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BAPTISM AND ORIGINAL SIN
“He’s got the dimples of his father.”
“He’s a cutie all right,” responded Marcie. Janet was holding the quietly slumbering babe in her arms. She and her husband had wanted a baby for a number of years. Finally, little Davey came along.
“I can’t get over how peaceful he looks when he’s sleeping,” said Janet.
“Janet, are you going to get the baby baptized?”
“Well, Marcie, we don’t baptize babies in my church.”
“Why not?”
Janet paused for a second as she shifted Davey over a bit. “We believe that baptism is for a new Christian. Once a person realizes his sinfulness, then he can get baptized. But a little baby can’t sin like that.”
Janet’s answer took Marcie by surprise. She had never really thought about it that way before.
“You really don’t think so?”
Janet smiled. “Marcie, have you ever heard of a baby murdering someone? Or a baby stealing? Davey’s just a baby. He’s totally unconscious about things like that. Just look at him sleeping here.”
Janet had a hard time seeing the need for infant baptism. After all, if infants are too young to really sin, what’s the need for baptism? Notice also how Janet saw sin in terms of the actual deeds that were done. But sin is much more than that! It’s also a state, a condition that we are in ... from the time of conception and birth.
The Scriptures on an age of accountability:
The Scriptures on original sin:
Gen 1:26,26; Gen 5:3; Gen 8:21; Job 14:4; Job 15:14; Job 25:4; Matt 7:17; Ps 25:7; Ps 58:3; Ecc 7:20; Rom 3:10-12; Rom 7:14-25; Eph 2:1-3; Rom 8:7,8; Rom 5:12.
Romans 3:23 states that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The language of Scripture is ALL, with no exceptions! Everyone is under the curse of sin and in need of God’s saving work in their lives. “Everyone” means even the littlest.
If infants were really innocent of sin, why doesn’t Scripture say this? Rather, the exact reverse is definitively stated. There is nobody who is righteous in God’s eyes, not even the newborn.
SYMBOL OR REALITY?
A pastor was teaching a class on baptism. He had just finished talking about how John 3:5-8 shows how baptism saves us from the sins of our flesh.
Suddenly a woman raised her hand and asked, "Pastor, it seems hard to believe that applying water to someone is going to help them with eternity. How can water save?
(The emphasis on "water" almost stung.)
"Sue, when we talk about being saved, we can only say what Scripture says. The Bible tells us that God works in his Word, his Holy Scriptures, to create faith, whenever the Bible is heard or read. But the Bible also says that baptism saves. God works in each of these ‘means’ to create faith."
"Well, I don’t see why God couldn’t just work faith directly. Why does he have to be tied down to water?"
"What God could have done is not for us to worry about. We can only go with how God says he is working."
"I just still have a hard time believing that water can save."
"How can water do such great things?"
That was exactly the question that many were asking at the time of the Reformation. In response, Luther once said about baptism:
If God bade you pick up a stalk of grain or a strip of feather and, with his command, promised that through this act you should have forgiveness of all your sins, grace, and everlasting life, should you not accept that proposal with great pleasure and gratitude, love it, praise it, and esteem that stalk or feather a higher and holier possession than heaven and earth?
Baptism is not the work of men, but of God. The apostle Paul always uses the passive voice in the verbs that denote baptism. The fact that humans administer baptism is not important (1 Cor 1:14-17). It is God who works in baptism (Eph 5:25-27; Col 2:13; Titus 3:5-7).
Baptism is a Means of Grace
But wait a minute! So God promises his grace with water baptism. But why? Why water baptism in addition to God’s forgiveness given through the hearing of the word of Christ? It’s as simple as sin. A person convicted by sin needs that extra testimony to God’s forgiveness. In the tangibles of water or of bread and wine, the person crushed by his or her sins and weak in faith encounters the truly superabundant riches of God’s grace in Christ. God wanted people to be absolutely sure of his forgiveness. So he promises his grace also with tangible elements like the water.
The Necessity of Baptism
Is baptism necessary? The Scriptures say yes! Baptism is necessary only because God grants his grace through it. Why would anyone want to pass up the free gift of God’s grace? Why would anyone keep another from the love of God given each of us in baptism?
INFANT FAITH AND BAPTISM
"Your church baptizes babies? But why?"
"We believe that God saves them through baptism," replied Theresa.
"But doesn’t the Bible say he that believes and is baptized shall be saved?"
"Well, sure, but ...." Theresa wasn’t really sure what to say as Jim went on.
"How can a baby believe? A baby can’t accept Jesus as its Savior. A baby doesn’t even know what baptism means!"
"But how else are they going to be saved?" asked Theresa.
"Maybe God’s got a special plan for babies. But it can’t be baptism. Baptism’s not any good unless you believe. And a baby’s not old enough to know anything about the Lord." ...
How can an unconscious infant accept the benefits of baptism?
Many Christians speak of the day or hour when they "accepted" the Lord or "made their decision" for him. For them, faith has become a conscious acceptance of Jesus Christ after being old enough to understand the gospel. Infants, they say, cannot have such a faith. They’re too young to accept the gospel. How many parents have delayed their child’s baptism because they wanted it to be the child’s own decision?
But this way of thinking puts the burden of salvation on man and his own works. Salvation becomes man’s decision to accept God and his love for us rather than God’s acceptance of man.
Scripture, however, teaches a different view of faith:
Eph 2:8-10; John 15:16; Eph 1:4,5; Rom 9:9-24; Rom 9:16; Rom 7:14-20.
People like to speak of an "age of accountability" when the child is able to understand the things of the faith. However, we are told in 1 Corinthians 2:14 and other places in Scripture that mankind, by nature, whether infant or adult, is unable to "accept" or welcome the things of God. While an infant cannot "accept" the Lord, an infant can receive him!
Since faith is entirely a result of a decision by God for the sake of humans, it is easy to see that God can work faith even in infants. Faith is a miracle in any person and must be since the natural man cannot receive the things of God’s Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). The disciples asked Jesus in Matthew 19:25: "Who then can be saved?" What was Jesus’ answer in the following verse? "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Faith is not dependent on human wisdom or intelligence. Faith would then be a human action when the Word says that it is the work of God.
Self-conscious adults tend to rationalize faith. But infants and adults are all equally incapable of faith of themselves. Faith is a miracle of God in any person, no matter what the age.
John 3:8 warns against trying set limits or boundaries over the work of the Spirit that is promised in baptism.
Infant baptism and adult baptism
Texts such as Acts 22:16, John 3:5, Ephesians 5:26, and Titus 3:5 all speak of an order. The gospel is shared. Then comes belief. Last is baptism.
God works in a different way with children. Rather than having to win over their rational thinking, God has less to do in creating infant faith. While adults and older children need to think through things in the hearing of the Word, that is just not so with the infant.
Infant blessing
Instead of infant baptism, many churches practice what is called infant "blessing." The custom goes back to Christ (Mark 10:13-16). But, infant blessing was never ordained by Christ. Baptism was. Baptism was given to the Church as a means of bringing people to the faith (Matthew 28:18-20). Second, infant blessing does not have God’s grace promised with it or the power of the Word as baptism does. Baptism is a "sacrament" while infant blessing simply is not. Baptism is a means of making infants holy.
But people still get stuck on the fact that Jesus did not baptize the little ones. Jesus never baptized! " ... Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples" (John 4:2). That Christ did not baptize these children but blessed them should not be found surprising. Jesus never baptized adults either!
A SUMMARY OF WHY BAPTIZE INFANTS
Children are included in "all nations" (Matt 28:18-20).
Paul compared and made an analogy between baptism and circumcision (Colossians 2:11-13). Since circumcision is for infants, so also is baptism.
Since ceremonial washings in the Old Testament included infants, it is natural to conclude that Christian baptism should do the same, for baptism is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament ceremonial rites of purification.
"Entire" families were baptized in the book of Acts (Acts 16:15; 16:28-36; 18:8)
Children are born in sin (original sin) which requires the cleansing water of baptism.
Infants can believe.
The child that Christ used for an example of humble faith (Matthew 18:5) is a "little child." This Greek word "paidion" refers to infants, babies and very, very small children.
The "little ones" (Matthew 18:6) in the Greek "mikroon" refers to the class of children under four years old and according to both Hebrew and New Testament usage has special reference to the "littlest," namely the infants.
Luke’s version (18:15-17) of the same events uses the Greek word "brephae." Matthew’s "paidion" refers to all those under four years of age including the infants. But "brephae" refers only to infants. The people brought to Jesus infants!
The Old Testament also speaks of little children believing in God (Psalm 71:5,6; Psalm 22:9; Psalm 8:2). The Scripture also points out that John the Baptist as an infant was filled with the Holy Spirit and believed already in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15,41,44).
Peter said that the baptismal promise of forgiveness of sins was for the children (Acts 2:39).
The early Christian church baptized infants.
"Baptize" means "to apply water"
The Greek word used in Mark 7:4 to speak of "the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles" is the word "baptizo" – "to baptize." When we wash jars, large pitchers, and kettles, we do not necessarily totally immerse them. We may simply pour water over them. In Luke 11:38 the kind of washing the Pharisees expected of Jesus before eating did not involve the immersion of his entire body. The Greek word for "baptize" is used here for the ritual washing of hands in daily Jewish life.
The writer to the Hebrews refers to matters of "food and drink and various ceremonial washings [Greek word for "baptisms"] (9:10). These were the washings, or baptisms, required by Old Testament ceremonial law. It is crucial to note that the law never required immersions but frequently required sprinkling or pouring.
In Matthew 3:16 and Mark 1:10, the holy writers record that "Jesus went up out of the water." Some assume from this that Jesus went down into the river was completely covered by water in his baptism. However, in Acts 8:39 Luke writes that "they came up out of the water." This is the same Greek verb that is used in Matthew and Mark. If, as some assume, that Jesus was totally immersed by the water and then "came up out of it," they must also assume that Philip and the eunuch were totally immersed by the water and then they both "came up out of it." However, nobody baptizes another by immersing himself also under the water.
New Testament baptisms
On Pentecost, three thousand people were baptized in Jerusalem (Acts 2:41), which has no river. Were there pools large enough to immerse all those people in one day? Even if there were, it is very doubtful that the enemies of our Lord and his followers would have put the city’s water supply at their disposal so that three thousand people could be bathed there.
In Acts 8, when the Ethiopian eunuch wanted to be baptized by Philip, they were on a desert road (verse 26). No rivers are in the area. The only water is an occasional small spring, which quite likely would not have been large enough for an immersion.
In Acts 9:18,19, Paul, blind and weak, was sitting in a room, his eyes were opened, he relates his baptism, he took food, and he was strengthened. The text relates the events in rapid succession, which implies that everything occurred in the house where Paul was staying. It is very unlikely that a private dwelling would have had the facilities for a person to be totally covered with water in baptism.
The same is true regarding the baptisms of the jailer at Philippi and his household in Acts 16:33. It was after midnight when they were baptized. It seems very unlikely that Paul and Silas went out to a river and immersed the jailer and his household at that late hour.
Modes of baptism in the early church
The testimony of the various illustrations of baptism in the Roman catacombs strongly favors pouring as the manner of applying water in baptism. The ruins of the early churches have shallow baptismal fonts, not immersion tanks. From early times, a sea shell has been used as a symbol for baptism. Sea shells were often used to pour water on the heads of those being baptized. Early Christian paintings depict John and Jesus standing in water and John using a sea shell to pour water on Jesus’ head. To be sure, immersion was used in the early church, but it was not used to the exclusion of other methods of baptism.
Any method of applying the water – immersion, pouring, or sprinkling – is a valid method.
Infant Baptism and Adult Baptism
The Bible does not teach one doctrine of infant baptism and another doctrine of adult baptism. Rather, it teaches a single doctrine of baptism, and that is enough. When people understand why baptism is needed and what baptism does, they usually agree on whether we should baptize babies. Since baptism brings us all the benefits of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice and creates the saving faith to receive those benefits, why would it be withheld from children?
The prevailing view by those who do not baptize children is that children are born in a state of innocence and that when they grow up, they are affected by their evil surroundings and start to do improper things. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
A progressive couple kept their young son from associating with other children his age. In this way they intended to shelter the boy from the sinful influence of those around him. But they soon discovered, to their amazement, that he did sinful things anyway, without ever being taught. He was as selfish and nasty as any other child. The human predicament is not the result of our environment but a result of the sinful condition of the human heart.
Some will agree that children are sinful from birth, but they assume that children are not accountable to God for their sins. The Bible, however, does not speak of an age of accountability. Romans 3:19 says that the whole world is accountable to God. Paul warns, "The wages of sin is death" (6:23). If children were not accountable for their sins, they wouldn’t die. Obviously, then, children are accountable for their sins, because they die, as all other people.
Faith is not a work we perform but is entirely a gift from God. It is a trust in the Savior worked by the Spirit. Christians have never considered themselves anything but believers even when they were asleep or otherwise unconscious. Sleep certainly does not destroy a believer’s faith, neither does a coma, nor does Alzheimer’s disease. Baptized babies can believe even though they cannot recite the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostles’ Creed.
Jesus warns adults not to let their reason and understanding get in the way of believing like little children. (Mark 10:15)
Baptism – God adopts me into His family
A definition of Baptism: Baptism works the forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this as the words and promises of God declare. (Luther’s Small Catechism)
I. What does "baptism" mean?
Mark 7:1-4 The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and {2} saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were "unclean," that is, unwashed. {3} (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. {4} When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) (Some early manuscripts have "pitchers, kettles and dining couches.")
1. In a general sense the word "baptism" means:
To use water in various ways: immerse, wash, pour, sprinkle; Baptizw.
Matthew 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. {19} Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, {20} and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
2. According to verse 19, how many people does God want to be baptized?
All people, no matter the age, ethnic group, etc.
3. In verse 19 Jesus gives us the Word of God which is generally used in Baptism. What are those words?
Trinitarian Formula: I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
4. What is the significance of those words?
Baptism "in the name of" the Triune God means that God makes us members of his blessed family. Adoption.
5. After a person is baptized, what further does Jesus want us to do? (verse 20)
Continue to instruct them in God’s Word.
II. What are the blessings of Baptism?
Ephesians 2:1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
1. When I’m born I’m dead in sin.
Titus 3:5 … he (God our Savior) saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
2. In baptism God washes away my sin and I am reborn.
Romans 8:7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.
3. When I’m born my relationship to God is one of hostility and hatred.
Galatians 3:26-27 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, {27} for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
4. In baptism, God makes me his adopted child.
Psalms 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
5. When I’m born I’m born sinful.
Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
6. In baptism, God forgives those sins; the gift of the Holy Spirit which is faith.
III. What does my baptism mean for me?
Galatians 3:26-27 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, {27} for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
1. In baptism God offers and gives Christ’s holiness and perfection. A new start; a white robe of righteousness.
1 Peter 3:20b-21 In it (the ark) only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, {21} and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
2. In baptism God offers and gives us eternal salvation.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. {13} For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
3. In baptism God makes me an adopted member of his family. (Like a birth certificate)
Ephesians 5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her {26} to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, {27} and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
4. In baptism God offers and gives the forgiveness of sins.
Romans 6:4,13 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. {13} Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
5. In baptism the Holy Spirit works in me the desire to throw off the slaver of sin and live a new life.
IV. Some further questions for possible discussion:
1. Does baptism actually work these blessings? Or merely symbolize them?
In baptism God offers and gives us these blessings.
Luke 18:15-17 People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. {16} But Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. {17} I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Matthew 18:6 But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.
Psalms 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
John 3:5-6 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. {6} Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
2. Can a baby really believe in God?
Even little children can believe.
3. How do Lutherans generally baptize?
Sprinkling or pouring.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. {7} Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Proverbs 31:26 [A wife of noble character] speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
2 Peter 3:18 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
4. What comes after baptism?
Baptism does not lock us into faith. It doesn’t guarantee salvation. We must be on our guard: always growing in our faith and knowledge of God. Parents have a very important and crucial responsibility for the spiritual training of their children.
5. What can you do as parents to help to raise your newly baptized child in the "grace and knowledge of our Lord?"
Faithful worship attendance; Sunday School; Bible classes; home devotions; spiritual discussions; VBS; etc.