Titus 3:5-7
5 He 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, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. TNIV ©
Nothing puzzles our neighbors in faith more than the way Lutherans look at baptism. We don’t understand it the way the Roman Catholic Church does, though like them, we baptize anyone, including infants. We don’t understand it the way the Presbyterian-Reformed tradition does, though they are our closest kin in the way we understand God’s relationship to us. We surely don’t understand it the way those who baptize only adults understand it.
There is plenty of diversity among Lutherans, so I will only dare to say this is the way one Lutheran understands baptism. My understanding is grounded in two places, the Bible and in Luther’s Catechisms as they interpret scripture.
What is baptism? It is water with the word. God talks to us and touches us. It’s not that God gives us information, but that God speaks personally to us. When a parent says to a child at bedtime, “I love you,” that is not new information. The child already knows that as a fact. But in the words “I love you” the relationship is refreshed and strengthened. The child is reassured, comforted, warmed. Those words are a very part of the relationship. A hug or a kiss on the forehead with the words can make them even a bit more powerful.
God understands that we need to be addressed in ways that get through to us. God knows we communicate with all our senses, and so God communicates with us in a way we can feel and see as well as hear. We see water, feel it as well as hear it. The water doesn’t go on someone else’s head, or everyone’s head, but our own personal noggin. There’s no mistaking it. This is for me!
When God speaks to us personally, and it dawns on us that we are hearing God say “I love you,” faith happens. Baptism is for the sake of faith.
How are we saved? How is our right relationship with God established? As we read in the letter to the Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” It is not that we are saved by faith plus baptism. It is not that baptism is a work that must be done.
Can you imagine that God would say to us, “I forgive you all your sins, all the things you have done to and failed to do for your neighbor, but you have to get this ceremony done right in order to be saved?” I can’t.
We are baptized so that we can believe we are forgiven. It’s for the sake of our faith. It’s God coming close to us and speaking as clearly and personally as possible: You are mine. You are my child, and I love you. You are clean and pure in my sight, for Jesus sake. Here’s a sign of my love, that you can hang on to.
I baptized my daughters as tiny infants so that we could raise them in the promise that, long before they could respond or choose, God had claimed them as children of God. It was for the sake of their faith that I baptized them, so that they could grow up believing they are God’s much-loved children.
What about children who are not baptized? The news that God loves them, that Jesus gave his life for them, is the word that makes for faith. That word comes with water; when necessary it also comes without. That word comes with bread and wine, too. In every case, it comes so that we may believe it, trust it, live in it. Baptism is a powerful and personal way God delivers that word, and I believe we ought to share the word that way because God told us to! But when it can’t happen due to parents who will not assent to it, there is no reason to despair. Share the word ‘dry’ or ‘wet’ as you are able.
Scripture contains no instructions for baptism. If such were needed, they would have been supplied. Baptisms happened in thousands (at Pentecost), households (Lydia’s and Stephanas’, for instance) and individuals; in roadside water (the Ethiopian eunuch), a house (Paul) and at the river (Lydia and her household.)
But how much water is needed, if baptism is God’s word being applied to you with water, so that you may believe? The amount of water does not finally matter. Even a few drops of water would do in an emergency. The mode of applying the water does not finally matter. Only God’s word matters.
Of course, if God instructs us to use water with the word, we need not be stingy. We can and should get things a little wet.
Luther wrote:
How can water do such great things? Answer:
Clearly the water does not do it, but the Word of God, which is with and alongside the water, and faith, which trusts this Word of God in the water. For without the Word of God the water is plain water and not a baptism, but with the Word of God it is a baptism, that is, a grace-filled water of life and a “bath of the new birth in the Holy Spirit,” as St. Paul says to Titus in chapter 3, “through the bath of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he richly poured out over us through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that through that very grace we may be heirs in hope of eternal life. This is most certainly true.” [1]
[1]Kolb, R. 2000. The Book of Concord : The confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Fortress Press: Minneapolis
