Baptism - Lesson 1

BAPTISM

2003/2004

LESSON ONE

I. Baptism as the Foundational Sacrament

A. One means of grace not valued over another in offering forgiveness.

B. But each sacrament (including Lord’s Supper and private confession and absolution).

1. Has a unique function.

2. Can not be substituted for each other.

C. Baptism (to Luther)

1. Not simply an entrance ceremony into Christian community.

2. Equated with the Christian life.

3. Established the church’s boundaries.

4. Was the foundational sacrament out of which all the other sacraments took their meaning.

D. Being in Baptism is equivalent to being in Christ.

E. Luther’s confidence.

1. Not his faith, holiness, or spiritual achievement.

2. Rather his Baptism.

F. Baptism - to Luther

1. Requires faith for justification.

2. Provides the certainty of salvation.

3. Faith in God and His Word meant faith in Baptism.

G. This understanding provides presuppositions for this study.

1. We will compare the teaching of others.

2. Dogmatic theology is intrinsically biblical theology.

H. Baptism

1. Not only the antidote to original sin and prior actual sins (cf Rome)

2. But remains the refuge for the sinner through out life.

3. Is first the foundation of the Christian life.

4. Then also its perpetual content.

II. Baptism as the Remedy for Original Sin

A. Anabaptist’s denial of Baptism’s salvific effectiveness, esp. re: children:

1. Ignited first division among opponents to the papacy.

2. Led to formulation of doctrine of Baptism in Confessions.

a. AC IX.

b. Ap IX.

c. S.C. (IV)

d. L.C. (IV)

e. S.A. (III, V)

f. Agreed with Rome that Baptism

(1) Is necessary for salvation.

(2) Is a real means of grace.

3. Anabaptists (“rebaptize”)

a. Understood it not as a real means of grace necessary for salvation.

b. Rather as the believer’s pledge to God.

c. Certainty of salvation depended on the believer’s conscious awareness.

4. Reformed churches who maintained infant baptism.

a. Still saw it not as a means of grace (did not confer grace).

b. Saw it primarily as a symbol.

B. For Luther, every Baptism, including of adults, is in a sense an infant Baptism.

1. Its saving efficacy did not depend.

a. On the faith of the one administering it.

b. Or on the faith of the one receiving it.

c. L.C. IV. 58.

C. Baptists

1. Not theologically descended from the 16th -century Anabaptists.

2. Hold to same fundamental views denying baptismal regeneration and infant baptism.

D. Reformed view

1. Baptism necessary as a good work flowing out of a willing heart.

2. Not necessary as the channel through which God approaches the believer with salvation.

3. Share common ground with Anabaptists and Baptists in understanding it is not, strictly speaking, a way in which God confers grace upon recipient.

4. View sacraments as adiaphora.

III. Law or Gospel?

A. A command performed to satisfy a divine requirement?

B. Or a gracious activity of God toward us?

C. Lutheran:

1. It is God’s work (L.C. IV 4, IV 8, IV 31, IV 35)

2. It does have God’s authority behind it.

3. “Ordinance” and “command” used re: Baptism.

a. Do not mean a moral requirement which we must fulfill to please God.

b. Otherwise, Baptism (the Gospel) becomes Law.

c. Refer to the Gospel and its authority established by God to bring salvation to men.

d. Are not synonyms for the Law.

4. Baptism pleases God.

a. Not in a moral sense, but

b. Because through it Christ

(1) establishes His church.

(2) brings His kingdom.

5. The “law of Christ” is the Gospel.

a. An imperative that is an invitation without threat of punishment.

b. (Ro 8:2, 10:4; Gal 6:2).

IV. Lutheran doctrine of original depravity.

A. Baptism

1. Not a change in substance.

2. Does initiate a new relationship with God. (Ap II 35-37; Ep III 15, SD III 47-49)

3. Does not remove original sin so that man now has a clean slate.

4. It is the continued and permanent promise to the believer. (LC IV 77)

5. It removes the guilt of sin.

B. God’s judgment for sin and His verdict of justification.

1. Are universal.

2. Are individualized for the believer in Baptism.

C. Occurs once.

D. Provides the foundation for all of the Christian life.

E. Is coterminous with all of the Christian life.

F. Is what being Christian is all about.

G. God’s divine wrath finds its conclusion in divine love.

1. He wants to do something good in the Law.

2. Even though the hearer could never know that unless hears the Gospel.

H. Baptism focuses His love into the lives of sinners, therefore, is necessary (LC IV 6)

I. Burial and resurrection with Christ is real and actual.

1. First an “Adam event”.

2. Then a “Christ event”.

3. A present reality.

J. We never escape the reality of original sin, therefore baptism has continued meaning to a Christian.