Baptism of Jesus                       January 12, 2025
Titus 3:4-7                                  Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“God’s People are Set Apart”

I mentioned at the beginning of our service today that in the Epiphany season we get to walk with Jesus again through his life on earth. Each week we see a different “Epiphany moment” that opens our eyes to a reality in Christ we would not have known otherwise. This week’s epiphany moment couldn’t be more timely for the world we live in. This week we consider one of life’s basic questions. “Who are you?” The way you answer that question speaks to what you consider the essential parts of your identity. Identity is a big word today. People base their identity on their race, their economic status, their sexuality or nationality, their politics, or any number of different potential things.

But who are you? Christians recognize that the essential parts of our identity have nothing to do with those other things that are so important to the world right now. Yes, they matter. And in love we are careful not to minimize anyone’s experience or background, but our identity isn’t wrapped up in us at all. The core of our identity is in recognizing that God has set us apart. Just as he set apart Samuel, and David, and Jesus himself at his baptism, God sets us apart from the rest of the world. In calling us to faith, and in sharing with us the gift of baptism, God makes us members of his family. Every believer has been reborn with this new identity in Christ. Every Christian is renewed for a life with him and for him. And baptism is the seal of that spiritual blessing, the pledge of a good conscience before God because of Christ’s life for us. Yes, God’s people are set apart. That’s who we are.

Paul starts by making sure we understand how we came to this new identity in the first place. “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.” The words are plain and simple. The first basic truth Paul reminds us of is that from the beginning we in fact needed to be saved. When we think of newborn children we recognize that they need many things because they can’t take care of themselves. They need to be fed and changed. They need to be loved and cared for. They need to have someone else give them blankets when they’re cold or take them off if they’re hot. They’re helpless.

But somewhere along the way we recognize that babies can eventually help themselves. Toddlers eat on their own. Grade schoolers can bathe themselves. Teenagers sometimes get out of bed on their own without help. The problem is that we try to apply that same pattern of growth to our spiritual condition. We think that as we get older we can help ourselves be better in God’s eyes. But the reality is that even the oldest and most mature among us are spiritually just as helpless as that newborn laying in the hospital crib. I can’t feed myself spiritually. We can’t just change a spiritual diaper and get rid of our own filthy sin. And we don’t get better as we get older; we look out for ourselves first just as much in adulthood as we did when we were toddlers. Just think back to the last time someone got in the way of your time off or ruined the plans you had. No, the psalmist was right when he said that even our so-called righteous acts are like filthy rags.

But like a father taking care of his helpless infant, God our Savior appeared in love and kindness to take care of us since we can’t take care of ourselves. In the Epiphany season we celebrate the work that God accomplished in the Christmas season. God sent his Son into the world to save us, not because of anything righteous we had done, but because of his mercy. Can I tell you a secret? Fathers don’t always like the things their children do. Being a dad can be a frustrating and thankless job sometimes. But good fathers provide for their children anyway. And there is no better father than our heavenly Father.

Our text tells us how he saves us and what it means for us. I’ll just read the rest of it. As I read it, listen for the two things that God does for you in saving you. “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, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”

The picture Paul uses is that of a washing. And God’s washing of us gives us two things: rebirth and renewal. The idea of rebirth may seem odd but it’s easy to understand. No offense to the mothers in the room but there’s a problem with our births into this world. We weren’t born in the perfect image of God that Adam and Eve had at the beginning. We were born into the sinful image of our parents. We know it because apart from God’s intervention every child ever born into this world also left this world in death. Sinful flesh gives birth to sinful flesh.

But if you recall Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in that famous section of John 3, he said that the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Through the power of the Word, either by itself or connected with the water of baptism, God the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth to replace our birth into sin. Fellow believers you are not the person you were born as. You are a new creation. A holy child of God. Members of his family, and thus heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is what your faith means and how your connection to Christ changes everything. This text isn’t just about baptism (it’s about conversion) but we see here how closely baptism is connected to it. Why is baptism special? Because no matter how old we get, how often or how far we fall into sin, we can always look back at our baptisms and know that there God worked in our heart. That we have been spiritually reborn in faith. Knowing that we are baptized is a continual reminder that we have been given a special birth into this new identity. A child of God. Maybe that’s the day we should celebrate with cake and candles every year.

Sadly though, until Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven we will continue to be children of two births: children of God by faith, but also children of sin by nature. For the believer that means that our lives will be ones of constant tension between what sin wants and what God wants. Even children know the battle. When you see that thing you just have to have, even though you know you shouldn’t. When someone hurts you or hurts your feelings and you want to lash out or hit back but you know it’s wrong. When you consider your place in our church’s ministry. As you think about your time & talents & treasures, and as you fight the inner battle of giving versus keeping. We are two people. At the same time saints in God’s eyes for the sake of Christ but sinners in the things we actually do and say and think.

So which path do we want to follow? I hope your answer is obvious. We want to be the “set apart” people God has called us to be. But how? How do we choose the good instead of the bad? It begins by remembering that God has washed you for rebirth and renewal. Martin Luther wrote about the daily way in which we must drown our sinful nature in the waters of our baptism. All he meant by that is that every day as we fight the sin within us we put our confidence in God’s work for us. Maybe a prayer every morning when we wake up would help. “God, today I will be faced with sin and temptation. Remind me that you have washed me and made me clean in Christ. Help me to live as the child of God you have called me to be. Forgive me when I fail but bless me with greater success today than yesterday.”

No, we’ll never be perfect, but don’t let Satan use that to trick you into thinking we’ll never be better. Because by God’s grace we can be. In fact, it’s probably better to say that by God’s grace we are. Jesus was born to give you new birth. Jesus was baptized not to forgive any sin he might have had (he had none!) but to better show his connection to us. His substitution for us. Yes, Jesus lived perfectly for you. Jesus died to save you from death. He rose to live forever, and gives us the power to live forever for him. Not because of anything righteous we had done but because of his mercy. This is who we are. This is our true identity in Christ. Brothers and sisters, in faith God has set you apart. He’s given you a whole new birth into a whole new life. Be renewed in your thinking and in your living because you are more than you realize. You are indeed a child of God by faith and in Christ. A member of his family. How blessed we are. Amen.