The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church | Page 7

has it pleased God to work? Does He in the
present dispensation work mediately or immediately? It will scarcely
be disputed that the present is a dispensation of means--that even in the
domain of nature, and much more in the realm of Grace, He ordinarily
carries out His purposes through means. He chooses His own means.
They may sometimes seem foolishness to man, especially in the
operations of His Grace.
Our Saviour, in working miracles, used some means that must have
struck those interested as very unsuitable. When He healed the man
blind from his birth, He mixed spittle and clay, and with this strange

ointment, anointed and opened his eyes. Well might the blind man have
said: "What good can a little earth mixed with spittle do?" Yet it
pleased our Lord to use it as a means, in working that stupendous
miracle. When Jesus asked for the five barley loaves and two small
fishes, to feed the five thousand, even an apostle said: "_What are these
among so many_?" Yes, what are they? In the hands of a mere man,
nothing--nay, worse than nothing; only enough to taunt the hungry
thousands and become a cause of strife and riot. But in the hands of the
Son of God, with His blessing on them, taken from His hands, and
distributed according to His Word, they became a feast in the
wilderness.
A poor woman, a sufferer for twelve years, craves healing from our
Lord. With a woman's faith, timid though strong, she presses through
the crowd close to Jesus, and with her trembling bony fingers touches
the hem of His garment. Jesus perceives that virtue is gone out of Him.
The woman perceives that virtue, healing and life are come into her.
There was a transfer from Christ's blessed life-giving body, into the
diseased suffering body of the woman. And what was the medium of
the transfer? The fringe of His garment--a piece of cloth. Yes, if it so
pleases the mighty God, the everlasting Saviour, He can use a piece of
cloth as a means to transfer healing and life from Himself to a suffering
one.
The same divine Saviour now works through means. He has founded a
Church, ordained a ministry, and instituted the preaching of the Word
and the administration of His own sacraments. Christ now works in and
through His Church. Through her ministry, preaching the Word, and
administering the sacraments, the Holy Spirit is given. (Augsburg
Confession, Article 5.) When Christ sent forth His apostles to make
disciples of all nations, He instructed them how they were to do it. The
commission correctly translated, as we have it in the Revised New
Testament reads thus: "_Go ye, therefore, and make disciples_ _of all
the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
commanded you; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the
world._" Here then is the Saviour's explicit instruction. The Apostles

are to make disciples. This is the object of their mission. How are they
to do it? By baptizing them into the name of the triune God, and
teaching them to observe all Christ's commands. This is Christ's own
appointed way of applying His Grace to sinful men, and bringing them
out of a state of sin into a state of grace.
And this is the Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church. We begin
with the child, who needs Grace. We begin by baptizing that child into
Christ. We, therefore, lay much stress on baptism. We teach our people
that it is sinful, if not perilous, to neglect the baptism of their children.
The Lutheran Church attaches more importance to this divine ordinance
than any other Protestant denomination. While all around us there has
been a weakening and yielding on this point; while the spirit of our age
and country scorns the idea of a child receiving divine Grace through
baptism; while it has become offensive to the popular ear to speak of
baptismal Grace, our Church, wherever she has been and is true to
herself, stands to-day where Martin Luther and his co-workers stood,
where the confessors of Augsburg stood, and where the framers of the
Book of Concord stood.
The world still asks: "What good can a little water do?" We answer,
first of all: "Baptism is not simply water, but it is the water
comprehended in God's command, and connected with God's Word."
(Luther's Small Catechism.) The Lutheran Church knows of no baptism
that is only "a little water." We cannot speak of such a baptism. Let it
be clearly understood that when we speak of baptism, we speak of it as
defined above, by Luther. We