Baptism's Bennies
12/7/22
A “benny” is 1970s slang for a benefit. From how little I actually use my Baptism, you’d think it has no bennies. But for the 2nd week we’ve sang how we set our Baptism against sin’s guilt, Satan’s accusations, Death’s finality saying “I am baptized into Christ!” Have I done that even once this past week? Baptism has bennies, but just knowing them isn’t using them. But one has to know them to use them.
The first step of knowing what comes with a gift is to open the package. We’ve all seen a child take a gift which he thinks is clothes or just a card and toss it aside without opening it. Adults, even teens, would never do that with a package from a parent, child, friend, or anyone whose feelings they didn’t want to hurt. What an insult if they did. What about Baptism? We heard last week how one of the last gifts Jesus left us was Baptism, and we toss it aside unopened? I’ve often thought Baptist, who don’t believe Baptism itself has any bennies, make more of it than some Confessional Lutherans. Your classic Baptist church’s front is dominated by a baptistry. Since they baptize by immersion, the font is big. My church in Louisiana, had the font stuffed to the side and only dragged it out when needed.
Of course, there are packages that are hard to open. Anything electronic, smaller than a bread box, or they want to discourage returning, they put in a plastic case that is virtually unopenable. Consumer Reports started an award in 2006 for the hardest-to-open package. It’s, called the Oyster Award. But hard to open, still doesn’t stop me. If there is a gift in there, I’m getting inside that package. Protestants, Evangelicals, Nondenoms, Pentecostals, Baptists and Calvinists don’t open their Baptism because they think there is nothing in the Baptismal Water itself. Baptism is either an ordinance they keep in obedience to God and/or a sign that they believe in Jesus. It’s like a Boy Scout badge. Baptism indicates they’ve reached a certain level. Not fire building or tent pitching but they have given their life to Jesus. They have asked Him into their heart.
But that has never been Lutherans of any stripe. Luther would comfort himself and others saying, “I am baptized” or “Remember you’ve been baptized.” But we comfort each other with, “It will all work out.” Luther believed that an appeal to one’s Baptism drove the Devil himself away (Kleinig, Grace upon Grace, 214). We think positive thinking does that. How strange. Since 1529 we’ve been advised to begin and end the day making the sign of the cross on ourselves to remind us we’ve been Baptized into the Triune God, but how many of us do that? Let’s daily open our Baptism; see what bennies are there. We confess the following are saying, Baptism “is far more glorious than anything else God has commanded and ordained;…it is so full of comfort and grace that heaven and earth cannot comprehend it” (LC, IV,39). That’s true, but what does it matter if I never use it?
Forgiveness of all your sins is in your Baptism. Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins. That’s what Peter says in Acts 2:38. Look into the handfuls of water poured over you and you should see tumbling forth Jesus’ righteous life, His guilty death, and a cleansing flood of His blood. Augustine said, “’Sin is forgiven in Baptism, not that it no longer is, but it is not imputed’” (AP, II, 36). Christ’s holiness is imputed, assigned, credited to us, and our sin and sinfulness are put on Him, charged to Him, assigned to Him. Hear how Luther put this thought: "For our beloved God and Father in heaven averts His eyes, and though He sees my sins, He does not want to see them or impute them to me, because they have all been washed away in Baptism and completely forgiven" (LW, 58, 368).
My complete cleansing from all sin, stain, and guilt would be more than enough bennies to value the gift of Baptism, but more are here: rescue from Death and Devil. Think of being imprisoned by them. You’re no match for them. But Baptism has the power to deliver from both. Luther says, “Suppose there were a physician who had such skill that people would not die, or ever though they died would afterward live forever. Just think how the world would snow and rain money upon him! Now, here in Baptism there is brought free to every man’s door such a priceless medicine which swallows up death and saves the lives of men” (LC, IV, 42). Who wouldn’t run to such a doctor? What if he lived next door or right in your own house? Read Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan’s description of the beatings Christian gets at the hands of the Giant Despair are harrowing. You’ve suffered in the hands of Despair brought on by Death and Devil. Baptism washes you out of their grasp. It actually “works” that according to our Confession.
Note how we make the same distinction in Baptism that we do in Lord’s Supper. We distinguish between rescue from physical death and being given everlasting life. Both are there in Baptism and Communion. They are given and promised in both. We exercise, we eat right, we sleep right for our physical health’s sake. Nothing wrong with that, but physical benefits are wrapped up in your Baptism too. Augustine mentions the following bennies: “’emancipation from temporality’” and making us “’aliens from secularism’”, and “’ salvation from the divinity of Caesar..’" (Christianity & Classical Culture, 512).
You know how in Ezekiel the Lord directs His people be marked on the forehead by the Hebrew letter that looks like a cross? You know how in Revelation the Beast of the False Church marks those who belong to him and the Lord marks those who are His. In 1526 Luther eliminated from his Baptismal liturgy blowing in the child’s eyes, using salt, opening ears and mouth, anointing the breast, shoulder, and head. He said those things were not the kind of thing to make the Devil skittish. He kept, however, the signing of the cross on both the forehead and the heart (Peters, Confes. & Abs, 196-7). We are marked by Baptism as not only redeemed by Christ but as belonging to His kingdom, His reality, no longer at the mercy of temporal rulers, or ways.
One thing more remains when talking about Baptism’s bennies: the relationship between the objective – what Baptism works – and the subjective – how we receive and use Baptism’s bennies. Understand how your believing relates to what the Triune God works and gives in Baptism. “To all who believe this” does not mean faith gives Baptism its power, but faith, trusting, believing is the way a person puts Baptism to use. "Luther thought that the premise that a person consciously had to experience his own baptism, because no one could trust anyone else, was indefensible....Faith could not be made into a prerequisite for baptism, for one could not be sure of faith, either in oneself or in someone else" (Brecht, Luther II, 336-7).
The trouble is that the Protestants all use the passage we use to prove that Baptism is nothing and faith alone is everything. Jesus Himself said, so their argument goes, “He who believes and is baptized is saved,” but only says that whoever does not believe is damned. He doesn’t mention Baptism. Here’s how we respond: “Our know-it-alls, the new spirits, assert that faith alone saves and that works and external things contribute nothing to this end. We answer: It is true, nothing that is in us does it but faith…But these leaders of the blind are unwilling to see that faith must have something to believe – something to which it may cling and upon which it may stand. Thus faith clings to the water and believes it to be Baptism in which there is sheer salvation and life,..through its incorporation with God’s Word and ordinance and the joining of His name to it" (LC, IV, 28-29).
If you separate faith from it’s object you are left with faith in faith. I believe in my believing. That’s what the Reformed are doing. We answer them, “Now, these people are so foolish as to separate faith from the object to which faith is attached and bound on the ground that the object is something external. Yet, it must be external so that it can be perceived and grasped by the senses and thus brought into the heart, just as the entire Gospel is an external, oral proclamation. In short, whatever God effects in us He does through such external ordinances” (LC, IV, 30). This means: you won’t find your forgiveness on earth except in the Waters of Baptism, in the Mouth of a man, or in Jesus’ Body-Bread and Blood-Wine. Luther "In his answer to the argument of the opponents who said: 'Baptism is an external thing; but external things have no value,' the reformer points to the Fourth Commandment. God's command and ordinance are contained even in such an external things as the flesh and blood of our parents and our Lord" (Peters, Baptism & Lord's Supper, 102).
Still how do you answer those who quote the Bible saying, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved”, and tell you that means faith must precede Baptism? Luther replies: “When is anyone certain of his faith? 'Whoever would base baptism on the faith of the one baptized must nevermore baptize anyone.' And even if one were to baptize him a hundred times, one would not know if he believed. Setting the time of baptism according to the faith of the believer turns faith into a work. 'True enough, one should have faith for baptism, but one ought not have himself baptized on the basis of his faith'" (Luther in Mid-Career, 603). Here is a more succinct answer from a 19th century American Lutheran theologian. "The Saviour does not repeat the allusion to Baptism in the second part of this sentence, because he that does not believe is already condemned, whether baptized or not" (Krauth, Con. Ref., 441).
Ever given a present to a child and find yourself asking him hours later as he is playing with it: “Was that in there?” I remember my older brother got a chemistry set. I was surprised by all the different chemicals in it. Well Baptism is like that. Our hymn speaks of it being a “lifelong comfort sure”, but our Confession says more: “In Baptism, therefore, every Christian has enough to study and to practice all his life. He always has enough to do to believe firmly what Baptism promises and brings – victory over death and the devil, forgiveness of sin, God’s grace, the entire Christ, and the Holy Spirit with His gifts. In short, the blessings of Baptism are so boundless that if timid nature considers them, it may well doubt whether they all could be true” (LC, IV, 41-2). Luther more succinctly: "'Behold, it is water that takes away the sin, death, and all sadness and helps all the way to heaven; such a precious aromatic…medicine results…because God Himself has mixed Himself thoroughly within'" (Peters, Baptism & Lord's Supper, 93).
Amazon and AARP are always telling me I have bennies I’m not using. My Baptism has way more than both. Amen
Rev. Paul R. Harris
Trinity Lutheran Church, Austin, Texas
Advent Midweek 2 (20221207); Baptism II
