# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1856_S275
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the Grace of Baptism. 275

...to summarize on our subject as follows: I. Holy Scripture describes the grace of baptism chiefly in three ways: 1. Communion with the triune God, Matt. 28, cf. Matt. 3, in particular being filled with the Holy Spirit, Acts 2, Titus 3, union with the Lord Christ, Gal. 3:1, John 5, reception into the kingdom and into sonship of the Father, John 3, Gal. 3. — 2. Regeneration, John 3, Titus 3, more precisely both the dying of the old man and the emergence of a new man, Rom. 6, Col. 2, coming to pass by means of justification before God, Rom. 6, Col. 2, 1 Pet. 3, Gal. 3. — 3. Forgiveness of sin, Acts 2, Eph. 5, Heb. 10. — The order of these three points already shows how the one coheres with the other. — II. Holy Scripture more clearly makes the necessary condition, without which that gracious working of holy baptism does not take place, to be man's faith, Mark 16, Gal. 3, Col. 2. Hence the apostles preach to adults before baptism and demand of them repentance and acceptance of the testimony, Acts 2:8. But regarding children, definite words of Scripture make it certain that they are to be baptized, Mark 10, cf. John 3. — I then sought to show how the Church simply and clearly maintains the scriptural truths in its doctrinal statements and asserts them against those who deviate: against the Sacramentarians, the work of the triune God in baptism, the actual occurrence of regeneration, of the forgiveness of sins; against the Papists, the occurrence of regeneration by means of justification, not by means of a change of nature, and the effect of baptism through faith, not ex opere operato; against the Baptists, in particular still the right and command of infant baptism.

The discussion did not turn upon this last point, nor upon the faith of children, but rather upon whether baptism does not also effect something even among unbelievers, even among those who receive it hypocritically. This was maintained in particular by one brother, who expressed the opinion that everyone comes, through baptism, into a certain personal union with Christ, from which even the hypocrite and the ungodly cannot withdraw, and which remains despite unbelief until the Last Day, even though it does not help toward salvation. As scriptural ground for this claim, Gal. 3:27 was cited, and it was further emphasized that while the effect of the sacrament unto salvation is indeed to be thought dependent on man's faith, its effect as such in general may not be thought so dependent, since otherwise faith would make the sacrament and unbelief would abolish it — just as it is likewise acknowledged in the case of the Holy Supper that unbelievers too receive the true body and blood of the Lord, only not unto their salvation. Against this it was maintained that Gal. 3, according to the context, is evidently said only of those who have put on Christ, who through faith are children of God, and that this expression is to be understood of being clothed with Christ as our righteousness, whereby believers become children of God. But as for the other