Why Did Jesus Die?

One of the things that has struck me recently is the way that we view baptism and some of the efforts to change that in the past 10 to 20 years. For example, I remember hearing that we shouldn't be preaching baptism in the "language of fear" but rather we should be talking about it like it is the believer's wedding ceremony. In fact, F. Lagard Smith wrote a whole book titled, Baptism: The Believer's Wedding Ceremony. There is some truth in that. Baptism is where you enter the church and the church is the bride of Christ so in this way Baptism is like a marriage ceremony. Others have pointed out that baptism is like a marriage ceremony in that when you say "I do" you are married, but the work really begins after that since as marriage is the beginning of our relationship to our spouse baptism is the beginning of our relationship with God. As I mentioned before, there is truth in these views, but we have to keep focused on baptism's root meaning:

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. (Rom 6:3-4)

So baptism is a re-enactment of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is therefore centered on the crucifixion and it forces you to ask, "Why did Jesus have to die?" Why did Jesus die? Why did he come?

But when he heard it, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." (Mat 9:12-13) And Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." (Luk 19:9-10) For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person--though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die-- but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:6-8)

The last verse is really the root meaning of baptism for me. It is an admission of your own helplessness and need for the redemptive power of the death and resurrection of Christ. Baptism has to be tied back to the cross and back to the power that the events there had - the power to save us from sin. Therefore an acknowledgment of our sin is absolutely central to baptism. If you don't acknowledge you have any sin (and sin in America seems to be at an all-time low, you know, unless you actually read the Bible, of course) and you only view baptism as a wedding ceremony or as getting your entry card punched to the church rolls then you are completely missing the point. Which leads to the question: without a view of the purpose of the cross, is baptism effective for anything beyond washing the dirt off of your body?