# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1849 02 20_S98
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

98

so it came to pass, through the faithful care of the LORD of the Church, that exactly the opposite resulted.

So we hope also that the attacks of the Methodist freebooter of this place upon holy Baptism will make us Lutherans only the more firm and certain in the wholesome doctrine of the divine Word concerning this holy Sacrament, as indeed the holy Church, as the pillar and ground of the truth, has taught it from the beginning, but, at the time when the Reformed and the Baptist fanatics arose, has come to light still more clearly, chiefly through Luther's labor.

We will therefore, following the guidance of our text, Matth. 28, 18—20., and with the assistance of God the Holy Ghost, treat together

Of Holy Baptism;

and indeed in this first sermon under the following two questions:

I. What is it?
II. What does it work?

I. What is it?

Our Methodist, a fallen-away Lutheran, regards it, in good old fanatical fashion and in accordance with the opinion of the Reformed, as a merely outward water-baptism, which in and of itself is nothing but a mark of distinction between Christians and heathen and imparts no grace, unless the baptism of the Spirit and of blood be added; whoever would be saved, he says, must have all these three baptisms.

To this the following is to be replied:

As regards first the baptism of the Spirit and of blood, it is clear and manifest that here the word Baptism does not stand in its proper meaning, but is to be understood figuratively, as indeed in the passages which treat of them, Baptism is not properly instituted by the LORD Christ. When therefore the Savior, Luke 12, 50., speaks of His baptism of suffering (compare Matth. 20, 22.), He means this, that, as the person baptized (according to the original custom) is wholly and entirely plunged under the water and covered by it, so also must He, as it were, be overflowed by streams of suffering, especially upon the accursed tree, and be wholly sunk into His bloody death. Similarly it stands also with the other passage, concerning the baptism of the Spirit. For when John the Baptist, Matth. 3, 11. (compare Luke 3, 16.), declares that the LORD Christ shall baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire, the meaning again is that the disciples would, as it were, be overflowed with a stream of fire of the Holy Ghost and blessedly covered by it. And this indeed was fulfilled, as we know, on the day of Pentecost, wherein at the same time the fiery tongues indicated the gifts of the various languages in which the Apostles then proclaimed the great works of God. (Acts 2, 1—11.)

The same circumstance holds also with a third passage, where likewise figuratively and improperly baptizing is spoken of. For when Paul, 1 Cor. 10, 1. 2., says: "Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea," he would thereby indicate the following: Just as the children of Israel, under the guidance of the pillar of light and of Moses, passed through the Red Sea and were thereby delivered from the dominion of Pharaoh, while he on the other hand perished in the sea with all his host, so are we, through holy Baptism, delivered from the dominion of the infernal Pharaoh, that is, of the devil and of sin. Further — for Pharaoh is not merely a picture of Satan, but also of the old Adam — as Pharaoh with his people was drowned in the sea, so by holy Baptism, as the washing of regeneration, the old man with his sins is drowned. —

From a closer consideration of these passages, therefore, which treat of the baptism of blood, of the Spirit, and of the cloud, we have, it is to be hoped, learned sufficiently that they express a manifold likeness to holy Baptism, but by no means the essence of it, and that it is the ill manners of the fanatics to take such figurative passages as literal.

In the second place, however, it is altogether untrue when our Baptist fanatic, after the manner of his brethren, speaks contemptuously of holy Baptism and calls it a mere "outward water-baptism" which "does not impart the Holy Ghost," whom he indeed expects much sooner from the mourners' bench and other Methodist institutions for conversion; for the holy Apostle calls this despised water-baptism, Eph. 5, 26., "the washing of water by the Word," by which the LORD Christ cleanses His Church; but this Word, namely that of the institution, Matth. 28, 19., is surely no word of man, but the Word of the Almighty Son of God, by whom heaven and earth were made, and who by this His Word can also accomplish in the water what He will; it is the Word of the true Son of God, who by this His Word actually accomplished in the water what He promised and pledged, Mark 16, 16.

Therefore holy Baptism, or this "washing of water by the Word," is a work of God, a divine ordinance and a divine means of grace, by which the LORD, in the earthly element of water, offers, appropriates and seals heavenly goods to the individual man. And though the baptizing ministers of the Church are sinful and mortal men, yet the word of command and institution: I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is also in their mouth the living and powerful Word of God, which is and works the same from its first utterance to the last day; and as the sun in heaven now and on the last day of this course of the world shines with the same brightness, warms and gives light with the same power and beauty as on the day of its creation, so it stands also with the sun of truth unto salvation, with God's Word, which in the mouth of feeble men also never grows old or diminishes, and retains the same power and glory, yea, which abides when heaven and earth pass away.

Since, therefore, this Word of God is with and in the water and pervades it, it is water imbued with Spirit, with Christ, with God, and it is either gross ignorance or malicious blasphemy when the Baptist fanatics are forever crying: "Water-baptism, water-baptism!" "How can water do such great things?" as though God's Word, which is sacramentally joined with the water, were just as empty and vain as their own word. Or is it not so, that our LORD Christ says of all His words: "they are spirit and life"? And should the solemn and weighty words wherein He institutes holy Baptism make an exception? Should these alone be spiritless, and so also not impart spirit and life, but stand idle and empty, and leave the imparting of the Holy Ghost to the self-made exercises and institutions, to praying, singing, screaming, sighing, groaning, moaning, etc., of the work-driving fanatics, who in their spiritless devices and arts, to the disgrace and injury of the simple Gospel and of the unpretending Baptism, set up a new law and lay a new yoke upon their deluded followers? God forbid! —

Rather let it be as our LORD Christ said to Nicodemus, who without doubt was turning the question over in his heart: "What shall I do, that I may enter into the kingdom of God and be saved?" — How speaks the Searcher of hearts there, John 3, 5.? "Verily, verily, I say unto thee" (with this twofold asseveration He begins), "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."

With this weighty word the self-subsisting Truth and Wisdom has instructed also all Baptist fanatics of all times and peoples; for from it it is evident that there are not two and twofold real baptisms, a baptism of water and a baptism of the Spirit; the little word "of" namely belongs to "water" just as to "Spirit," and to the one as to the other the new birth is ascribed, which therefore neither the Holy Ghost accomplishes without the water, nor the water without the Holy Ghost. But what unites the two? Nothing other than just that word of command and institution of the Almighty Son of God; without this word the water is indeed plain, that is, common water and no Baptism, but with the Word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Ghost. But the content of this Word is threefold.

First, namely, to baptize "in the name" of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost means to do this at the command and bidding of the same, as ambassadors of earthly princes also execute their commission only at their command. In the second place, however, "in the name," etc., means also this, in the stead and in the representation of the triune