baptism”; in other words, if you do the baptism, you are repenting. You can’t separate them; that’s how John preached it, that’s how everybody took it. And when Jesus submitted to it, neither he nor John stopped to make a preliminary announcement: “Attention, everyone! Let’s make it perfectly clear that in this one special case this is not ‘Repentance Baptism’! There’s absolutely no connection in this case between the two ideas!” You see, to say that repentance wasn't implied when Jesus got baptized is practically the same as saying he wasn’t baptized at all. Because “Repentance Baptism” was the only kind of baptism going on out there that day. And that’s the one Jesus took.
In front of everybody and without clarification, explanation or modification, Jesus submits to exactly the same baptism as all the others. Others are going down into the water confessing their sins, “I stole from my brother! I told lies about my neighbor! I had adulterous thoughts!” And now Jesus goes into the water, too, like the rest. Perfectly natural for anybody watching to assume Jesus was a sinner like them. Why wouldn’t they? They didn’t know who he was. Maybe they noticed Jesus didn’t confess any sins before he went into the water; maybe they noticed that John didn’t want to baptize Jesus; maybe they thought that was rather odd.... Nevertheless, Jesus goes down into the water, like a repenting sinner.
Now imagine John’s total bewilderment. What in the world is going on here? It’s all upside-down, all wrong.... It makes me think of Jesus’ disciples later, when to their horror they witnessed Jesus hanging on the cross – their feeling must have been similar: “This can’t be happening; it’s all wrong.” But here’s the thing: it wasn't wrong. Precisely so Jesus was supposed to “fulfill all righteousness”. The only one who never needed to repent, the Perfect One, does a “Repentance Baptism”. But for what? For whom?
In our imagination, let’s look and watch that Baptism story again and see the story it tells: Jesus comes out of the crowd, heads for the water, goes under it, comes up, heaven opens, the Spirit descends, a voice speaks. I believe that Jesus is telling John, and us, that this very picture itself is fulfilling all righteousness. But how? In what sense? Let’s take the picture in parts....
Jesus comes out of the crowd, steps forward as one of the people, participating in their Repentance Baptism – but more than “participating”, he will actually do the perfect Repentance Baptism for them, like they can't. He steps forward as one of them; He won't stand aloof from the people. To the contrary, he will in a sense be them, for them—but on a level and dimension beyond anything they, or we, could conceive. Jesus will carry their guilt in a repentance and surrender to the Father’s will like no one else could. And why? So he might make them new, in himself. This will fulfill all righteousness. This will make righteousness real in every single person Jesus carries in his heart down to the waters of repentance.
So Jesus stepped out of the crowd, and then headed straight for the water. Nothing would stop him. This was what he came for.... “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” “I must do the works of my Father”; “He set his face toward Jerusalem”. Exactly like Jesus headed straight into the water, that’s how he headed straight to the cross. John couldn’t stop Jesus from getting into the river; nothing could stop Jesus from fulfilling the Father’s will. nobody could stop Jesus from going to the cross. No one ever obeyed the Father like this before. This also fulfills all righteousness; this also makes righteousness real. Real, in Jesus.
Then Jesus went down under the water. Just like God will bring Jesus’ soul down into the very depths of death, on that day when Jesus cries from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”, breathes his last breath and dies, the day he is buried in the earth. This also fulfills all righteousness.
Then, Jesus immediately came up from the water. Just as three days after his death, he came up from the earth, out of the grave in glorious resurrection. “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He is RISEN!” Death couldn’t hold God’s Holy One. This also fulfills all righteousness.
Then heaven opened. Just as heaven opened to receive the Son of God 40 days after the resurrection. In Jesus’ ascension, heaven and earth are united, and we have access to the Father through Him. This also fulfills all righteousness.
Then the Spirit descended. Just as the Spirit descended again on Jesus’ people, the Church, in fulfillment of Jesus’ promise: I will send another Comforter; I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you; I and the Father will make our dwelling place within you. This also fulfills all righteousness.
Then the voice spoke from heaven: “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God blessed His Son, openly announced His perfect pleasure in Him before all the people. There will be another day when the whole creation, the whole universe will recognize God’s Son. And at His Name, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This also fulfills all righteousness.
You know, when Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden, righteousness died. The right relationship for which God created man— died. Ever since then, God in His grace has labored in human history to restore—yes, to fulfill—this righteousness, make it real again.
The crowning conclusion of this divine labor was righteousness’ ultimate materialization in Jesus. And in the Baptism this stunning story is portrayed in miniature—it’s acted out; it’s announced to the entire creation. It all happens and “comes true”—in Jesus’ personal identification with the people, in His self-sacrifice for them, in His resurrection, and in His renewal of them; they become a new and righteous people by Him, and this surely fulfills all righteousness.
No wonder Jesus wouldn’t let John stop him but said “We have to do this....” The heart of God couldn’t settle for less.
Romans 5:16 “Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.”
In verse 19, Paul talks about the obedience of the “one man”, and I can’t help picturing the one man Jesus stepping out of the crowd, to do it all, the one man Jesus on the cross, paying for all, the one man Jesus coming out of the tomb, having won it all.
It makes me think of Matthew 7, as well, where Jesus says we must “enter by the narrow gate and the straight path.” I know we usually picture a long straight path – that’s our earthly life – leading finally to a narrow gate – that’s the gate of heaven. But I truly don’t think that’s what Jesus is talking about. If you read it carefully, you’ll notice that Jesus talks about the narrow gate first. Only then comes the straight path. First we enter the narrow gate, and why is it narrow? It’s narrow because, ultimately, it all boils down to one man. The gate is Jesus, and the righteousness he fulfilled. Over all the millennia of human history, God was narrowing and narrowing this gate down to one man—through Noah, Abraham, Israel, then one tribe of Israel, then one family from that tribe, then one child from that family. God brought the whole eternal work of redemption to fulfillment, finally, in this one man—the one who stepped out of the crowd that day, and said to John the Baptist, “Let it be so, John, because this is exactly the way we must fulfill all righteousness.” We enter the kingdom only through the narrow gate, the One Man, surrendering to his will like he surrendered to the Father’s will. And then, after entering through him, we walk the long, straight path—with its sacrifices, tests, temptations, purification and sanctification. And that way, “all righteousness” continues being fulfilled, continues happening, in us.
So this finally brings us back to the two conundrums we started with: why is it the resurrection of Christ, specifically, that justifies, and how can a bad person do a good thing; i.e., how can a sinner do the right thing and repent the way he should? Perhaps you already realize that these two conundrums are really one.
And the answer should be clear now, especially if you remember that the verb “justify” means “to make righteous”. It’s only because of the resurrection that Jesus can bring the righteousness fulfilled in his life into our life. No resurrection—no justifying! Only because he is alive can Jesus’ righteousness live in us. His righteousness lives because Christ lives. In His earthly life, Jesus incarnated the truest repentance and self-surrender to God, he lived out unwavering obedience that presses forward, every step closer and closer to God, no matter the cost, through every fire and test. Which is what every sinner ought to do; which is what no sinner can do. But Jesus did it. And now He can do it, and does do it, again: in you and in me... because he lives. “Because I live, you also will live”, Jesus tells us. “Living”, for Jesus, is nothing else than living for God. That’s perfect repentance, that’s righteousness, that’s sanctification, that’s life in the risen Lord.
And when does this life, this righteousness, this sanctification happen for us? Not just on the day we become a believer, but every day of our life. The whole Christian life is a life of repentance, in the sense of return to God. It’s a continual returning, ever closer and closer, from imperfection to perfection, from darkness to light. This is the life Christ made real for us when we couldn’t. This is why Jesus stepped out of the crowd. This is why Jesus rose from the dead. This is why the Risen Lord lives in our hearts: to fulfill all righteousness.
Romans 6:8 “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”
God made man to be righteous. Thanks to God’s great love and grace, man will be righteous. Because Jesus lives, you and I can live—really live. Because he returned to God, you and I can return to God, every day. He lives in us to make it happen. As the apostle writes, “the life he lives, he lives to God.” The life he lives in us, we live to God. Paul writes, “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. We can do this, for Christ is risen! He lives in us to do what he has always done: the will of the Father. We show we are his when we let him fulfill that will. To save us He died, to justify us He rose. And in the power of His resurrection, He invites each of us to enter by the narrow gate, the gate of His own risen life, and walk the straight path with him, in a life of return to God, in his strength, no matter what the cost. Let us glorify the risen Lord Jesus Christ by surrendering our life to him, so that in us and with us he can go on fulfilling the righteousness that glorifies the Father.
