Small Catechism Review: Baptism, Third

Sermon for Midweek of Epiphany 1

Baptism: Third

This evening we heard the account of God’s call to Abram when he was 75 years old, 25 years before Isaac was born, 24 years before God made the Testament with Abraham of which circumcision was the sign. On New Year’s Day, we talked about the connection between the New Testament Sacrament of Holy Baptism and the Old Testament Sacrament of Circumcision, both of which are tools which God has used to bring sinful little children out of the devil’s kingdom and into His own family.

When it comes to Old Testament circumcision, people who rely on human reason have often wondered, how can the cutting away of a little skin make someone into a child of God and an heir of eternal life? How can anything that’s done to the body affect the soul and one’s relationship with God?

The same question is asked about the water of Holy Baptism. God promises, with the application of a little water in His name, some tremendous things. You remember what they were from Baptism: Second. What benefits does Baptism give? It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this. But some ask, How can water do such great things?

Our answer is stated very simply in Baptism: Third. Clearly it is not the water that does it, but the word of God that is in and with the water, and the faith that trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism; but with the word of God it is a Baptism—a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says to Titus in chapter three: “Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs of eternal life according to hope. This is most certainly true.”

Water does a pretty good job cleansing the body; by itself, it does nothing for the soul or for one’s relationship with God. But God has taken that common cleanser of the body and has attached His word to it, His command and His promise to use it in His name as a tool and instrument of applying all the benefits Christ won for us on the cross to the individual who is baptized. The word of God that is in and with the water is like a tool or an instrument, like the very hand of God, holding out all the benefits of Christ to the one who is baptized.

Meanwhile, the faith that trusts this word of God in the water is also like a tool or an instrument, like the hand of the one being baptized, receiving and accepting the benefits of Christ being held out by the hand of God. And what is it that prompts that hand to be lifted up toward God to receive, but the very kindness and goodness of God as His hand reaches down with the help the sinner needs, holding out the blood of Christ and the promise of forgiveness? And so it’s the Gospel itself, the Gospel encapsulated in Baptism, that creates the faith that’s needed for Baptism to be effective in working the forgiveness of sins, delivering from death and the devil, and giving eternal salvation to all who believe this.

Without the word of God, of course, it’s just water. If I take water from anywhere, whether from the sink or from the baptismal font itself, and I go pour it on someone or wash my car with it, that’s no Baptism. The water itself isn’t sacred; it has no power. But with the word of God—when the water is applied by the minister to the one who comes to him to be baptized, when the baptizer calls upon God in prayer and speaks the word of God and applies the water in the name of God for the purpose of washing the person’s sins away and bringing him or her into God’s family, then it is a Baptism, a water of life, rich in grace, and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit.

The word Luther uses for “washing” is the same word used in German for a “bath.” Baptism is a spiritual bath, a bath in which the Holy Spirit does the washing, like a mother bathing her little child, a bath in which the Holy Spirit does the “regenerating.” “Regeneration” is just a fancy word for “rebirth.” Baptism is the washing of rebirth, the washing of water and the Spirit by which a person who was born naturally outside of God’s kingdom is born into it.

So every baptized believer is a “born again” Christian, in spite of the misuse of that term by those who deny the fact that Baptism actually does something. And just as a child doesn’t do the work of being born, but the mother does all the work, so we aren’t the ones who do the work of Baptism or who give birth to ourselves by some decision to follow Jesus. No, God is the true Baptizer. He does the work. The Holy Spirit gives birth to us, and now we are God’s children.

In the catechism’s citation of Titus chapter 3, it mentions other important benefits of Baptism, too. …that we might be justified by His grace. Yes, justification is tied to Baptism. That’s where God justifies a poor sinner. It’s where and how God forgives sins. So, again, pretending that God has already justified all people, baptized or unbaptized, seriously undermines the Scriptural doctrine of Baptism.

…and [that we might] become heirs of eternal life according to hope. Of course Baptism makes us heirs. Because Baptism makes us God’s children, born of God. And as a good and faithful Father in heaven, He won’t leave His children as penniless orphans. He has made us heirs of His kingdom, heirs of all that is His, heirs of eternal life. That is the hope of the baptized, and it is a sure hope, because it has God’s own promise behind it. And so we say, together with Luther, and together with the Apostle Paul, This is most certainly true. Amen.