Baptism and What it Does

Baptism as the Doctrine That Drove Him Into Lutheranism

All right, so as promised, we're going to address an elephant in the room because, oh boy, is this controversial. 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.

It's the best way I can put it. So if you're not sure how I ended up as a Lutheran, yeah, 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.

So let's pray. Lord Jesus, as we open up your word, we recognize that we have nothing apart from you. 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.

We ask this to your glory, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, 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.

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. So let me open up my Accordance Bible software here, and I'm going to make this a little bit smaller for us.

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. There was no Roseboro agenda. When it comes to the texts that are preached at Kongsvinger, as well as every confessional Lutheran church, they're all assigned.

And so we don't get to avoid biblical texts, 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 Greek up on the left. And let me make that just a little bit bigger, because again, old, getting old.

And while that's going, just so you know, I will be brewing myself a thing of Earl Grey, decaffeinated. 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.

All right, so 1 Peter 3, 18, Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous. 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.

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. It was not for the purpose of suffering for sins.

He went to Sheol, really, that's where he went, in order to proclaim his victory. And then note here, it says, to the spirits in prison, because they, these spirits, these are the disobedient ones. 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.

And here's now our text, baptism. So, and let's kind of put this in its proper order. And so, yeah, this is kind of a tough one to put into English when you just read it straight out the Greek. So, the Greek here is, and which, so the which here, the ha here is referring to, so baptism is now an antitype.

So, if you think of type and antitype, baptism is an antitype 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.

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. And you'll note that the text says, baptism saves, and we translate it as, but in reality, it says, now save you, you know, 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. So, here you have a clear text that says that baptism saves. Baptism saves. 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.

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. So, if I go to fightingforthefaith .com, and I'm going to go to Lutheran baptism, 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, I know full well how crazy this sounds.

Why? Because I'm a Lutheran against my will because of this doctrine. Okay, so, biblical case for the Lutheran doctrine of baptism, and here's the link. This is the link. What does the Bible teach about baptism, and how the earliest Christians understood these biblical texts?

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. So, this is going to be in the Zoom chat, and give me a second here, I got to make sure this goes to everybody.

And there we go. 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. All right, so coming then to this particular document, and we'll work our way through this.

Confession That Says the Same Thing as Scripture

All right, so in the preface to it, I kind of lay this out. On my radio program, my podcast, 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 Jesus.

For real, there are no biblical texts that even say that, even close, okay? As a result, I receive a lot of emails asking me about and challenging the Lutheran doctrine of baptism, all right? So recently, at the time I received an email from a fellow who boldly asserted that there are no biblical passages that teach the Lutheran doctrine of baptism.

And so, I promptly sent my critic an email containing the clearest passages in the New Testament regarding baptism, along with a note that said, here are the clear passages from scripture regarding baptism.

So, you tell me what baptism does, its purpose, according to these scriptures, and who it is for. And then I made a point of telling this fellow, I believe exactly what these passages say, all right? So, if you want to know what Lutherans believe regarding baptism, the answer is, we believe exactly what the biblical texts say about baptism.

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. 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. Okay. So, when we talk about confessions, the Lutheran confessions, there is a Greek word behind the idea of confess, and the Greek verb is this one over on the right-hand side, and that Greek word is hama lageo.

Now, you may already know what the Greek word hama means. Hama, for it means same. Hama, same. For instance, somebody who is attracted to somebody of the same sex, you know, the word for them is that they are a homosexual or homosexual.

So, same. Hama means same. Lageo, the second part of this word, means to speak. 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. 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 Bible.

That's the idea. So, we Lutherans, we believe that the 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 Bible. All right.

So, hama lageo, to say the same thing, all right? 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, okay? If we're going to talk about what baptism is, we want to say the same thing as the Bible.

So, we're going to begin with Acts 2 38 and 39. In Acts 2 38 and 39, we have the account of the Day of Pentecost, and we'll kind of start there. In fact, I'm thinking about maybe doing it this way. Hold on a second here.

If I pull up my word processor, okay? Yeah, I'm a Mac user, so our word processors are this goofy program called Pages, which, you know, it's not as good as Microsoft Word, and I hate to say the word Microsoft anyway because it gives me the heebie-jeebies.

So, anyway, as you can tell, I'm Apple through and through. All right. So, here's what we're going to do. All right. So, we're going put a confession together. We're going to say the same thing as Scripture, so as Scripture regarding baptism, 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. All right. So, Acts 2, 38 -39, let's take a look at this in context.

Acts 2, 38 -39, this is the great day of Pentecost. On the great day of Pentecost, we have the 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.

Peter stands up and gives this amazing sermon, and as a result of it, 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 Apostles, brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, and watch how this works, repent and be baptized. 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?

Let me give you an example, because I will say, Microsoft Word, if you ever write a sentence in the passive voice, 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.

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, alright? So, let me give you an example. If I were to say to you, I went to get my hair cut, alright?

Everybody knows 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. The only thing I did was sit there and receive a haircut.

Now, if I were to say to you, I cut my own hair, I cut my hair, you'd say, how'd that work out for you? Okay, because so if I change it from passive to active, you get the idea. And so, when it comes to baptism, 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. 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 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 Lord our God calls to himself. So, the text then tells us, and then we'll see if we can do our confession here, so let's go back then to our, let me move this over here, there we go.

Let's take a look then, and we'll do our, so we can say, baptism is, and then I'm going to put in quotes, for the forgiveness of sins. 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 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?

I can also say that baptism, or maybe a better way, in baptism, a person receives the Holy Spirit. That's what he said. Be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, if you think that's crazy, I would point you to Jesus. When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist, the voice of the 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.

So, Jesus, you can say, received the Holy Spirit in water baptism, and here Peter is saying the same thing. And then here we go, who's baptism for? Baptism is for everyone. You can say everyone, including children, and all whom God calls.

So, let me ask you this. Have I said anything different than the Scriptures by saying that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, in baptism a person receives the 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. 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 Holy Spirit, the promise, and note here, what's the promise?

The promise is the forgiveness of sins and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you, it's for your children, and all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. So, I would argue at this point, I have not said anything different than what the Scriptures say, and this is a good confession, because it says the same thing as Scripture, okay?

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 Romans 6, 3 through 5. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into His death?

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 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 6 more carefully.

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. So, the Apostle Paul had slanders, people who would misquote him, who would accuse him of saying things that he didn't say, and over and again, 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?

And so, what Paul does here, 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. So, what shall we say, then?

Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Now, let me ask the question, when did you die to sin? 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? Now, notice, there's a word, evangelicals, and the word is symbolizes. Paul says that when you were baptized, you were baptized into Christ's death.

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 Father, we too might walk in newness of life. All right? 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. In baptism, we are buried and raised with Christ. Have I said the same thing as the Scripture? Yeah, I've said the exact same thing.

I haven't added anything. All I've done is say we are buried and raised with Christ. 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.

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. 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.

All right? So, note here, everybody who is baptized is no longer a slave to sin. 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?

You say to the devil, no, I don't have to obey you, because I'm baptized, 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, it is, 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.

So, when the devil shows up and says, oh, come on, you really, you deserve it, you deserve, you know, enjoying your favorite sin, and sin is slavery, you sit there and go, go away, I'm baptized, I'm no longer enslaved to you.

Why? Because you've died. For one who has died has been set free from sin. So, have you died or not? Well, if this is true, then yes, 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.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again, death no longer has dominion over him. 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.

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. 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.

For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but you are under grace. 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.

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. Okay? And having been set free from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

So, you get the idea here. 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. Full stop.

Okay? So, Satan, go away. I am baptized into Christ. Okay, next text, let's take a look at this. Colossians 2, 1 to 12. Now, quick before we get too far along these lines, circumcision. At what age were young Jewish boys circumcised?

Was it age 13? Was it age 8? Or was it age 8 days old? It's 8 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.

That is not how people are saved. They're not saved by making a mental cognitive decision to make Jesus the Lord of their life. No, that's not what the scripture says at all. Instead, the 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.

God is the one who makes them alive. And so, then the next picture of baptism is in Colossians 2, 11 and 12, 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.

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. And this is going to apply to both men and women, by the way.

So, one of the things I find fascinating is that some people come up with these really goofy arguments against baptism, and they'll say things like, the Bible doesn't teach the Lutheran doctrine of baptism, nowhere will you find examples of what you guys do.

And I'll say, well, nowhere in the scripture do you find a single example of a woman receiving the Lord's Supper, okay? But do we withhold the Lord's Supper from women? The answer is no. The question is, what does the Bible say the Lord's Supper is, and who is it for?

Okay, even though there are no examples, by the way, there isn't a single example in the Bible of a woman receiving the Lord's Supper, not one, okay? So, keep that in mind. So, in baptism, we are circumcised by the hand of Christ, and this is the important bit, by the hand of Christ, that's what Colossians says.

Colossians 2 says that, and again, Colossians, you'll note, Colossians 2 then reiterates that we are buried with Christ and that we are raised with him, alright? And so, buried and raised with Christ, that's a reiteration, so that's in Romans 6, as well as Colossians 2.

And then let's take a look at Acts 22 .16, Acts 22 .16, and I'm going to do this over here for context, because this is an account of the 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, 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. 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 I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, rise and go into Damascus, there you will be told what is appointed for you to do. And then he goes on to say here, and one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by the Jews who lived there, he came to me standing by me and he said to me, brother Saul, receive your sight.

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.

And now why do you wait? Rise, be baptized, notice again the passive, be baptized, and wash away your sins calling on his name. Okay? So here we got again a, you know, this is being spoken of in a way where it's being done to him.

So you get the idea. So why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, wash away your sins. So I can say that in baptism our sins are washed away. All right? So let's just review here. So baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.

Okay, in baptism a person receives the Holy Spirit. Baptism is for everyone, including children and all whom God calls. In baptism we are buried and raised with Christ. In baptism we are circumcised by the hand of Christ.

In baptism our sins are washed away. Have I said anything different than the Bible says? Or am I saying the same thing? Okay? I'm saying the same thing. All right, now there was a question that came up real quick.

Okay, let's see here. What about those who say for means because of? I would say, Brian, that that's a clever argument put together by the Reformed, but it doesn't work, and I'll show you why. And number one, the Nicene Creed says, for the remission of sins.

When you read the writings of the church fathers, they never say because of the forgiveness of sins. Every creed and confession of the ancient 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 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, into, and so it's ice, it's into the forgiveness of your sins. So, the word is ice, okay? Ice is the Greek word into, all right?

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. And if you don't believe me, again, I would point out that the Nicene Creed is a Greek creed.

It was originally written in Greek, and I would say that the people at that time knew Koine Greek far better than I do. And always, and again, it's translated for, for, for the forgiveness of sins. And the Greek just literally reads into, into the forgiveness of sins.

That's how it's read literally. Okay, so Don says, Marilyn asks, is the command repent answered by the sponsors, godparents, or baptized infant? Okay, so this is an interesting thing, and I'm going to show you this here, because the answer to the question is neither.

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 onto those things.

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. Ephesians chapter 2 is going to help us out here, and then we'll see how this works with Acts 11.

And I'm watching my time carefully. So, Ephesians chapter 2, consider this text and what it is teaching here. Paul, in these first ten verses of Ephesians 2, I consider this to be just a good thumbnail sketch of the Christian faith, beginning with the problem, showing us what the solution is, and then how the solution works itself out.

And if you were to study the structure of these ten verses, they are in what's called a 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 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. And he says, and you were dead.

And yeah, necros here, you know what dead means? Dead. Remember when God said in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, the day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die. That's what God said. Did God mean what he said?

Did Adam and Eve die that day? 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.

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? 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 God will meet you the rest of the way.

You can get out of that. You just, you can get out of that. Nobody does this, okay? 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 Bible teaches anyway.

So, you were dead in the trespasses and in the sins in which you once walked. Now, in which you once walked is now talking about how you conduct your life. This is a Hebraism. This is peripateo in the Greek, but the Hebrew word behind this, if you were to kind of trace this out in the 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.

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 body and the mind, and watch this, and we were by nature children of like the rest of mankind.

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. Well, isn't that lovely? You know, doesn't make me feel good about myself.

My self-esteem is really hurt. Get over it, okay? This is the reality of the situation. And so, this is the doctrine of original sin, and this passage and other passages also bear this out. Romans 3 clearly teaches this, none is righteous, no, not one, all have turned aside, together they become worthless.

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. Oh, by the way, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, the book of Romans says.

So, quick pop quiz, how many have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Is it some or is it all? It's all. Does that include your babies? Yeah. By the way, the wages of sin is death. Do infants die?

Yeah, they do. So, you know, sin has impacted all of us, all of us. And then Romans 5 makes it clear where this sin comes from, it's in Adam that we have all sinned, alright? Alright, so now, verse 4 is the turn then here, and watch the subject of the sentence and then watch the verbs.

So, the subject of the sentence is the word God. So, verse 4 begins with but, in the 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.

So, we translate it as but. So, this is a good, this is a very important transition. So, but God, and God here is in the nominative, which means all the verbs that follow, God is the one doing them. God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead, and there it is again, even when we were dead in our trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ.

Who made us alive together with Christ? God did. God is the subject of the sentence. By grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Him, with Christ, and God seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So, who, we were dead, who made us alive? God did. You didn't make yourself alive, alright? 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, 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. 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.

It is not a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are His, who's His? God's. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which 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. 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.

Okay, so the next important text, and let me see if we're there, and I think we are, yes we are. Vital text here. And this is Titus, by the way, this is the text that brought me kicking and screaming into Lutheranism.

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, Lutherans made no sense to me, they seem like failed Roman Catholics, I mean, they don't seem, if they would just study Latin, maybe they'd become a Roman Catholic, you know, their pastors wear dresses, you know, this is weird.

So, you know, 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 I'm talking about. So, when I was studying theology at Christ College Irvine, I was not a Lutheran.