LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2019, Page 217

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II. THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
is not only a story; it is a story that comes with a promise
for us. We might express it this way: The Gospel = Story
+ Promise. The story of the Gospel is not “good news”
without the promise.19 The Gospel is not simply that
Jesus died. The Gospel is not simply that Jesus rose from
the dead. The Gospel is that this Jesus, who has died and
has been raised from the dead, now promises that we are
His forgiven people, and that we will rise bodily from the
dead one day and be invited into His new creation. That
is what makes it good news!
When we see the Gospel as a promise, we can better
understand the nature of faith. The promise of Christ
calls for faith. That is to say, it calls for and elicits a trust
that Christ will keep His promises to us just as He kept
His promise to rise from the dead (John 2:19–22). This is
what makes the Christian faith unique and distinctive
from every other religion or form of spirituality in the
world. We believe the promise of a man risen from the
dead that He will raise us from the dead and give us a
place in His kingdom. And because He has risen from
the dead just as He had promised, we now trust Him
to keep His promise to us! And so John writes in his
Gospel, “These [things] are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).
The key to understanding the nature of faith thus lies
with understanding the nature of a promise. This is why
the example of Abraham’s faith is so important for Paul:
In hope he believed against hope, that he should
become the father of many nations, as he had
been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not
weaken in faith when he considered his own body,
which was as good as dead (since he was about
a hundred years old), or when he considered the
barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made
him waver concerning the promise of God, but he
grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,
fully convinced that God was able to do what he
had promised. That is why his faith was “counted
to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:18–22).
In light of Paul’s account, we might identify and consider four characteristics of God’s promise to Abraham.
First, a promise depends upon the reliability and
trustworthiness of the one making it. Abraham believed
19
For a discussion of the Gospel as promise within the Lutheran Confessions, see Charles P. Arand, “The Gospel in the Lutheran Tradition”
in God’s Two Words: Law and Gospel in the Lutheran and Reformed
Traditions, ed. Jonathan A. Linebaugh (Eerdmans, 2018), 65–83.

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Regardless of who performs the Baptism, when
someone performs it in God’s name and according to
God’s command, we should regard it as God Himself
baptizing. “To be baptized in God’s name is to be baptized not by human beings but by God himself. Although
it is performed by human hands, it is nevertheless truly
God’s own act” (LC IV 10; KW 457).

How Is Teaching Carried Out in Connection
with Baptism?
Jesus commissioned His disciples not only to baptize but
also to teach all that He had commanded them. Baptism
and teaching ought never be separated from each other.
To empower His followers in their teaching task, Jesus
sent the Holy Spirit to recall for the disciples all that He
had taught them. The apostles continually shared that
teaching with the various early church communities both
in person and by means of their letters. Guided by the
Spirit, they wrote that teaching down in the writings of
the New Testament for all the followers of Jesus.
It is clear from Matthew 28 and the entire New Testament that baptizing and teaching belong together. The
church has always sought to hold Christ’s command to
baptize and teach together. But it has done so in various
ways and, at times, with different sequences.
As noted earlier, in the early church’s missionary setting, most Baptisms were adult Baptisms. In
this situation, teaching often came first and was then
followed by Baptism. Sometimes Baptism took place
immediately after hearing the Gospel, while other times
it took place a year or even three years after a person had
been attending the service of the Word (e.g., the ancient
catechumenate of the fourth century). As the Baptism of
infants within Christian families became more common
(and eventually the norm), the ordering shifted so that
Baptism came first and instruction followed.
Over the years, the church has found it helpful to
summarize the Scriptures by identifying a series of texts
or topics that paint a picture of what life in this world
now looks like for God’s human creatures (the Ten Commandments), what the life of faith looks like for God’s
children (the Apostles’ Creed), what our relationship
22
The order of Baptism for use in emergency was also included in the
predecessor hymnals of the LCMS: The Lutheran Hymnal (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1941), 858; Lutheran Worship (St. Louis:
Concordia Publishing House, 1985), 213.

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Second, the promise is personal. God makes a promise directly to Abraham. It is not an abstract newsfeed
determined by anonymous algorithms as to which news
we receive. In the Gospel, God addresses each one of us
personally. “I baptize you. … I forgive you. … The body
and blood given for you. …”
Third, a promise calls for and gives rise to faith.
The whole point of making a promise is to create or
strengthen someone’s faith and thus give them hope and
joy about their future. After all, is that not why we make
promises to one another? To reassure? To give confidence? Of course!

it: As Christians, we go through life by faith in a promise. In the end, the warrant for our faith in that promise
cannot be found in any empirical evidence or proof
within the world. Our faith in God’s promise will only be
vindicated on the Last Day when Jesus returns and raises
us (who have died) from the dead.
We should emphasize, however, that even though
Christ’s promises in Baptism call for and engender faith,
faith does not make this particular washing with water
a Baptism. Only God’s name and promise do that. Faith
may precede Baptism (as with adult converts); faith may
be created in and through Baptism; faith may be sustained through the promise after Baptism. But it is the
promise of God that is central in each case. Here Martin
Luther draws the parallel between our going to the Lord’s
Supper and our going to be baptized:
I myself, and all who are baptized, must say before
God: “I come here in my faith and in the faith of
others, nevertheless I cannot build on the fact that
I believe and many people are praying for me.
Instead, I build on this, that it is your Word and
command.” In the same way I go to the Sacrament
[of the Altar] not on the strength of my own faith,
but on the strength of Christ’s word. I may be
strong or weak; I leave that for God to decide. This
I know, however that he has commanded me to
go, eat, and drink, etc., and that he gives me his
body and blood; he will not lie or deceive me.

Finally, the promise opens up a new future. God
makes a promise to Abraham that boggles the mind (given both his and Sarah’s advanced ages) — namely, that
he will have more descendants than the number of stars
in the sky. And now Jesus promises that we will be given
a place within the new creation among all the spiritual
descendants of Abraham.
Here we might consider one of Martin Luther’s favorite analogies for faith. When a bride and groom stand
before the altar and make their vows or promises to each
other, they are creating and opening up a new future
together. “I will be with you from here till we die … in
sickness and in health.” Why do they speak these promises to each other? They do so for the purpose of eliciting
and strengthening the faith of their beloved: “You will
not go through life alone.” Promise and faith thus belong
together.
Christ commits Himself to us and binds Himself to
us with His promise; we bind ourselves to Christ by believing that He will keep that promise. Christ says: “You
are mine”; the Christian says: “I am yours.” Promise and
faith unite us to Christ. So God’s promise opens up a new
future for us. We will rise from the grave one day with a
restored body that will never again see corruption, and
we will live in the new creation, for Christ says (promises!): “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
Like marriage, Christian discipleship (living by faith
in Christ) is a lifelong endeavor. As Christ’s disciples, we
live by the promises of God, not knowing what the future
may hold for us with regard to the things here on earth
that we care about: our health, our relationships, our
jobs, our family, our children, our country. Think about

THE BAPTISMAL COMMISSION

found on p. 1023 in LSB and on the inside back cover
of LSCwE).22

THE THEOLOGY AND PRACTICE OF HOLY BAPTISM

God because he was convinced “that God was able to do
what he had promised.” We can count on Jesus to keep
His promises because He rose from the dead … just as
He had promised to do (Matt. 16:21; 28:6; Luke 24:6–8).

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to our Father looks like in prayer (the Lord’s Prayer),
and what the life of a Christian within the church looks
like (the Sacraments). Sometimes these summaries, or
catechisms, have included additional resources as well,
such as aids for helping people understand elements of
worship or how to read the Scriptures (for example, see
pp. 351–392 of the 2017 LSCwE).
The church came to mark and celebrate the
fulfillment of these two tasks, baptizing and teaching,
with a public rite known as “confirmation.” This practice
goes back to the time of the early church when Baptisms
were often performed on the frontier of the Roman
empire where no pastor or bishop was available. Later,
a bishop or pastor would visit to “confirm” that the
Baptism had taken place just as the apostles “confirmed”
or attested to the validity of Baptisms in the Book of Acts
(Acts 8:14–16).
Today, Lutherans typically regard confirmation as a
ceremony by which the church publicly announces that
the task of “baptizing and teaching” has been carried
out with respect to these individuals, whether children
or adults. In turn, children who are confirmed have opportunity to confess publicly with their own mouths the
faith in which they have been baptized and instructed,
just as their parents and sponsors had confessed for them
when they were infants (see LSB, pp. 272–274).
By announcing that the child has been baptized and
instructed, the church affirms that the child is now ready
to continue with more in-depth study of the Scriptures
and to carry on with learning as an adult what it means
to live the life of a baptized Christian.

What Other Elements Might Be Present in
the Service?
Down through history, the church has often included
other elements in the baptismal service in order to
express the richness of the Bible’s teaching about Baptism. Our new beginning as followers of Jesus and the
benefits of living under His reign have been celebrated
by the church with a variety of rituals or traditions. They
are not essential to Baptism but can serve an important
teaching function.
The Naming of the Child. Some may wonder why
the pastor sometimes asks in the baptismal service how
the child is to be named, when (in most cases today) the
child has already been given a name. In baptismal rites
of the early church, both children and adults were often
named (or renamed) at the time after a biblical character

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Thus we do the same with infant Baptism. We
bring the child with the intent and hope that it
may believe, and we pray God to grant it faith.
But we do not baptize on this basis, but solely on
the command of God. Why? Because we know
that God does not lie. My neighbor and I — in
short, all people — may deceive and mislead, but
God’s Word cannot deceive. (LC IV 56–57; KW
463–464)
These statements simply follow Paul’s argument
about Abraham and his faith in the promise. The God
who made that promise to Abraham was the one “who
gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things
that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). A few words later we read,
“No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise
of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory
to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he
had promised” (Rom. 4:20–21).20
20
Notice how similar the last line of the Romans passage is to the
argument made by the Formula of Concord for confessing the presence

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In addition to Baptism, God conveys His promises to
us in several other ways. First, He speaks them through
His Word spoken by others. This can take the form
of witnessing, preaching, absolution, Scripture-based
Christian encouragement, etc. Second, He embeds His
promises in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.
Third, He vouchsafes His promises in prophetic and
apostolic testimony of the Scriptures. In each case, the
word and promises engender faith and confidence.

Who Performs the Baptism within the
Service?
Within our Lutheran tradition, we believe that when
Christ gave His disciples this baptismal commission
to baptize, He gave it by extension to all of His followers. In other words, Christ gave this commission to all
Christians. Thus, a statement adopted by The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod in 1932 states:
Christ Himself commits to all believers the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, Matt. 16:13–19, 18:17–20,
John 20:22, 23, and commissions all believers to
preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments, Matt. 28:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:23–25. (italics
added)
Ordinarily, the church has selected someone from
its midst to carry out Baptisms on behalf of all and, by
extension, on behalf of Christ. This is because God has
established a particular office to preach and administer
the Sacraments publicly within the congregation. So
when the pastor administers the Baptism, he does so on
behalf of the congregation, namely, the priesthood of all
believers (“The officers of the Church publicly administer their offices only by virtue of delegated powers, and
such administration remains under the supervision of
the latter, Col. 4:7.” [Brief Statement, §30]).21
Nevertheless, all Christians, as members of the
priesthood of all believers, have been given the mandate
and authority to baptize, meaning that they have the
authority to baptize in an emergency or an extraordinary
situation such as when there is an imminent danger
of death (see “Holy Baptism in Cases of Emergency”
of the body and blood in the Lord’s Supper. It begins by asking, “Who
gives this command and promise?” Then the Formula of Concord
proceeds to say, “This reliable, almighty Lord, our creator and redeemer
Jesus Christ, spoke these words …” (FC SD VII 43–44; KW 600). In
each of these instances, the argument is rooted in the character of God
and the faithfulness of God.
21
Within our Lutheran tradition, this is referred to as the authority of
jurisdiction (AC 28).

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or other noteworthy Christian. This highlighted Baptism as an act or event of rebirth; as a result, the name
given in Baptism came to be known as one’s “Christian
name.”23

arise about this. This is also the reason that it has been
customary to give the parents a baptismal certificate that
attests to the child’s Baptism so that they may never be in
doubt about whether they were properly baptized.

The Sign of the Cross. In the rite of Baptism, the
pastor makes the sign of the cross upon the forehead and
heart of the one to be baptized. The purpose of this is to
identify the individual as one who has been redeemed
by Christ and now belongs to Christ. When Christians
make the sign of the cross in prayer or at other times
within the worship service, it is a repeated reminder of
their Baptism and their baptismal identity in Christ.

Renunciation of Satan and Confession of Christ.
One of the most vivid ways the early church marked
this new beginning as citizens in God’s kingdom was by
means of a renunciation of former citizenship. In the renunciation, one turns one’s back upon life under Satan’s
rule and confesses that he now belongs to the God of
Jesus Christ.

The Presence and Role of Sponsors. In the early
church, sponsors were responsible for instructing adult
candidates for Baptism and then attesting to their readiness for Baptism. Similarly, in our day, when Baptism is
often administered to infants too young to speak, sponsors confess the faith of the Christian Church. When a
child is too young to answer for himself or herself, the
sponsors speak on the child’s behalf and as representatives of Christ’s Body, the Church, renouncing Satan and
expressing the Church’s faith in the Triune God. As the
sponsors answer the baptismal questions of renunciation and confession on behalf of the child, this expresses
verbally the faith into which the child is to be raised and
mentored. Hence the questions, “Do you believe in God
the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth? Do you
believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord … ? Do
you believe in the Holy Spirit … ?”
The sponsors also pledge to help the newly baptized
child to live as a Christian. They are to support and help
the parents nurture the child as he or she grows so that
the child may grasp and hold firmly to the promises of
God throughout his or her life. To have sponsors play
this important role alongside the parents is to bear
witness to everyone that the child belongs to God’s
family, the Church, and not only to the parents and their
immediate family.

Baptismal Gown. Parents sometimes dress the infant
in a baptismal gown to symbolize how the child is now
clothed with Christ’s righteousness. Alternatively, a baptismal garment is placed on the newly baptized infant (or
adult). The use of the baptismal garment reflects several
biblical texts and themes, such as Isaiah 61: “I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for
he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has
covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Is. 61:10; cf.
Zech. 3:3–4). It also highlights the New Testament imagery of Baptism as clothing (Gal. 3:27).
Baptismal Candle. During the Service of Holy
Baptism, a candle, often lit from the Christ or paschal
candle, may be presented as a gift to the baptized or to
the parents or sponsors. The burning candle symbolizes
the fact that Christ, the light of the world (John 8:12), now
lives within the person who was baptized. The candle
may be lit to celebrate baptismal anniversaries throughout the child’s life and to recall and rejoice in the many
gifts and blessings of Baptism.

At times, it may be appropriate to have someone
stand and be present simply as a witness to the Baptism.
This may occur when there is a desire to include a family
member or friend who is not able to fulfil the role of a
sponsor or make the promises that sponsors are asked to
make. A witness’s role or purpose is simply to attest that
the child was indeed baptized should questions someday
In the baptismal service in Lutheran Worship, the parents of an infant
were asked, “How is this child to be named?” The baptismal order in
LSB does not include this question, but instead asks, “How are you
named?” To which the parents or sponsors reply on the child’s behalf.

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2019 Convention Workbook