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Page 10
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_."
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