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Page 8
He could, if it so pleased Him, do it without any means. By a
mere act of His will, God could recreate the human soul. He could do
so by a word, as He created the universe. Without the contact of any
outward means, without the bringing of His word to them in any way,
Christ healed the ruler's son and the daughter of the Syro-Phenician
woman. But if He can do this without means, who will say that He
cannot do the same thing through means? Since, then, He can accomplish
his own purposes of Grace either with or without means, it only
remains for us to inquire, in what way has it pleased God to work?
Does He in the present dispensation work mediately or immediately? It
will scarcely be disputed that the present is a dispensation of
means--that even in the domain of nature, and much more in the realm
of Grace, He ordinarily carries out His purposes through means. He
chooses His own means. They may sometimes seem foolishness to man,
especially in the operations of His Grace.
Our Saviour, in working miracles, used some means that must have
struck those interested as very unsuitable. When He healed the man
blind from his birth, _He mixed spittle and clay_, and with this
strange ointment, anointed and opened his eyes. Well might the blind
man have said: "What good can a little earth mixed with spittle do?"
Yet it pleased our Lord to use it as a means, in working that
stupendous miracle. When Jesus asked for the _five barley loaves and
two small fishes_, to feed the five thousand, even an apostle said:
"_What are these among so many_?" Yes, what are they? In the
hands of a mere man, nothing--nay, worse than nothing; only enough to
taunt the hungry thousands and become a cause of strife and riot. But
in the hands of the Son of God, with His blessing on them, taken from
His hands, and distributed according to His Word, they became a feast
in the wilderness.
A poor woman, a sufferer for twelve years, craves healing from
our Lord. With a woman's faith, timid though strong, she presses
through the crowd close to Jesus, and with her trembling bony fingers
touches the hem of His garment. Jesus perceives that virtue is gone
out of Him. The woman perceives that virtue, healing and life are come
into her. There was a transfer from Christ's blessed life-giving body,
into the diseased suffering body of the woman. And what was the medium
of the transfer? The fringe of His garment--a piece of cloth. Yes, if
it so pleases the mighty God, the everlasting Saviour, He can use a
piece of cloth as a means to transfer healing and life from Himself to
a suffering one.
The same divine Saviour now works through means. He has founded a
Church, ordained a ministry, and instituted the preaching of the Word
and the administration of His own sacraments. Christ now works in and
through His Church. Through her ministry, preaching the Word, and
administering the sacraments, the Holy Spirit is given. (Augsburg
Confession, Article 5.) When Christ sent forth His apostles to make
disciples of all nations, He instructed them how they were to do it.
The commission correctly translated, as we have it in the Revised New
Testament reads thus: "_Go ye, therefore, and make disciples_ _of all
the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things
whatsoever I commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the
end of the world._" Here then is the Saviour's explicit instruction.
The Apostles are to _make disciples_. This is the object of their
mission. How are they to do it? By _baptizing_ them into the name of
the triune God, _and teaching_ them to observe all Christ's commands.
This is Christ's own appointed way of applying His Grace to sinful
men, and bringing them out of a state of sin into a state of grace.
And this is the Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church. We begin
with the child, who needs Grace. We begin by baptizing that child into
Christ. We, therefore, lay much stress on baptism. We teach our people
that it is sinful, if not perilous, to neglect the baptism of their
children. The Lutheran Church attaches more importance to this divine
ordinance than any other Protestant denomination. While all around us
there has been a weakening and yielding on this point; while the
spirit of our age and country scorns the idea of a child receiving
divine Grace through baptism; while it has become offensive to the
popular ear to speak of baptismal Grace, our Church, wherever she has
been and is true to herself, stands to-day where Martin Luther and his
co-workers stood, where the confessors of Augsburg stood, and where
the framers of the Book of Concord stood.
The world still asks: "What good can a little water do?" We
answer, first of all: "Baptism _is not simply water_, but it is
the water comprehended in God's command, and connected with God's
Word." (Luther's Small Catechism.) The Lutheran Church knows of no
baptism that is only "a little water." We cannot speak of such a
baptism. Let it be clearly understood that when we speak of baptism,
we speak of it as defined above, by Luther. We cannot separate the
water from the Word. We would not dare to baptize with water without
the Word. In the words of Luther, _that_ would be "simply water,
and no baptism." Let it be kept constantly in mind that whatever
benefits and effects we ascribe to baptism, in the further forcible
words of Luther's Catechism: "It is not the water, indeed, that
produces these effects, but the Word of God which accompanies and is
connected with the water, and our faith which relies on the Word of
God connected with the water." If now the question is further asked:
What good can baptism as thus defined do? we will try to answer, or,
rather, we will let God's Word answer. "What saith the Scripture?"
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