A Concord Minute: Bound to Christ, alive forever

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore 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.” - Romans 6:1-4 ESV

This Bible passage from St. Paul to the Romans tells us about how we are bound to Christ, specifically through the baptismal waters. Romans 6 is used at the occasion of baptisms in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, and I would suppose it would be a good text for any baptism. For Saint Paul shows us how we are bound to Jesus when we are baptized. In fact, when someone is baptized, not only does that person bind themselves to Jesus, but more so, Jesus is binding himself or being bound to them. Baptism binds us to Jesus and Jesus to us!

This reality of being bound to Jesus is especially helpful as you and I see the wildfires happening out in California. Saying to ourselves “I am baptized” might not seem so helpful when the fires seem to be soaking up all the water. Saying “I am baptized” or “I am bound to Jesus” or “Jesus is bound to me” doesn’t seem to really help put out the fires there in California, or even the fires in our own lives. And to a certain extent to be honest, baptism doesn’t do that, baptism can’t put out physical fires unless you take the water from the baptismal font or the water from the river or the water from wherever you’re being baptized and throw it on the flames.

While the flames are engulfing our attention on the news, we can look to what God has promised us: that He is still bound to us and we are bound to him. When Jesus is being bound to a cross with rope and nails, he took upon all the brokenness of the world - flames and all. At His death, Jesus went down to Hell, walking among the flames, showing forth how He had conquered that place by his death. When He woke that third day, Jesus shined brighter than the flames on the mountains in Pasadena. “On that mountain He will swallow up death forever” Isaiah writes (Isaiah 25:6-9). In the meantime, Jesus promises that some day very soon the whole creation will stop burning. Jesus will return. On that day, the whole creation will be fully renewed. No more flames, just living water flowing from the throne (Rev. 22:1-5) where you and I will live bound up together, untouched by the flames of life, alive forever.

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The Rev. Matthew Berry is pastor of Concordia Lutheran Church in Sikeston, Missouri. Based in Sikeston’s Historic North End, Concordia is a member congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), a theologically conservative, biblically sound, Christ-centered church.