# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1863_S264
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

264 Some Remarks on a New Apology of the Reformed Church.

For thus says the Lord: "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." Mark 16:16. Peter, however, said: "Let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of sins." Acts 2:38. The same apostle writes: "which [water] now also saves us, in baptism." 1 Peter 3:21. Paul writes: "As many of you as were baptized have put on Christ." Galatians 3:27. "We were therefore buried with him (with Christ) through baptism into death." Romans 6:4. "By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." 1 Corinthians 12:13. Christ "cleansed her (his congregation) by the washing of water with the word." Ephesians 5:26. "In whom also you were circumcised, with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, namely with the circumcision of Christ; in that you were buried with him through baptism." Colossians 2:11-12. John writes: "This is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and blood. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three are in agreement." 1 John 5:6, 8. Ananias, finally, said to Saul: "Be baptized, and wash away your sins." Acts 22:16. In all these passages, which contain the biblical revelation concerning the fruit and power of baptism, the power of regeneration is plainly ascribed to baptism. For if baptism, according to Mark 16:16, or the water in baptism, according to 1 Peter 3:21, saves; if, according to Acts 2:38, it is received for the forgiveness of sins; if, according to Acts 22:16, it washes away sins; if, through it, according to Galatians 3:27, Christ is put on; if, according to Romans 6:4, we are buried with Christ through it, so that his death and burial become ours; if, according to 1 Corinthians 12:13, we are baptized into one spiritual body; if the Church of Christ, according to Ephesians 5:26, is cleansed through baptism; if baptism, according to Colossians 2:11-12, is Christ's spiritual circumcision; if Christ, according to 1 John 5:6, 8, comes through the water of baptism, and the Spirit and the blood are always together with it, bear witness together, and have the same purpose [that they are unto one] — what arts will Hr. K. employ to prove that holy baptism is not a bath of regeneration? What are all these cited utterances of the Holy Spirit concerning baptism but the clearest paraphrases of the words of John 3:5 and Titus 3:5? Or could baptism save, wash away sin, spiritually circumcise, etc., if it did not have the power to regenerate? Or does Hr. K. perhaps wish to understand all this only of the baptism of adults? Who gives him the right to do so? Where in Scripture is there talk of two kinds of baptism — of an ineffectual infant baptism

ciple must hold that God has not deceived us with empty figures, but inwardly performs, by his power, what he signifies through the outward sign. Therefore baptism is fittingly and truly called a bath of regeneration." On Titus 3:5. See J. Calvin, In N. T. Commentarii, A. Tholuck, Part II, p. 360-361.