The Way of Salvation in the Lutheran Church | Page 8

cannot separate the water from the Word.
We would not dare to baptize with water without the Word. In the
words of Luther, that would be "simply water, and no baptism." Let it
be kept constantly in mind that whatever benefits and effects we ascribe
to baptism, in the further forcible words of Luther's Catechism: "It is
not the water, indeed, that produces these effects, but the Word of God
which accompanies and is connected with the water, and our faith
which relies on the Word of God connected with the water." If now the
question is further asked: What good can baptism as thus defined do?
we will try to answer, or, rather, we will let God's Word answer. "What
saith the Scripture?"

CHAPTER IV.
BAPTISM, A DIVINELY APPOINTED MEANS OF GRACE.
When we inquire into the benefits and blessings which the Word of
God connects with baptism, we must be careful to obtain the true sense
and necessary meaning of its declarations. It is not enough to pick out
an isolated passage or two, give them a sense of our own, and forthwith
build on them a theory or doctrine. In this way the Holy Scriptures have
been made to teach and support the gravest errors and most dangerous
heresies. In this way, many persons "wrest the Scriptures to their own
destruction." On this important point our Church has laid down certain
plain, practical, safe and sound principles. By keeping in mind, and
following these fundamental directions, in the interpretation of the
divine Word, the plainest searcher of the Scriptures can save himself
from great confusion, perplexity and doubt.
One of the first and most important principle, insisted on by our
theologians and the framers of our Confessions, is that a passage of
Scripture is always to be taken in its natural, plain and literal sense,
unless there is something in the text itself, or in the context, that clearly
indicates that it is intended to convey a figurative sense.
Again: A passage is never to be torn from its connection, but is to be
studied in connection with what goes before and follows after.
Again--and this is of the greatest importance--Scripture is to be
interpreted by Scripture. As Quenstedt says: "Passages which need
explanation can and should be explained by other passages that are
more clear, and thus the Scripture itself furnishes an interpretation of
obscure expressions, when a comparison of these is made with those
that are more clear. So that Scripture is explained by Scripture."
According to these principles, we ought never to be fully certain that
any doctrine is scriptural, until we have examined all that the divine
Word says on the subject. In this manner then we wish to answer the
question with which we started this chapter: What is written as to the
benefits and blessings conferred in baptism?

We have already referred to the commission given to the Apostles in
Matt, xxviii. 19. We have seen that in that commission our Lord makes
baptism one of the means through which the Holy Spirit operates in
making men His disciples. In Mark xvi. 16, he says: "_He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved._" In John iii. 5, he says:
"_Except a man_"--_i.e._, any one--"_be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God_." In Acts ii. 38, the Apostle says:
"_Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your
sins._" Acts xxii. 16: "_Arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins,
calling on the name of the Lord._" Romans vi. 3: "_Know ye not that
so many of us as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His
death._" Gal. iii. 27: "_For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ, have put on Christ._" Eph. v. 25-26: "_Christ also loved the
Church, and gave himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it
with the washing of water by the Word._" Col. ii. 12: "_Buried with
Him in baptism, wherein ye are also risen with Him through the faith of
the operation of God._" Tit. iii. 5: "_According to His mercy He saved
us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost._" 1
Pet. iii. 21: "_The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now
save us; not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of
a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ._"
These are the principal passages which treat of the subject of baptism.
There are a few other passages in which baptism is merely mentioned,
but not explained. There is not one passage that teaches any thing
different from those quoted.
All we now ask of the reader is to examine these passages carefully,