In the beginning, from out of nothing, the Holy Triune God created the heavens and the earth by the speaking of the almighty and eternal Word. The Father spoke forth His only-begotten Son, and with that Word He breathed forth His Life-giving Holy Spirit; and thus did He bring forth all of Creation, beginning with water, a great cosmic deep, and then forming the earth out of water and by water. That is how He chose to work, to begin and to proceed. All of this was and is very good, because it was and is the work of God, the Lord, and because He still preserves and provides for His whole Creation in love. The Father upholds all things by His Word, who is indeed His Son.
All of this the Lord has done, and still does, out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, for the sake of Man, male and female, created in His Image and Likeness for Life with Himself forever.
But of course, our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled against the Lord who had created them, who had given them life. They disobeyed His Holy Word, though it was His Word that brought them into being, gave them body and life, and provided for them. And by their sin they plunged all of mankind, all of their children, into a downward spiral of sin and death and eternal damnation, which is separation from the Holy Triune God, from His Life and His Love and His Light.
Henceforth, all men and women, boys and girls, infants and toddlers receive this inheritance from their parents, from the first moment of conception in the womb. It is this inheritance that you have likewise received from your father and mother, which you also pass on to your sons and daughters, this heritage of sin and death from which you cannot set yourself free. The heart, soul, mind, and strength of man, of all the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, are sinful from the outset. That is the stream into which you were born, in which you would drown and die forever without God.
So it was that the Flood, for example, was God’s righteous judgment against the hardened hearts, unbelief, and rampant idolatry of Man. The Holy Scriptures testify that the Lord was sorry that He had even created Man. So He brought the waters of the Flood down upon their heads.
Yet, that same Flood, which was indeed the judgment of God against the sins of the world, was also a Type and a Sign of the great Salvation He would accomplish by His own Son, Jesus Christ, by His Holy Cross and Passion in His Body of Flesh and Blood. For it is upon the head of Christ Jesus that God the Father finally pours out all His righteous wrath and judgment in your stead.
The Flood was thus a Type of that gracious washing of regeneration and rebirth by the Holy Spirit which the Lord has brought about in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. And so it was with faithful Noah and his family, eight souls in all, though they were descendants of Adam and Eve, conceived and born in sin and subject to death, they were saved by the waters of the Flood, which lifted them up in the mercies of God — pointing them and you and all mankind to Christ Jesus, our Savior.
Really, everything in the Old Testament — from before the foundation of the world, and even to the close of the age — it’s all about Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. Everything depends upon Him, on His Incarnation, His Life, His Cross and Resurrection and Ascension. Everything depends upon Jesus for its real meaning, for its purpose, and for its fulfillment in divine and holy Love.
So, for example, the Old Testament Exodus from Egypt is finally realized for what it truly is in the Exodus that Jesus accomplishes for us men and our salvation upon the Cross outside of Jerusalem and in His Resurrection from the dead. He is the Firstborn Son who is put to death to set you free from Pharaoh’s satanic bondage. And He is the Passover Lamb who is sacrificed in your stead, whose Flesh feeds you for Life, and whose Blood covers and protects you from death.
It is the wood of His Cross that parts the waters of the Red Sea; which is to speak of your Baptism in His Name, whereby you pass through those waters with Him, through death and the grave into Life in the Resurrection. He feeds you with the heavenly Manna of His holy Body throughout your pilgrimage on earth, and He seals you in the New Covenant of His Blood in the Holy Communion.
In truth, until you finally tread the verge of Jordan — until your body is finally dead and buried from your life in this world — you never do outgrow the necessity and benefits of your Baptism. As the Catechism has taught you, it possesses a lifelong and daily significance for you.
It is by your Baptism into Christ Jesus that you have been born again to a new and living hope through the Word of His Cross. Like little fishes you were born in those waters, and as a Christian you live your whole life in those same waters of Holy Baptism, wherein the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have recreated you in the Image and Likeness of God — which is to say, in Christ Jesus.
It is by your Baptism into Christ, the beloved and well-pleasing Son, that you are a dear child of God, and that He is your dear Father in heaven. And it is by your Baptism in His Name that you have been anointed with the Life-giving Holy Spirit, unto faith and life in Christ Jesus, through the forgiveness of your sins (which you need each day, just as the Lord has taught you to pray).
Your Baptism is and does all of these things, because it is by your Baptism into Christ Jesus that you have been united with Him and bound to Him in His Cross and Resurrection; such that His Good Friday and His Easter are now yours — your dying and rising in and with Him.
Henceforth you live, no longer in Adam and for yourself, but in Him and for Him who for your sake died and was raised. The river of sin and death flowing from Adam and Eve to all of their children has been cut off, because Christ has taken His stand — together with all of us mortals — in the middle of that stream. He has planted Himself and His Cross, the true Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat of God, in the midst of the Jordan River. And by His priestly Sacrifice of His own Body and Life, He has opened the Way for you and for all the baptized — out of the desert wilderness into the Promised Land of heaven, flowing not with sin and death, but with the pure spiritual Milk of His Word, like Water from the Rock, sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.
Thus has the new and greater Joshua, Jesus the Christ, established the New Israel of His Church, wherein He has fixed this Pillar and this Sign of Holy Baptism, which works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal Salvation — to you and to all who believe this, as the Words and Promises of God declare: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.”
It is to this permanent Monument of Holy Baptism that Jesus calls you daily by His Word and Holy Spirit through contrition, repentance, and faith. For it is with His Baptism that you also have been baptized; only, what was death for Him is now Life for you. By your Baptism with Christ, your old Adam is crucified, put to death, and buried; he is drowned and destroyed, with all your sinful lusts and desires. But, so also, by and from those waters of Holy Baptism, you arise and emerge to live before God as a new creation, to live in and with the New Man, the true and better Adam, Jesus Christ, in His righteousness and purity, which are yours by His grace through faith in Him.
So it is that you live with Him in His Kingdom, now and forever; and you do drink His Cup, the overflowing Chalice of His holy and precious Blood, unto the Resurrection and eternal Life.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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