Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Acts 22:16 ... Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
AS LUTHER TAUGHT: HOLY BAPTISM
God understands that people learn in different ways. Some learn best from reading, others from hearing, still others from hands-on experience. As a master communicator, the Lord expresses the Good News of Jesus in a number of different ways. One of these ways is found in Holy Baptism.
Baptism has been called, "the visible Gospel." Following our Lord's command we simply put water on a person and say, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
Some churches teach that Baptism is only a symbol, and that it has no real power to save. But the Word of God says otherwise in clear passages like the one above. We know from the rest of the Bible that a sinner can only be saved through faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ. So, we teach that Holy Baptism creates and seals faith through the powerful Word of God.
Some churches teach that only adults should be baptized, as if Baptism was something that we do for God and not the other way around. But the Bible teaches us that human beings are sinful from the point of conception, so children need salvation just as much as adults. Jesus told His followers to baptize "all nations", which certainly includes infants. Finally, we know that infants trust their parents who love them. Through the Bible we are taught that they can also trust in God who loves them more than any parent ever could.
It's important to remember that Jesus told his followers to baptize AND teach. If we don't raise our baptized children to know the Gospel, their faith will die.
Think about it like this: Baptism is like planting a seed. Without continual watering, that seed cannot live and thrive. So, we follow the faith planting of Holy Baptism with the faith watering of instruction in God's Word -- especially the saving message of sins forgiven through Jesus' cross.
