Romans 6:4, 12-13: We have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might walk in newness of life . . . . Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

According to Paul, baptism gives us a share in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.  Because the Spirit works in baptism, those who are baptized have died to sin, been buried with Christ, and are called and enabled now to walk in newness of life.  Baptism is to mold the way we think of ourselves; because of baptism, we are to present ourselves to God as “those alive from the dead.”

For Paul, this is not merely a “spiritual” resurrection.  Of course, our bodies are mortal, not the immortal bodies that we will have at the resurrection. Still, Paul says that the power of Jesus’ resurrection, in which we share through baptism, already works in our bodies.  He moves from saying that we are dead to sin through baptism to saying that we should not let sin “reign in our mortal body” and that we should present the “members” of our body as instruments of righteousness.

This picks up a thread running through Romans.  The sin that tyrannized over human race controls bodily practices.  God’s wrath is poured out from heaven against idolaters who bow to false gods, against sodomites and adulterers who abuse their own and others’ bodies sexually, against all who use the members of their body as instruments of unrighteousness, to murder, fight, deceive, gossip, slander, boast.

Later in Romans, Paul emphasizes the fact that God raised up the seed Isaac, from the dead body of Abraham.  Because Abraham put his faith in the God who raises the dead, and did not lose hope, the Lord brought life from his dead body and the dead womb of Sarah.

Now, in Romans 6, Paul says that we share in that resurrection power, our bodies are raised from death in sin and unrighteousness, by sharing in Christ’s death and resurrection through baptism.

Once we have said this, however, we have to remember what we learned from our sermon text today.  For Micah, as we saw, the Spirit comes not only to enable us to be privately and personally holy.  The Spirit fills us so that we can confront oppression, so that we can promote justice, so that we can hold back those who are stumbling to death, so that we can rescue the widow and orphan.  When Paul exhorts us to present our bodies as instruments of righteousness, he’s telling us to consider our bodies as tools for fighting for confronting cannibal kings, for exposing false prophets, for offering ourselves, as Jesus did, for the rescue of the oppressed.

That is the calling that baptism lays on your son today.  His baptism calls him, of course, to obedience and faith, but not only that.  Through baptism, he is brought into the company of the blessed who hunger and thirst for righteousness.