Baptism

We have now completed our explanation of the three main parts of common Christian teaching. What remains is to discuss the two sacraments instituted by Christ, about which every Christian should have at least a basic understanding, because no one can truly be a Christian without the sacraments. Unfortunately, almost nothing has been taught about them until now. We will begin with baptism, the sacrament through which we become members of the Christian community. To make this as clear as possible, we will work through it in an orderly way and focus only on what is essential to know. We will leave it to scholars to show how baptism should be defended against heretics and sectarians.

First, it is vitally important that we become thoroughly familiar with the words on which baptism is founded, since everything we have to say about it relates back to them. These are Christ's own words at the close of Matthew's Gospel: "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt 28:19).

Likewise at the close of Mark's Gospel: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbeliefeth shall be condemned" (Mark 16:16).

Notice first that these words contain God's command and ordinance. We should have no doubt, then, that baptism is of divine origin and was not invented by human beings. Just as I can confidently say that the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer were not spun from human imagination but revealed and given by God Himself, I can likewise declare that baptism is no human invention. It was instituted by God Himself, and He commands it solemnly and strictly: we must be baptized, or we will not be saved. We should not treat this as a trivial matter, like putting on a new coat. It is critically important that we recognize baptism for what it truly is: something excellent, glorious, and profound. This is where most of our disputes and conflicts arise. The world is full of sects crying out that baptism is merely an outward form, and that outward forms are worthless. But whether it is an outward form or not, the Word and command of God stand firm. God Himself instituted, established, and confirmed baptism. Whatever God institutes and commands cannot be worthless; it is most precious, even if it appears to be nothing at all. Consider this: if we once thought it a great thing when the pope granted indulgences through his letters and papal decrees, and consecrated altars or churches simply by virtue of his letters and seal, then surely we should regard baptism as infinitely greater and more precious. God Himself commanded it, and beyond that, it is performed in His name. The words read, "Go and baptize," not in your own name, but in God's.

To be baptized into God's name means to be baptized not merely by a human being, but by God Himself. Therefore, even when human hands perform the act, it remains, in the truest sense, God's own work. From this fact alone, anyone can reasonably conclude that baptism carries far greater weight than anything a person or saint could accomplish. After all, what human work could possibly surpass the work of God? Yet this is precisely where the devil works to deceive us, using false appearances to draw our attention away from God's work and toward our own. The rituals performed by a Carthusian monk, for instance, look far more impressive on the surface, and we are all naturally inclined to overvalue our own efforts and achievements. But Scripture makes clear that if you gathered every work performed by every monk, however impressive or dazzling those works might appear, they would not be worth a straw compared to what God does. Why? Because the worth of any act is determined by the one who performs it. Our position must be this: a person is not made noble by his works; rather, his works are made noble by him. Our irrational human reasoning, however, refuses to accept this. And because baptism doesn't glitter the way our own religious performances do, people dismiss it as worthless.

With that foundation in place, we can now answer the question properly: What is baptism? It is not simply ordinary water. It is water that has been taken up into God's Word and commandment, and sanctified by them. It is nothing less than God's own water, a divine water, not because the water itself is superior to any other water, but because the Word and commandment of God are bound to it. This is why it is sheer wickedness and devilish blasphemy when these new self-appointed teachers mock baptism, dismiss the divine Word and institution, and, having torn God's Word and ordinance away from the water, regard it as nothing more than water scooped from a spring. They argue with loud, arrogant mouths: "How can a handful of water save a soul?" Well, dear friend, no one disputes that once you strip away the Word, what remains is just water. But how dare you interfere with God's ordinance and pry from it the precious jewel He has set within it, the very jewel He refuses to have separated from His work? The essential substance in the water is God's Word, His command, and His name, a treasure greater and more noble than heaven and earth.

Note, now, the distinction between baptismal water and every other water. The power of baptismal water does not come from the water itself; it comes from the nobler elements joined to it. God makes the water a carrier of His own glory and binds it to His power and authority. It is therefore not merely natural water, but divine, heavenly, holy, and blessed water, and everything else that could rightly be said in its praise. All of this flows from the Word, which is itself a heavenly, holy Word that no one can adequately praise, for it contains and conveys everything that belongs to God. It is from the Word that baptism receives its character and its name as a sacrament, as St. Augustine taught: when the Word is joined to the element, the result is a holy, divine thing and sign — a sacrament.

This is why we consistently teach that the sacraments, along with all the external things God has ordained and established, should not be judged by their outward appearance alone, as if we were looking only at the shell of a nut rather than what lies within. We speak the same way about the roles of father and mother, and about civil authority. If you consider the people who hold these positions purely in terms of their physical appearance, their skin and hair, their flesh and bones, they look no different from anyone else. You might reasonably ask: why should I regard them any more highly than I regard a stranger? But when you bring the commandment into view, "Honor your father and your mother," you suddenly see a completely different person, one clothed and adorned with the majesty and glory of God. The commandment, I say, is the golden chain around his neck, yes, the crown upon his head, which shows me both how and why I should honor this particular person. In the same way, and even more so, you should honor baptism and hold it in high regard because of the Word attached to it. God Himself honored baptism through both word and deed, and confirmed it with miracles from heaven. Do you think it was a small thing when the heavens opened as Christ submitted to baptism, the Holy Spirit descended visibly, and everything present radiated divine glory and majesty? (Matt 3:16). I therefore urge that these two things, the Word and the water, never be separated or treated as independent of each other. When the Word is removed, the water is no different from what a servant uses in the kitchen; under those conditions, you might as well call it a bathhouse attendant's baptism. But when the Word is present according to God's design, baptism is a sacrament, and it is rightly called Christ's baptism. This concludes the first part: the nature and dignity of the holy sacrament of baptism.

Second, now that we understand what baptism is and how we should think about it, we also need to learn why it was instituted and what it actually accomplishes. What does it offer? What does it give and do? There's no better way to answer that than through the words Christ himself spoke: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). Put as simply as possible, the power, the effect, the benefit, the fruit, and the purpose of baptism is salvation. No one is baptized to become a prince. As the words plainly state, baptism exists so that a person may be saved. And to be saved, as we know well, means to be delivered from sin, death, and Satan, and to enter Christ's kingdom and live with Him forever.

Here you have another reason to hold baptism in the highest regard. That reason lies in the immeasurable treasure it contains. And that treasure makes clear that there is far more here than ordinary water. Ordinary water cannot produce such an effect, but God's Word can, and so can the name of God, which is present in it. As explained earlier, God's name is bound up in baptism. Where God's name is, there must also be life and salvation. This is why baptism is rightly called a divine, blessed, abundant, and gracious water: through the Word, it receives the power to become what St. Paul calls "the washing of regeneration" (Titus 3:5).

But when our self-appointed experts, these new spiritual voices, insist that faith alone saves us and that works and outward things contribute nothing to salvation, our answer is straightforward: nothing in us effects salvation except faith, as we will discuss later. But these blind guides refuse to see that faith must have something to believe in, something to hold onto, something on which it can plant its feet and take root. So faith clings to the water and believes it to be baptism, which brings pure salvation and life, not through the water itself (as we have already made clear), but through the fact that God's Word and institution are embodied in it and God's name is joined to it. When I believe this, what am I doing if not believing in God Himself, who has planted His Word in an outward, physical thing and placed it before us so that we can lay hold of the treasure it contains?

But these new voices are foolish enough to separate faith from the object to which it is attached and bound. Faith must have something external, something that can be perceived and grasped through the senses, which then opens a path to the heart. Even the Gospel comes to us through the external means of spoken proclamation. In fact, whatever God works in us, He does through outward means. The place where God's Word sounds, the purpose it pursues, the medium He chooses: all of these should capture the eyes of faith and serve as objects to which it clings. We have the words right before us: "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16). What do they point to if not baptism, that is, the water taken up into God's ordinance? It follows, then, that whoever rejects baptism rejects God's Word, rejects faith, and rejects Christ Himself, who directs us to baptism and binds us to it.

Third, having seen the remarkable benefit and great power of baptism, let us consider further who receives it, what baptism offers, and how it benefits us. This is expressed most clearly and beautifully in these same words: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). That is, faith alone makes a person worthy to receive this saving, divine water in a way that truly profits them. The blessing is offered and delivered through the words connected with the water and united with it, which means it can only be received when we believe it wholeheartedly. Without faith, baptism accomplishes nothing, even though it is in itself a divine and immeasurable treasure. This is why the brief phrase "he that believeth" carries such weight: it rules out and throws back every work we might attempt in order to earn or merit salvation. It is settled that whatever does not come from faith can neither contribute anything nor receive anything. But if someone objects, as people often do: "Baptism itself is a work, and you say works accomplish nothing for salvation, so where does faith fit in?" You should answer: Yes, our works truly accomplish nothing for salvation, but baptism is not our work. It is the work of God (and you must, as already noted, draw a sharp distinction between Christ's baptism and a mere bath). What God does is beneficial and necessary for salvation; it does not exclude faith but actually requires it, because without faith we cannot lay hold of what baptism offers. Simply allowing water to be poured over you does not mean you have received baptism in a way that makes it a blessing to you. You receive the blessing when you submit to it as a divine command and ordinance, so that, being baptized in the name of God, the salvation promised in the water becomes yours. This is not something hands or body can achieve; the heart must believe it.

All of this makes one thing clear: baptism is not something we do for God, but a treasure God gives to us, and faith is what reaches out and takes hold of it. In the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is not a work we perform, but a treasure offered to us through the Word and received by faith. So those who accuse us of preaching against faith are being unfair. We consistently insist on faith as so essential that nothing can be received or enjoyed without it.

We have now examined the three parts of this sacrament that every person needs to understand, especially the fact that baptism is God's own institution and deserves to be held in the highest honor. That fact alone should be enough to motivate us to observe it, even if baptism were nothing more than an outward ceremony. Consider how this same principle applies to the commandment, "Honor your father and your mother." That commandment points to ordinary human beings made of flesh and blood, yet we regard that flesh and blood as wrapped in God's own command, and because of that divine command, mere human beings receive the honored titles of father and mother. In the same way, even if we had nothing more than the words "Go and baptize," we would still be obligated to receive and obey them as a direct ordinance of God. But we have far more than a commandment: we also have His promise. Therefore it is even more glorious than virtually anything else God has commanded and instituted. In short, it is so rich with comfort and grace that neither heaven nor earth can fully take it in. Yet grasping this requires a particular kind of faith, because the treasure itself is never lacking; what we lack is the capacity to seize it and hold on firmly.

Every Christian has more than enough in baptism to study and practice for an entire lifetime. We must always hold firmly to what baptism promises and delivers: victory over the devil and death, forgiveness of sins, God's grace, the fullness of Christ, and the Holy Spirit with all His gifts. In short, the blessings of baptism are so extraordinarily great that our timid human nature, if it stopped to consider them carefully, might well wonder whether any of it could really be true. Think of it this way: imagine a physician who had the power to raise the dead and grant them permanent, unending life. Can you picture the flood of wealth that would pour in from every corner of the world, with the rich crowding out the poor before they could even get close? Yet here in baptism, that same priceless remedy is brought freely to everyone's door, available to all without cost, swallowing up death and saving the lives of every person who receives it.

To understand and use baptism correctly, we must let it become a source of strength and comfort whenever sin and a troubled conscience weigh us down. At such moments, you can say with confidence: I am baptized, and because I am baptized, I have the promise that I will be saved and receive eternal life for both soul and body. This is why two things happen in baptism: water is poured on the body, which can perceive nothing beyond the water itself; and the Word is spoken to the soul, so that the soul receives its share as well. Just as water and Word together form one baptism, so both body and soul will be saved and live forever. The soul is saved through the Word, in which it believes; the body, because it is joined to the soul and receives baptism in the way that it can. No greater treasure can adorn our body or soul than baptism, for through it perfect holiness and salvation are made available to us, things that would otherwise lie completely beyond the reach of human effort and striving. We have now said enough about the nature, benefits, and proper use of baptism for our present purposes.

Here we encounter a question that the devil and his followers use to confuse the world: the question of infant baptism. Do infants have faith? Can they be properly baptized? To this, we offer a brief reply. Ordinary believers without theological training should set this question aside and leave it to those who are equipped to answer it. But if you must respond, say this: infant baptism is pleasing to Christ, and His own work proves it. He has sanctified many who received this baptism, and today there is no shortage of people whose teaching and way of life bear witness to the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. We ourselves, by God's grace, have received the ability to interpret Scripture and to know Christ, which is simply not possible without the Holy Spirit. Now, if God did not approve of infant baptism, He would never have granted the Holy Spirit to any of these people, not even in the smallest measure. In short, from the earliest ages of the church down to the present day, no one on earth could have been a Christian at all. Since God has confirmed baptism through the gift of His Holy Spirit, as is clearly evident in the lives of certain church fathers such as St. Bernard (the medieval monk and theologian), Gerson (the medieval theologian), John Huss (the Bohemian reformer), and others, and since the Christian church will endure until the end of the world, we must acknowledge that infant baptism is pleasing to God. God can never contradict Himself, nor can He support lies and wickedness, nor pour out His grace and Spirit in service of something false. This is perhaps the most straightforward and compelling argument for ordinary believers, because no one can strip from us or overturn the article of faith: "I believe in the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints."

Furthermore, we maintain that the vital concern is not the presence or absence of faith, since the latter cannot invalidate baptism itself; what truly matters is God's Word and command. This may sound a bit strong, but it follows directly from what I have already said: baptism is simply water and God's Word joined together, so that when the Word accompanies the water, baptism is properly administered even if faith is absent. Faith doesn't constitute baptism; it receives baptism. Baptism is not invalidated even when it is not rightly received or used, because it is not bound to our faith but to the Word of God. Consider this: if a Jew came to us today with deceptive intentions and an evil purpose, and we baptized him in complete good faith, we would still have to acknowledge that his baptism was genuine. The water was there, accompanied by God's Word, even though he failed to receive it as he should have. In the same way, those who partake of the Lord's Supper unworthily still receive the true sacrament, even though they do not believe.

The objections raised by the sectarians simply don't hold up. As we've already said, even if children don't believe (which has not been proven), their baptism would still be valid, and they should not be rebaptized. The same principle applies to the Lord's Supper: it isn't corrupted when someone receives it with an evil intention, and that person would not be permitted, on account of that misuse, to receive it again the same hour as though the true sacrament had never been given. That would be to blaspheme and dishonor the sacrament in the worst way imaginable. How could we suppose that God's Word and ordinance become invalid simply because we misuse them? So I say this: if you have not believed, then believe now, and confess it openly. The baptism itself was right and true; the failure was yours in how you received it. Now, I myself, along with everyone who has been baptized, must confess before God in these terms: I come here trusting in my own faith and in the faith of others, yet I cannot build on the fact that I believe or that many people are praying for me. What I build on is this: it is Your Word and Your command. This is exactly how I approach the Lord's Supper, not on the strength of my own faith, but on the strength of Christ's Word. Whether I am strong or weak, I place myself in God's hands. This much I know: He calls me to come, to eat and drink, and He gives me His body and blood, which will never mislead me or deceive me.

We follow the same principle in infant baptism. We bring the child with the conviction and trust that it believes, and we pray that God will grant it faith. But that trust is not what the baptism rests on. We baptize solely on the basis of God's command. Why? Because we know that God does not lie. I, my neighbor, and in fact every person alive may err and deceive, but God's Word cannot.

Only arrogant and foolish people argue that where there is no true faith, there can be no true baptism. By that same logic, I could argue that if I have no faith, Christ is nothing; or that if I am not obedient, my father, mother, and superiors are nothing. Is that a sound conclusion? Does a person's failure to do what they should somehow strip the thing they misuse of all meaning and value? My friend, reverse the argument entirely: baptism is valid and right precisely because it has been improperly received. If it were not right in itself, we could not abuse it or sin against it. Hence the saying: abuse does not remove the substance, but demonstrates its existence. Gold is no less gold because a prostitute wears it in sin and shame.

The conclusion, then, is this: baptism remains good and its essence intact even when someone is baptized without true faith, because God's ordinance and Word cannot be changed or corrupted by human beings. But the fanatics are so blinded that they cannot distinguish God's Word and command from anything else. They treat baptism as though it were nothing more than water in a brook or a bucket, and they treat magistrates as though they were ordinary people with no special standing. Because they see neither faith nor obedience, they assume the things themselves are equally worthless. Hidden in this thinking is a cunning, seditious devil who would gladly snatch the crown from those in authority, trample it underfoot, and overturn all of God's works and ordinances in the process. We must therefore stay alert and well-armed, refusing to be pulled away from the Word or led astray into neglecting baptism or treating it as an empty symbol, the way the fanatics imagine it to be.

Finally, we should understand what baptism signifies and why God chose this particular outward sign and ritual as the sacrament through which we are first welcomed into the Christian community. The act itself consists of being placed into water that flows over us, and then being drawn back out again. These two movements, going into the water and coming back out, represent the power and effect of baptism: simply put, the death of the old Adam within us and the resurrection of the new person, both of which continue throughout our entire lives on earth. In this sense, the Christian life is nothing less than a daily baptism, and once we have entered it, we are called to fulfill its demands without interruption. We must continually strip away what belongs to the old Adam, so that what belongs to the new person can emerge and grow. But what exactly is the old Adam? Inherited from Adam himself, he is hot-tempered, hateful, envious, unchaste, greedy, lazy, arrogant, and above all, unbelieving. He is thoroughly corrupt and offers no room for anything good. When we enter Christ's kingdom, that corruption should decrease a little more each day, and we should grow gentler, more patient, more humble, and ever more free from unbelief, greed, hatred, envy, and pride.

This is the proper use of baptism among Christians, as expressed through the act of washing with water. Now, where this transformation of life fails to follow, where the old sinful nature in us remains unchecked and only grows stronger, baptism is not being used rightly but is actually being resisted. Those who live apart from Christ cannot help but deteriorate a little more each day, as the old proverb puts it: evil left unchecked only gets worse. If a person was proud and greedy a year ago, today he is far more so. Vice builds on itself from youth onward and never stops growing. A young child, who has no particular fault, becomes corrupt and undisciplined as he matures. When full adulthood arrives, the deeper vices take hold and intensify with time. The old sinful nature, then, will always follow its own impulses unless it is restrained and held in check by the power of the baptismal covenant. On the other hand, when we become Christians, that old nature weakens a little more each day, until it is finally brought into full submission. This is what it truly means to be plunged into baptism and to rise again daily. The outward sign was appointed not only for what it gives, but also for what it represents. Where genuine faith is present and bearing fruit, baptism is no empty symbol; the work of putting the flesh to death accompanies the sign. Where faith is absent, baptism remains nothing more than a barren sign.

Here you can see that baptism, both in its power and its meaning, encompasses what has traditionally been called the third sacrament: repentance. But when you examine it carefully, repentance is really nothing more than baptism working itself out in a person's life. What is repentance, after all, if not a determined stand against the old self and a steady movement toward the new life? So if you are living a life of repentance, you are advancing in your baptism, which doesn't merely point to this new life but actually produces it, sets it in motion, and sustains it. In baptism, grace, the Spirit, and power are given to put down the old Adam and allow the new person to emerge and grow. For this reason, baptism retains its validity always. Even when people fall away from it and sin, we always have access to it again, so that we can once more bring the old self under control. We should never, however, be rebaptized with water; even if someone were immersed a hundred times over, it would still count as only one baptism. The effect and meaning of baptism remain constant and enduring. Repentance, then, is simply a return and a re-entry into baptism: picking up again the practice that was begun but then set aside.

I say this to correct a long-standing misconception among us: that baptism belongs to the past and becomes unavailable to us once we fall back into sin. This idea comes from treating baptism as a one-time event, a view that can be traced back to St. Jerome's writing that repentance is the plank on which we must launch ourselves and cross to the other shore after the ship has sunk beneath us. That ship, in his image, is the community of Christians we boarded at our baptism. These words strip baptism of its ongoing value, as though it can do nothing more for us once we've sinned. But the image is false, because the ship never sinks. As I said, baptism is God's ordinance, not a human invention, and it cannot founder. What can happen is that we fall overboard. And when someone does fall out, the right response is to swim back to the ship immediately, grab hold of it, and climb back in to sail on just as before.

We can see, then, what a magnificent thing baptism is. It rescues us from the very jaws of the devil, makes us God's own children, conquers and removes sin, strengthens the new person within us day by day, and remains with us all our lives until we are finally delivered from the misery of this present age and brought into eternal glory. For this reason, everyone should treat baptism like a garment worn every single day. Each day should find us living in faith and bearing its fruit; each day should see the old self losing ground and the new self growing stronger. If we want to be Christians, we must practice what Christianity actually requires. If someone falls away from the covenant of their baptism, let them return to it. Just as Christ, our merciful mediator, never withdraws or bars the door to those who come back to Him after sinning, so all His gifts and treasures remain available to us. Once we have received the forgiveness of sins in baptism, that forgiveness continues with us every day for as long as we live, which is to say, for as long as we carry the old Adam within us.