BAPTISM, A DIVINELY APPOINTED MEANS OF GRACE.
When we inquire into the benefits and blessings which the Word of
God connects with baptism, we must be careful to obtain the true sense
and necessary meaning of its declarations. It is not enough to pick
out an isolated passage or two, give them a sense of our own, and
forthwith build on them a theory or doctrine. In this way the Holy
Scriptures have been made to teach and support the gravest errors and
most dangerous heresies. In this way, many persons "_wrest the
Scriptures to their own destruction_." On this important point our
Church has laid down certain plain, practical, safe and sound
principles. By keeping in mind, and following these fundamental
directions, in the interpretation of the divine Word, the plainest
searcher of the Scriptures can save himself from great confusion,
perplexity and doubt.
One of the first and most important principle, insisted on by our
theologians and the framers of our Confessions, is that a passage of
Scripture is always to be taken in its natural, plain and literal
sense, unless there is something in the text itself, or in the
context, that clearly indicates that it is intended to convey a
figurative sense.
Again: A passage is never to be torn from its connection, but is
to be studied in connection with what goes before and follows after.
Again--and this is of the greatest importance--Scripture is to be
interpreted by Scripture. As Quenstedt says: "Passages which need
explanation can and should be explained by other passages that are
more clear, and thus the Scripture itself furnishes an interpretation
of obscure expressions, when a comparison of these is made with those
that are more clear. So that Scripture is explained by Scripture."
According to these principles, we ought never to be fully certain
that any doctrine is scriptural, until we have examined all that the
divine Word says on the subject. In this manner then we wish to answer
the question with which we started this chapter: What is written as to
the benefits and blessings conferred in baptism?
We have already referred to the commission given to the Apostles
in Matt, xxviii. 19. We have seen that in that commission our Lord
makes baptism one of the means through which the Holy Spirit operates
in making men His disciples. In Mark xvi. 16, he says: "_He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved._" In John iii. 5, he says:
"_Except a man_"--_i.e._, any one--"_be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God_." In Acts ii. 38, the
Apostle says: "_Repent and be baptized every one of you for the
remission of your sins._" Acts xxii. 16: "_Arise and be baptized, and
wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord._" Romans vi. 3:
"_Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ, were
baptized into His death._" Gal. iii. 27: "_For as many of you as have
been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ._" Eph. v. 25-26:
"_Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that He might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word._" Col.
ii. 12: "_Buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with
Him through the faith of the operation of God._" Tit. iii. 5:
"_According to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost._" 1 Pet. iii. 21: "_The like figure
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us; not the putting away of
the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward
God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ._"
These are the principal passages which treat of the subject of
baptism. There are a few other passages in which baptism is merely
mentioned, but not explained. There is not one passage that teaches
any thing different from those quoted.
All we now ask of the reader is to examine these passages
carefully, to compare them one with the other and to ask himself: What
do they teach? What is the meaning which a plain, unprejudiced reader,
who has implicit confidence in the Word and power of God, would derive
from them? Can he say, "There is nothing in baptism?" "It is of no
consequence." "It is only a Church ceremony, without any particular
blessing in it." Or do the words clearly teach it is nothing more than
a _sign_--an outward sign--of an invisible grace?
Look again at the expressions of these passages. We desire to be
clear here, because this is one of the points on which the Lutheran
Church to-day differs from so many others. Jesus mentions _water_ as
well as Spirit, when speaking of the new birth. "Make disciples, (by)
_baptizing_ them." "Be baptized _for the remission of your sins_." "_Be
baptized and _wash away thy sin._" "_Baptized _into Christ._" By
baptism "_put on Christ_." Christ designs to sanctify and cleanse the
Church with "the _washing of water_ by the Word." "_Washing of
regeneration_ and renewing of the Holy Ghost." "Baptism _doth also now
save us_." The language is certainly strong and plain. Any principle
of interpretation, by which baptismal Grace and regeneration can be
explained out of these passages, will overthrow every doctrine of our
holy Christian faith.
Our Catechism here also teaches nothing but the pure truth of the
Word, when it asserts that baptism "worketh forgiveness of sins,
delivers from death and the devil, and confers everlasting life and
salvation on all who believe, as the Word and promise of God declare."
Our solid and impregnable Augsburg Confession, also, when in Article
II. it confesses that the new birth by baptism and the Holy Spirit
delivers from the power and penalty of original sin. Also in Article
IX., "of baptism they teach that it is necessary to salvation, and
that by baptism the Grace of God is offered, and that children are to
be baptized, who by baptism being offered to God, are received into
God's favor." And so with all our other confessional writings.
The question might here be asked: Is baptism so absolutely
essential to salvation, that unbaptized children are lost? To this we
would briefly reply, that the very men who drew up our Confessions
deny emphatically that it is thus _absolutely_ necessary. Luther,
Melanchthon, Bugenhagen and others, repudiate the idea that an
unbaptized infant is lost. No single acknowledged theologian of the
Lutheran Church ever taught this repulsive doctrine. Why then does our
Confession say baptism is necessary to salvation? It is necessary in
the same sense in which it is necessary to use all Christ's
ordinances. The necessity is _ordinary_, not _absolute_. Ordinarily
Christ bestows His Grace on the child through baptism, as the means or
channel through which the Holy Spirit is conferred. But when, through
no fault of its own, this is not applied, He can reach it in some
other way.
As we have seen above, He is not so limited to certain means,
that His Grace cannot operate without them. The only thing on which
our Church insists in the case of a child as absolutely necessary, is
the new birth. Ordinarily this is effected, by the Holy Spirit,
through baptism, as the means of Grace. When the means, however,
cannot be applied, the Spirit of God can effect this new birth in some
other way. He is not bound to means. And from what we have learned
above of the will of God, toward these little ones, we have every
reason to believe that He does so reach and change every infant that
dies unbaptized. The position of our Church, as held by all her great
theologians, is tersely and clearly expressed in the words, "Not the
_absence_ but the _contempt_ of the sacrament condemns."
While the Lutheran Church, therefore, has confidence enough in
her dear heavenly Father and loving Saviour, to believe that her Lord
will never let a little one perish, but will always regenerate and fit
it for His blessed Kingdom ere he takes it hence, she still
strenuously insists on having the children of all her households
baptized into Christ.
Others may come and say: You have no authority in the Bible for
baptizing infants. Without entering fully on this point we will
briefly say: It is enough for a Lutheran to know that the divine
commission is to "_baptize the nations_"--there never was a
nation without infants. The children need Grace: baptism confers
Grace. It is specially adapted to impart spiritual blessings to these
little ones. We cannot take the preached Word, but we can take the
sacramental Word and apply it to them. God established infant
membership in his Church. He alone has a right to revoke it. He has
never done so. Therefore it stands. If the Old Testament covenant of
Grace embraced infants, the New is not narrower, but wider.
The pious Baptist mother's heart is much more scripturally
correct than her head. She presses her babe to her bosom, and prays
earnestly to Jesus to bless that babe. Her heart knows and believes
that that dear child _needs_ the blessing of Jesus, and that He
_can_ bestow the needed blessing. And yet she will deny that He
can bless it through His own sacrament.--"_the washing of water by
the Word_."
The devout Lutheran mother presses her baptized child to her
bosom, looks into its eyes, and thanks her Saviour from the depth of
her heart, that He has blessed her child; that He has breathed into it
His divine life, washed it, sealed it, and adopted it as His son or
daughter. How sweet the consolation to know that her precious little
one is a lamb of Christ's flock, "_bearing on its body the marks of
the Lord Jesus_."
But Christian parents have not fulfilled their whole duty in
having children baptized into Christ. The children are indeed in
covenant relationship with Jesus Christ. But it is their bounden duty
and blessed privilege to keep their little ones in that covenant of
Grace. Of this more in the next chapter.