Baptism and What it Does

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church iconKongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Sunday school from May 17th, 2020

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All right, so as promised, we're going to address an elephant in the room because, oh boy, is this controversial.
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Man, I gotta tell you. And I will say this, is that the doctrine of baptism is the thing that brought me against my will into Lutheranism.
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It's the best way I can put it. So if you're not sure how I ended up as a Lutheran, yeah.
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I did not want to become a Lutheran. So let's pray and then we'll take a look at a resource that I will make available in the chat that you can download, and then we'll take a look at just some biblical text on what the scriptures say baptism is, who it's for, what it does, and we'll note, we'll let the scriptures say what it is, kind of work that out this way.
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So let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we open up your word, we recognize that we have nothing apart from you.
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So we ask that you would send your spirit. Help us to rightly believe, confess, do all according to what you have revealed in your holy word.
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We ask this to your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right.
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So let me show you the text in question today. And I will note that if you want to be skeptical during this lesson, you are free to be as skeptical as you want.
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I totally get it. My only request is that let's work with the biblical texts together, shall we, and we'll let the scriptures tell us what baptism is and what it means.
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So let me open up my Accordance Bible software here, and I'm going to make this a little bit smaller for us.
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And we're going to start in, of all places, 1 Peter 3 so that we get our context, because this was our assigned epistle text today.
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There was no Roseboro agenda. When it comes to the texts that are preached at Kongsvinger, as well as every confessional
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Lutheran church, they're all assigned. And so, yeah, we don't get to avoid biblical texts.
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We have to teach the whole counsel of the word of God. And so we're going to note here 1 Peter 3, 18, and I do have the
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Greek up on the left. And let me make that just a little bit bigger because, again, old, getting old.
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And while that's going, just so you know, I will be brewing myself a thing of Earl Grey decaffeinated.
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So if you hear something in the background, it's my kettle as it's getting ready to give me some hot water for my kettle, not for my tea.
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All right, so 1 Peter 3, 18. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous.
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Everyone says amen and amen. So that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.
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This is referring to what the church talks about as Christ's descent into hell. This is not the only text that mentions it, but this is the text that tells us why he went there.
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It was not for the purpose of suffering for sins. He went there to Sheol, really, that's where he went, in order to proclaim his victory.
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And then note here, it says, to the spirits in prison, because they, these spirits, these are the disobedient ones.
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Formerly they did not obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is eight persons in all, were brought safely through baptism.
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And here's now our text, baptism. So, and let's kind of put this in its proper order.
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And so, yeah, this is kind of a tough one to put into English when you just read straight out of the
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Greek. So, the
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Greek here is, and witch, so the witch here, the ha here is referring to, so baptism is now an anti -type.
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So, if you think of type and anti -type, baptism is an anti -type to the flood. And then in Greek, whenever you have, in a sentence, you have a sentence, always the subject of the sentence appears in what's called the nominative case.
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So, in this particular case, the word baptism is in the nominative, which means it's the subject of the sentence and the verb has to agree with it.
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And you'll note that the text says baptism saves, and we translate it as, but in reality, it says now save you.
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So, you are now saved, baptism now saves. And which corresponds to this, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God.
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So, here you have a clear text that says that baptism saves, baptism saves.
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And I know it sounds crazy, it sounds nuts, because usually what ends up happening is that people say, well, that's not possible, because if baptism saves, then salvation is not by a gift, salvation is by works, because they say that baptism is a work.
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Now, we will address that along the way, but I want to make a resource available to you from which to kind of walk through this.
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So, if I go to fightingforthefaith .com, and I'm going to go to Lutheran Baptism.
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I'm just going to put that in the word search here. And there's a resource that I made available years ago that I'm going to give you a link to it now, and then we'll use this as our launching point on this, because again,
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I know full well how crazy this sounds. Why? Because I'm a Lutheran against my will because of this doctrine.
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Okay, so Biblical Case for the Lutheran Doctrine of Baptism. And here's the link, this is the link.
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What does the Bible teach about baptism and how the earliest Christians understood these biblical texts?
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So, I'm going to make a copy of the link to this PDF, and I'm going to put this then in our chat window.
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So, this is going to be in the Zoom chat, and give me a second here, I've got to make sure this goes to everybody. And there we go.
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Okay, so you can grab that and download it and you have a copy of this link for yourself so that you can take a look at this.
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All right, so coming then to this particular document, and we'll work our way through this.
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All right, so in the preface to it, I kind of lay this out. On my radio program, my podcast,
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I regularly point out the fact that the scriptures nowhere teach the popular American evangelical belief that baptism is a, quote, sign to the world that you've made a decision to follow
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Jesus. For real, there are no biblical texts that even say that, even close, okay? As a result,
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I receive a lot of emails asking me about and challenging the
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Lutheran Doctrine of Baptism, all right? So recently, at the time
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I wrote this, I received an email from a fellow who boldly asserted that there are no biblical passages that teach the
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Lutheran Doctrine of Baptism. And so, I promptly sent my critic an email containing the clearest passages in the
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New Testament regarding baptism, along with a note that said, here are the clear passages from scripture regarding baptism.
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So, you tell me what baptism does, its purpose, according to these scriptures, and who it is for.
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And then I made a point of telling this fellow, I believe exactly what these passages say, all right?
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So, if you want to know what Lutherans believe regarding baptism, the answer is, we believe exactly what the biblical texts say about baptism.
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Now, I'm going to give you another concept here, and I'm going to do this, I'm going to search for this over on this window, and confess.
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Hang on a second here, I want to show you a Greek word, confess. All right, so, let's see here, let's get this up to where I can see it, there we go, here it is.
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Okay, so, when we talk about confessions, the Lutheran confessions, there is a
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Greek word behind the idea of confess, and the
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Greek verb is this one over on the right -hand side, and that Greek word is hama lageo.
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Now, you may already know what the Greek word hama means, hama, for it means same.
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Hama, same. For instance, somebody who is attracted to somebody of the same sex, the word for them is that they are a homosexual, or homosexual.
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So, same. Hama means same. Lageo, the second part of this word, means to speak.
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So, at the end of the day, what a confession is, and what a confession should be, is to say the same thing as Scripture.
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In order for a confession to be a proper summary of what the Bible says, a confession has to say the same thing as the
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Bible. That's the idea. So, we Lutherans, we believe that the
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Lutheran confessions as found in the Book of Concord, that the reason why they are true is because they say the same thing as the
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Bible. All right. So, hama lageo, to say the same thing.
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So, what we're going to do is we're going to work through some of these texts, and we're going to use this same concept. If we're going to talk about what baptism is, we want to say the same thing as the
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Bible. So, we're going to begin with Acts 2, 38 and 39.
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In Acts 2, 38 and 39, we have the account of the day of Pentecost, and we'll kind of start there.
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In fact, I'm thinking about maybe doing it this way. Hold on a second here. If I pull up my word processor, okay?
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Yeah, I'm a Mac user, so our word processors are this goofy program called
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Pages, which, you know, it's not as good as Microsoft Word, and I hate to say the word
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Microsoft anyway, because it gives me the heebie -jeebies. So, anyway, as you can tell,
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I'm Apple through and through. All right. So, here's what we're going to do. All right. So, we're going to put a confession together.
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We're going to say the same thing as Scripture, so as Scripture regarding baptism.
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All right. So, all we're going to do is we're going to collect up what the Bible says about baptism, and I'm going to make that bigger so that my eyes, you know, can handle it.
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Okay. All right. So, Acts 2, 38 through 39, let's take a look at this in context.
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Acts 2, 38 through 39, this is the great day of Pentecost. On the great day of Pentecost, we have the
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Apostle Peter standing up after the Holy Spirit has fallen on people, and tongues of fire, people are proclaiming the wonders of God in languages they've never studied.
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Peter stands up and gives this amazing sermon, and as a result of it,
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God the Holy Spirit then convicts these people of their sin. And so, in Acts 2, 37, it says, now when they, this is the crowd that had gathered on the day of Pentecost, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and to the rest of the
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Apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, and watch how this works, repent and be baptized.
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Now, I'm going to point this out in the Greek here. Baptistheito, this is in the passive voice, which means baptism is not something you do, baptism is something that is done to you, okay?
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Let me give you an example, because I will say, Microsoft Word, if you ever write a sentence in the passive voice,
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Microsoft Word will underline it in green and tell you that this is a grammatical error and that you need to get rid of the passive voice.
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But passive voice is a very important thing in the Greek language, because when there are passive verbs, it means you're not the one doing them, all right?
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So, let me give you an example. If I were to say to you, I went to get my hair cut, all right?
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Everybody knows what I mean by that. What I mean by that is I went someplace, and there are people who know how to cut hair, and I sat in a chair, and they cut my hair for me.
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The only thing I did was sit there and receive a haircut. Now, if I were to say to you,
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I cut my own hair, I cut my hair, you'd say, ugh, how'd that work out for you?
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Okay? So, if I change it from passive to active, you get the idea. And so, when it comes to baptism,
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Peter says, repent and be baptized. And it's the same concept. This isn't something you're doing, it's something that's being done to you.
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So, baptism here is done passively. And so, note what he says, be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and then watch the words, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. And then the next part, the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off, everyone whom the
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Lord our God calls to himself. So, the text then tells us, and then we'll see if we can do our confession here.
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So, let's go back then to our, let me move this over here.
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There we go. Let's take a look then, and we'll do our, so we can say, baptism, baptism is, and then
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I'm going to put in quotes, for the forgiveness of sins.
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All right, so let me ask you, have I said anything different than what the Bible says? If I say baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, have
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I said something different, or did I say the same thing as the Bible? Well, Acts 2, 38 says that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, all right?
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I can also say that baptism, or maybe a better way, in baptism, a person receives the
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Holy Spirit. That's what he said.
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Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. Now, if you think that's crazy,
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I would point you to Jesus. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the voice of the
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Father said, you are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, and the Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove and remained on Him.
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So, you know, Jesus, you can say, received the Holy Spirit in water baptism, and here
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Peter is saying the same thing. And then here we go, who's baptism for? Baptism is for everyone.
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You can say everyone, including children, and all whom
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God calls. So, let me ask you this.
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Have I said anything different than the Scriptures by saying that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, in baptism a person receives the
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Holy Spirit, baptism is for everyone, including children, and all whom God calls? I haven't said anything different than the text at all, because this is what it says.
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Again, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. The promise, and note here, what's the promise? The promise is the forgiveness of sins and the receiving of the
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Holy Spirit. The promise is for you, it's for your children and all who are far off, everyone whom the
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Lord our God calls to Himself. So, I would argue at this point, I have not said anything different than what the
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Scriptures say, and this is a good confession, because it says the same thing as Scripture, okay?
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So, it's for the forgiveness of sins, you get the idea. All right, next text, let's go back to our document. In our document, then, the next text is
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Romans 6, 3 through 5, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?
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We were buried, therefore, with Him by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the
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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Now, let's take a look at what Paul is revealing here for us in Romans chapter 6 more carefully.
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Now, and we're going to note, then, that Paul is taking baptism, and he's going to use it as a weapon against sin, and the reality of baptism he's going to use as a weapon against sin.
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So, the Apostle Paul had slanderers, people who would misquote him, who would accuse him of saying things that he didn't say, and over and again,
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Paul would preach salvation by grace through faith apart from works of the law, and so his slanderers would say, so, should we just go on sinning so that grace may abound?
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And so, what Paul does here, and which doesn't make any sense, okay, what Paul does here is he takes this slanderous question, this statement of his accusers, and let's see what he does here.
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So, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means.
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How can we who died to sin still live in it? Now, let me ask the question, when did you die to sin?
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And that's where Paul's going to go with this. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ, we were baptized into His death?
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Now, notice, there's a word missing for evangelicals, and the word is symbolizes. Paul says that when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death.
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You were buried, therefore, with Christ by baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the
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Father, we too might walk in newness of life. All right?
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So, here we got more text, all right? So, let's take a look then at our confession, and we want to say the same thing.
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In baptism, we are buried and raised with Christ.
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Have I said the same thing as the scripture? Yeah, I've said the exact same thing.
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I haven't added anything. All I've done is say we are buried and raised with Christ.
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And that's really the whole point here. Now, let me show you then how Paul then is going to use this as a weapon against sin, because we are not set free in Christ in order to be slaves to sin.
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That doesn't make any sense. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, and by the way, the whole point is we have, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.
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We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
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All right? So, note here, everybody who is baptized is no longer a slave to sin.
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So, when sin comes knocking on your door, when the devil comes knocking on your door and says, would you like to come out and play?
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You say to the devil, no, I don't have to obey you. Because I'm baptized,
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I am no longer enslaved to sin. And so, you'll note then that in Paul's theology, which is the biblical theology, baptism is not some mere symbol of something, there are realities associated with baptism which we as Christians embrace by faith, which then gives us the ability to combat the temptations of the devil.
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So, when the devil shows up and says, oh, come on, you really, you deserve it, you deserve enjoying your favorite sin.
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And sin is slavery. You sit there and go, go away. I'm baptized.
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I'm no longer enslaved to you. Why? Because you've died. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
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So, have you died or not? Well, if this is true, then yes,
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I have. And I would argue it is true. So, now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
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We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
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For the death He died, He died to sin once for all. The life He lives, He lives to God. So, you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God and Jesus Christ.
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Why? Because if you're baptized, you are. So, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body in order to obey its passions.
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Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
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For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under the law, but you are under grace.
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So, what then? Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace by no means? Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, either of sin which leads to death or of obedience which leads to righteousness?
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But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed.
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And having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness. So, you get the idea here.
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So, Romans 6 teaches us that in our baptisms we're united with Christ in his death and his resurrection, and because we have died, we are no longer slaves to sin.
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Full stop. Okay? So, Satan, go away. I am baptized into Christ.
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Okay, next text, let's take a look at this. Colossians 2, 1 to 12.
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Now, quick before we get too far along these lines, circumcision. At what age were young Jewish boys circumcised?
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Was it age 13? Was it age eight? Or was it age eight days old?
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It's eight days old. Now, one of the reasons why people bristle at the biblical doctrine of baptism is because they believe that in order for somebody to be saved, they have to have the mental cognitive ability to be able to make a decision for Jesus.
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That is not how people are saved. They're not saved by making a mental cognitive decision to make
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Jesus the Lord of their life. No, that's not what the Scripture says at all. Instead, the
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Scriptures teach that we are born dead in trespasses and sins, and no human being, whether that human being be an adult or a child, is capable of making themselves alive.
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God is the one who makes them alive. And so then the next picture of baptism is in Colossians 2, 11 and 12.
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In him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
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So we can go then to our text, to our, let's find this thing again, there we go, and let's go this route, and so I can say in baptism we are circumcised by the hand of Christ.
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And this is going to apply to both men and women, by the way. So one of the things
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I find fascinating is that some people come up with these really goofy arguments against baptism, and they'll say things like, the
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Bible doesn't teach the Lutheran doctrine of baptism, nowhere will you find examples of what you guys do.
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And I'll say, well, nowhere in the Scripture do you find a single example of a woman receiving the Lord's Supper.
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But do we withhold the Lord's Supper from women? The answer is no. The question is, what does the
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Bible say the Lord's Supper is, and who is it for? Even though there are no examples, by the way, there isn't a single example in the
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Bible of a woman receiving the Lord's Supper, not one. So keep that in mind.
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So in baptism we are circumcised by the hand of Christ, and this is the important bit, by the hand of Christ.
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That's what Colossians says. Colossians 2 says that. And again, Colossians, you'll note,
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Colossians 2 then reiterates that we are buried with Christ and that we are raised with Him, alright?
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And so, buried and raised with Christ, that's a reiteration, so that's in Romans 6 as well as Colossians 2.
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And then let's take a look at Acts 22 .16,
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Acts 22 .16, and I'm going to do this over here for context because this is an account of the
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Apostle Paul's run -in with Jesus and how he becomes a Christian. And so he's giving an account how he was heading to Damascus, a great light from heaven shone around him, he fell to the ground and he heard the voice of Jesus saying,
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Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
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Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand, so the voice of the one who was speaking to me, and I said, what shall
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I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus, there you'll be told what is appointed for you to do.
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And then he goes on to say here, and one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by the
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Jews who lived there, he came to me standing by me and he said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight.
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And at that very hour I received my sight and I saw him. And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
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And now why do you wait? Rise, be baptized, notice again the passive, be baptized and wash away your sins calling on his name.
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Okay? So here we got again a, you know, this is being spoken of in a way where it's being done to him.
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So you get the idea. So why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, wash away your sins.
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So I can say that in baptism our sins are washed away.
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Alright? So let's just review here. So baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.
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Okay, in baptism a person receives the Holy Spirit. Baptism is for everyone, including children and all whom
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God calls. In baptism we are buried and raised with Christ. In baptism we are circumcised by the hand of Christ.
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In baptism our sins are washed away. Have I said anything different than the Bible says?
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Or am I saying the same thing? Okay? I'm saying the same thing.
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Alright, now there was a question that came up real quick. Okay, let's see here.
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What about those who say for means because of? I would say, Brian, that that's a clever argument put together by the
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Reformed, but it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and I'll show you why. And number one, the
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Nicene Creed says, for the remission of sins. When you read the writings of the
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Church Fathers, they never say because of the forgiveness of sins. Every creed and confession of the ancient
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Church always says, for the remission of sins. But when you read it in the Greek, there's something else going on there, and let me read it for you, because I'll give you the wooden
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Roseboro translation, because the wooden one is actually kind of helpful. And so, the wooden one goes like this, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and in the name of Jesus Christ, into, and so it's ice, it's into the forgiveness of your sins.
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So, the word is ice, okay? Ice is the Greek word into, all right?
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It doesn't, it does not say because of the forgiveness of sins, it says into the forgiveness of sins, and in this particular case, the way the grammar works, it's for the forgiveness of sins.
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And if you don't believe me, again, I would point out that the Nicene Creed is a
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Greek creed. It was originally written in Greek, and I would say that the people at that time knew
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Koine Greek far better than I do, and always, and again, it's translated for, for, for the forgiveness of sins.
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And the Greek just literally reads into, into the forgiveness of sins, that's how it's read literally.
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Okay, so Don says, Marilyn asks, is the command repent answered by the sponsors, godparents, or baptized infant?
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Okay, so this is an interesting thing, and I'm going to show you this here, because the answer to the question is neither.
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When we think of repentance, we assume that we know what that means, because repentance does include a sorrow for sin and a believing and trusting in Christ, and because that's what repentance does, it is, we think that what's necessary is for somebody to cognitively hang on to those things.
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But I'm going to note here, we're going to take a look at two passages. In fact, let me do this one first, so that you can kind of see how this works.
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Ephesians chapter 2 is going to help us out here, and then we'll see how this works with Acts 11.
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And I'm watching my time carefully. So, Ephesians chapter 2, consider this text and what it is teaching here.
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Paul, in these first ten verses of Ephesians 2, I consider this to be just a good thumbnail sketch of the
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Christian faith, beginning with the problem, showing us what the solution is, and then how the solution works itself out.
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And if you were to study the structure of these ten verses, they are in what's called a
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Hebrew chiasm. This is an outline form where it mirrors each other. So, the first point is mirrored at the last point, second point in, it kind of creates a
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V -shape in its outline format, things are mirrored in this thing. So, it begins with the terrible news, and Paul writing to the church in Ephesus reminds them of what their condition was before they were saved.
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And he and you were dead. And yeah, Necros here, you know what dead means? Dead. Remember when
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God said in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, the day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die.
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That's what God said. Did God mean what he said? Did Adam and Eve die that day?
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Yeah, you bet your bippy they did. All right, they did. So, you'll know, even though we are physically alive, we are spiritually dead when we're born, and this is the result of sin.
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So, and you were dead, dead, dead, dead, doobie doobie dead. Do you know anybody who does any evangelism at a local cemetery, by the way?
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Have you ever been to a funeral and there's an open casket and you say to the corpse in the casket, if you just make a first move, then
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God will meet you the rest of the way. You can get out of that. You can get out of that. Nobody does this, okay?
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Dead means dead. Dead people don't do nothing, okay? And so, you're not capable of making a decision for God, and that's not what the
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Bible teaches anyway. So, you were dead in the trespasses and in the sins in which you once walked.
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Now, in which you once walked is now talking about how you conduct your life. This is a Hebraism.
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This is peripateo in the Greek, but the Hebrew word behind this, if you were to kind of trace this out in the
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Old Testament, talking about how you conduct your life, it's the Hebrew word halakh, okay, how you conduct your life, in which you once walked.
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And following the prince, the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is at now at work in the sins of disobedience, among whom we all, by the way, all there means all, all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the mind, and watch this, and we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
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So, there you go, dead in sins, following the devil, following your sinful passions, and you were by nature an object of God's wrath.
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Well, isn't that lovely? You know, doesn't make me feel good about myself.
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My self -esteem is really hurt. Get over it, okay? Okay. This is the reality of the situation.
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And so, this is the doctrine of original sin, and this passage and other passages also bear this out.
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Romans 3 clearly teaches this, none is righteous, no, not one, all have turned aside, together they become worthless.
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The Apostle Paul there in that part of Romans 3 is quoting Psalm 14 as well as Psalm 53, explicitly teaches that we are dead.
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Oh, by the way, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the book of Romans says.
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So, quick pop quiz, how many have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Is it some or is it all?
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It's all. Does that include your babies? Yeah. By the way, the wages of sin is death.
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Do infants die? Yeah, they do. So, you know, sin has impacted all of us, all of us.
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And then Romans 5 makes it clear where this sin comes from. It's in Adam that we have all sinned.
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All right? All right, so now verse 4 is the turn then here, and watch the subject of the sentence and then watch the verbs.
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So, the subject of the sentence is the word God. So, verse 4 begins with but. In the
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Greek, it begins with the word the, because the word but, which is the Greek word de, it can't be the first word in a sentence.
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So, we translate it as but. So, this is a very important transition. So, but God, and God here is in the nominative, which means all the verbs that follow,
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God is the one doing them. God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which
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He loved us, even when we were dead, and there it is again, even when we were dead in our trespasses,
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God made us alive together with Christ. Who made us alive together with Christ?
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God did. God is the subject of the sentence. By grace you have been saved.
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And God raised us up with Him, with Christ, and God seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
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So, we were dead, who made us alive? God did. You didn't make yourself alive, alright?
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So, that in the coming ages, He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved, notice the past tense, and you have been, it's been given to you through faith.
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This is not your own doing, alright? So, you did not save yourself, you didn't make yourself alive, you have been given faith, you have been saved, you have been made alive, this is not your own doing.
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This is the gift of God. God is the one who worked faith in you and repentance in you and did all of these things.
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It is not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are His. Who's His?
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God's. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So, note then that the text says that we have been made alive together with Christ.
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Who made us alive together with Christ? God did. Now, I'm going to show you a text then where this comes from, and how this then relates to baptism, and then we'll continue on with some of your questions as we continue to work our way through these texts.
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Okay, so the next important text, and let me see if we're there, and I think we are, yes we are.
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Vital text here. And this is Titus, by the way, this is the text that brought me kicking and screaming into Lutheranism.
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I didn't want to be a Lutheran, you guys need to know this. I am a Lutheran against my will. I did not like Lutherans, I don't, you know,
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Lutherans made no sense to me, they seem like failed Roman Catholics, I mean, they don't seem, if they would just study
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Latin, maybe they'd become a Roman Catholic, you know, their pastors wear dresses, you know, this is weird.
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So, you know, anyway, but this is the thing that kind of brought me kicking and screaming into it, and I'll give you the account so you know what
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I'm talking about. So, when I was studying theology at Christ College Irvine, I was not a
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Lutheran. I attended Christ College Irvine, which is Concordia University Irvine now, and I began attending as a
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Nazarene, and I didn't like the Lutherans, I didn't, you know, I thought they were nuts, they weren't even trying, you know, they weren't trying hard to be saved at all, and they had all these weird practices.
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And so, the weird thing is, is that in all the theology courses that I was taking, I was getting better grades and better marks than my
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Lutheran colleagues at the time. And so, I was top of the class, but I'm a
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Nazarene. And so, these guys that I was attending college with, they would like to, you know, kind of rib me a little bit.
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So, one time they threw a, you know, they said, hey, Roseboro. Yeah, what? What is baptism again?
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Oh, baptism is the thing we do to show the world we've made a decision for Jesus. They'd toss over a Greek New Testament at me and say, where does it say that in the
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Bible? I said, it's in there. They said, show us. It's in there. Well, what about Acts 2?
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It's, baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. That's not what it means. Well, what's it mean? I don't know, it just doesn't mean that.
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So, these are the kind of fights that I would these guys. And it bugged me, it really bothered me that they would always have the upper hand biblically, that all these texts were supporting what they were saying.
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It just, it irritated me to no end. And so, in the third year that we were at Christ College Irvine, it's in the fall, my
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Greek professor, I took a Greek readings course to keep my Greek positive. And so, my
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Greek professor decided it would be a good idea if we translated the entire epistle of Titus. And so, it's in the fall, it's an
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October evening, and I'm translating Titus 3, and it destroyed me, is the best way
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I can put it. Because I was a firm believer that if you believe that God does any, that baptism does anything, that then you believe in salvation by works.
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And that's often the charge. If you believe that God is doing something in baptism, then you believe in salvation by works, because baptism is a work.
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Alright, so let's take a look at the text. We'll look at the important Greek bits of this as we work our way through this.
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And all I can say is, buckle up, because this is the one that destroyed me. So, Titus 3, verse 4, when the goodness and the loving kindness of God our
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Savior appeared, He saved us. Alright, quick grammar question, who saved us?
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God. God saved us, okay? Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the
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Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Now, let me point out the important bits.
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So, God saved us not because of works done by us, but according to His own mercy, and then we get an important word, and the word here in the
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Greek is dia, alright? Dia indicates the means of, or you can translate it as through, okay?
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That's another way you can do this. So, God saved us not because of works done by us, and He saved us through, and this is our important next word, lutru, washing.
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We'll talk about this one in a minute. And then the next word, which only appears two times in the entire
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New Testament, and this is one of them, pollen genesis, regeneration.
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Now, you've all heard that regeneration is an important thing, that God regenerates us, but it only appears two times.
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The other time pollen genesis appears in the New Testament is when
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Jesus is talking about how He will make a new earth. He will regenerate the earth after His coming.
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The only other time the word regeneration appears in the New Testament is in regards to a lutru.
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Now, let me show you what this one means. So, let's take a look at lutron, and that's the lexical form.
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And so, there I was translating this text, and it says, God saved us, dia, through the washing of regeneration.
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And so, what's the washing here? All right. Well, let's take a look.
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It's the bath that brings about regeneration, the washing in water.
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It is a washing of baptism, and it is for ceremonial usage.
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So, there I was, open Greek New Testament, open Greek lexicon, saying that the washing of regeneration is referring to baptism, that this is a ceremonial washing.
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And I thought, no, can't mean that. So, I went into my room, grabbed the classical
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Greek lexicon that I had, Liddell and Scott, and looked up the word lutron in Liddell and Scott's lexicon.
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And you know what it means? It means a ceremonial washing. It can only refer to baptism. So, there
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I was, I was stuck. So, I had the argument, my favorite argument, that if you believe that God does anything in baptism, you believe in salvation by works.
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That's ruled out because here it says that God saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness.
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And you'll note, the sentence continues. It doesn't stop there, but according to His mercy, dia, through the washing of regeneration in the renewal of the
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Holy Spirit. So, if we were to put this into its context then as our, you know, as our next confessional statement, we can say baptism is the washing of regeneration.
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Have I said anything different than the biblical text? I've said exactly what the
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Bible says. So, baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. In baptism, a person receives the
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Holy Spirit. Baptism is for everyone, including children and all whom God calls. In baptism, we are buried and raised with Christ.
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In baptism, we are circumcised by the hand of Christ. In baptism, our sins are washed away. Baptism is the washing of regeneration.
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Well, let me ask you this. If you have your sins forgiven, you've received the
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Holy Spirit, if you've been buried and raised with Christ, if you've been circumcised by the hand of Christ, if your sins have been washed away and you have been regenerated, are you saved or are you damned?
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Which is it? You're gonna, well, that all sounds like somebody who's saved, right?
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Exactly. So then, that then comports with what it is that we saw in our epistle text today in 1
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Peter 3, okay? So, read 1 Peter 3 in the context of all these other verses.
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Baptism, which corresponds, which is an antitype to the flood, now saves you.
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It's not a removal of dirt from the body, that's called a bath, okay? It is an appeal to God for a good conscience.
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How? Well, because in baptism, I'm buried with Christ, raised with Christ, heart circumcised by Christ.
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It is a washing of regeneration. How can it not be an appeal to God for a good conscience?
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Because there's only one way to have a good conscience, and that's to have your sins washed away.
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So, now you can see that this makes perfect sense. Perfect sense.
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It's exactly what the Scriptures say. So then, coming back to this, and we'll talk about repentance more in just a second,
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I haven't forgotten about that. I just wanted to make sure that we got this in there. So then, you'll note that this comes in baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body.
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So, then we can talk about John 3 real quick here. Now, if you spent time in evangelical churches, here's what
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Jesus says. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water in the
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Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Here's how the evangelicals interpret this. Being born of water means the first time you were born because of your mom's amniotic fluid.
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That's not what the text says. Born of water in the Spirit, what is baptism? Baptism is a washing of water in the
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Word, that's what Ephesians 5 says, and it's a washing of water in the Spirit.
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The Holy Spirit is intimately involved with this, so Jesus is referring to baptism. Now, a little bit of a note here.
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In the document, the PDF that I've given you then, okay, what I've done is
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I've taken each of the verses and I've re -put them out as their own section, and I want you to see this.
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I've bolded the important bits. It's for the forgiveness of sins, the promises for you and for your children, and then by way of commentary, and we'll note, this is not, what follows is not inspired, but I want you to see how the earliest
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Christians understood these texts. How did they understand Acts 2, 37 through 39?
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Well, Barnabas, who was the companion of the Apostle Paul on one of his missionary journeys, he wrote a letter, and it's called the
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Epistle of Barnabas, or the Letter of Barnabas, and the date on this thing is 74
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AD, all right? And so, watch what Barnabas says in his letter. That's how
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Barnabas understood it. And this is the travel companion of the Apostle Paul. He believes that baptism confers the remission of sins.
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This is straight up in his epistle, okay? And you'll note, 74 AD, long before the
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Bishop of Rome usurped his authority and became the Pope, okay? The Pope had nothing to do with this, all right?
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The Shepherd of Hermas, which is also a first century document, okay? A Shepherd of Hermas, I have heard, sir, said
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I to the Shepherd, from some teacher that there is no other repentance except that which took place when we went down into the water and obtained the remission of our former sins.
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He said to me, you have heard rightly, for so it is. The date of the Shepherd of Hermas, first century document, no later than 80
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AD. Irenaeus, in the second century here, who was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the
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Apostle John, Irenaeus, in his Contra Heresies, it says, and when we come to refute them, the
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Gnostics, we shall show it is a fitting place that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial that baptism, which is regeneration to God, and thus to a renunciation of the whole
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Christian faith, for baptism instituted by the visible Jesus was for the remission of sins.
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That's what Irenaeus said. Now, so you'll note here, who's doing all the work then?
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I always like to point out that when we have baptisms at Kongsvinger, the only water available for me to baptize people with is
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Minnesota tap water. And there's nothing special about Minnesota tap water, just trust me.
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I don't even like the taste of it. So, how does Minnesota tap water do these important things?
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It doesn't. Okay? God is the one doing the important bits, not me, all right?
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Because I don't have the ability to circumcise someone's heart. I don't have the ability to wash away their sins.
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I don't have the ability to unite them with Christ and His death and His resurrection. God is the active one in baptism, not me, not you, not anybody.
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And this is how the early Christians understood these things. So, I would give you a homework assignment here and go and read the rest of the document and look then at how the earliest
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Christians understood these biblical texts. And so, including
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Titus 3 and 1 Peter and John 3, they're all in there.
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Take a look at how the earliest Christians, long before the Bishop of Rome usurped his authority and corrupted everything, the
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Christian church has always believed that God is the one doing these things in baptism, not humans.
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So, that's the idea behind this. All right, now let me go to questions real quick here, because I've got to wrap up.
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Okay. Brian says, great, I was a Baptist, now I'm becoming a Lutheran. Don't blame me for that,
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Brian. That is not my fault. Listen, I am a Lutheran against my will.
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I blame Jesus, okay? So, I didn't want to be a
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Lutheran, I am a Lutheran because my mind is captive to the Word of God.
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And I will say this, I've never once had to monkey with God's Word to try to make it say what it doesn't say since becoming a
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Lutheran. So, as much as I love my Baptist brethren, they're just wrong in this regard.
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I think Lutherans should be called Baptists because I think it would be clearer. Because Baptists don't believe that God's doing anything in baptism, it's just something you've got to do to be obedient.
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All right. So, where do we get the idea of the age of accountability? MJ, the age of accountability really is an artifact of a denial of the doctrine of original sin.
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And so, the way it works is that, you know, you're going to deny what Scripture says regarding what baptism does, or what
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God does in baptism, and you still believe tacitly that people have to make a decision. Well, in order for them to make a decision, they have to be able to make an informed decision.
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Well, in order to make an informed decision, they have to be old enough to be able to weigh these things with a mature mind, and so, hence, they come up with the age of accountability.
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But where is the age of accountability taught in Scripture? Answer, nowhere. Okay? And you'll note then, now comes the part where we'll talk about repentance.
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Okay? In Acts 11, the Apostle Peter is called on the carpet because he went and preached the gospel to a bunch of Gentiles, and God the
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Holy Spirit showed up, and they were all baptized, and so, he got called on the carpet in Acts chapter 11 and accused of going and eating with sinners, with Gentiles.
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All right? So, Peter gives his account of what happened, you know, so he says, you know, so the
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Spirit told me to go with him, making no distinction. So, these six brothers also accompanied me. We entered the man's house, this is the
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Roman centurion Cornelius, and he told us how he had seen an angel stand in his house and say, send a job, but bring
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Simon, who's called Peter. He'll declare to you a message to which you will be saved, you and your entire household, that would include children, by the way.
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And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as on us, as at the beginning. And I remember the word of the
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Lord, how he said, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So, if God gave them the same gift, the same gift to them as he gave to us, when we believed in the
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Lord Jesus, who was I that I can stand in God's way? And then watch verse 18. So, when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified
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God saying, then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.
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In other words, God repents people. No human being, dead in trespasses and sins, can make themselves alive.
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God has to repent them. God has to give them faith. We Lutherans, the way we talk about it is this way.
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We say that whatever the gospel demands, God supplies. The gospel demands that you repent and believe, so God gives you repentance and God gives you faith.
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They are all a gift from God. It is not your own doing. And so, the means by which he does that then are two.
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He either does it through the preached word, through the gospel, or through the word of God along with water, which is baptism.
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So, people oftentimes will sit there and go, well, does that mean that you have to be baptized in order to be saved? The answer is no.
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You do not have to be baptized in order to be saved. And there's an account in the book of Acts of some people who were already disciples, but they didn't even know about a
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Trinitarian baptism at all. And they were already considered brothers, and they just were then baptized.
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You know, that's the idea. So then as Christians then, we believe what the scriptures say.
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Let's come back to our confession and we'll wrap up here. So, if I say baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, am
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I saying the same thing as the Bible? Yeah. If I say in baptism a person receives the
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Holy Spirit, am I saying the same thing as the Bible? Yes. If I say baptism is for everyone, including children and all whom
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God calls, am I saying the same thing as scripture? Yeah. In baptism we are buried and raised with Christ, am
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I saying the same thing as scripture? Yes. In baptism, we are circumcised by the hand of Christ.
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Am I saying the same thing as scripture? Yes. In baptism our sins are washed away. Am I saying the same thing as scripture.
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Yes. Baptism is a washing of regeneration. Am I saying the same thing as scripture?
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Now for the last one. Baptism saves. Am I saying the same thing as Scripture?
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Exactly. So it's not rocket surgery, but it does require you to put aside your assumptions and listen to the text, and that's what we
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Lutherans do, and again, I'm a Lutheran against my will. So MJ, John's baptism was not a baptism for the remission of sins, well, actually it was.
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It was a baptism in anticipation of Christ, and it was not a
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Trinitarian baptism, so they didn't even know about the Holy Spirit. I'll have to take that on at a different time.
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But with all of that, brothers and sisters, hopefully this was helpful to you, and I apologize if I was not able to get to all of the questions, but I have to skedaddle because I have another church service that I'm doing in Minnesota, of all places.
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We're doing it outside. You know, it's been two months since we've been able to gather. So alright, peace to you, brothers and sisters.