Set Apart by Baptism: a Burden or a Privilege (5)

With the help of the Lord, we will now try to say a few things about the right understanding of holy baptism. For this, His light and His truth is needed, that they may guide us.

In the first place, we must emphasize again that holy baptism has water as a visible sign, and it is through this sign that a divine declaration of a triune God is administered. In nature water has a cleansing power, namely, to wash a person who is dirty. This also takes place in a spiritual sense when the convinced sinner is washed and cleansed by faith by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have to understand how necessary it is that the Holy Spirit convince us of our sins and our guilt before God, against whom we have sinned in a twofold way: first, by our deep fall in Adam, and secondly, in our development from infant to child and from child to adult, having sinned in thoughts, words, and deeds.

Water is not precious to those who are clean, but to those who are dirty; they long for washing. His blood becomes necessary, dear reader, for those who learn to know their sins and who cannot do anything for their own cleansing and restoration. Then the preaching becomes precious for such a soul in whom it pleases the Lord to open the heart for His Word. The messenger that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, becomes for them a person sent by the Lord. When the Holy Spirit accompanies that preaching with the gift of faith, their souls become so satisfied and happy in the Lord. They have the best time of their lives when sitting under such a ministration.

Here we need to ask our readers if they may know what that is. Never forget that we cannot miss this on our way to eternity. We are often afraid that there is so much ignorance about holy baptism because of never having been touched by the Lord in our souls. Oh, pray to Him continually that He may open your blind eyes to see it and pierce your deaf ears to hear it. What gladness it is for the hearers when faith comes into exercise about what Christ has done and about who He is for His church upon earth.

But now an enemy arrives whom they do not know so well. That enemy is named Unbelief. He is accompanied by the devil himself, and he soon has entrance into the heart of a believer. Satan's work in Paradise was to cause unbelief, which was the cause of his own fall, but also of those who still stood in their created state of innocence and rectitude. There he gained entrance, and do we not think, reader, that he will also gain it in the heart of the believer in the church militant here upon earth? Oh, as soon as we give ear to him, the comfort of God's Word leaves us, darkness comes instead of light, crosses become too heavy to bear, the mouth is again closed, and the Lord seems to be gone.

Do we know what that is? A hypocrite (and it is a wonder if we will not be one) can also speak about light, but what do they know of spiritual darkness and unbelief, of Satan's attacks and wiles, of a closed heaven, a closed Bible, and a closed inner chamber? They know nothing, absolutely nothing. But notice now what the Lord is doing and has done for His church. To support and strengthen weak believers, to make things more certain in their lives, He has thought out the holy sacraments; in the Old Testament these are circumcision and Passover; in the New Testament, holy baptism and the holy supper. And why? It is to confirm His promises to His church also in a visible way.

When we understand the function of water, namely, to cleanse, so likewise, when His servant, called and sent and ordained by Him, may administer holy baptism, the Lord proclaims in a visible way His faithfulness and mercy. He shows that He has thought out the way of salvation through the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, and that Christ Himself, co-equal with the Father, was yet willing to become Man, while remaining God, to suffer and to die instead of and in the room of His people. These are all those whose names are written in the book of life, who shall be born again here in time, and who shall also be brought to faith.

This people have to struggle time and again with their unbelief, with their sin, and with their disobedience, perhaps also the disobedience of their children who once also were baptized. They have said "Yes" at one time, but thus far have not accomplished that bringing up of these children in that "aforesaid doctrine." They also confess the little knowledge that they have of those so precious things signified in baptism, and there are many more reasons to bow deeply in the dust before God. Yet, God, from His side, is again confirming His covenant in the sacrament of baptism.

What kind of covenant is this? It is the covenant of grace. Oh, that is just the thing that they seek, namely, grace, that grace which is poured upon the lips of Him who, when He was baptized, had expressed to John His faithfulness to fulfill all righteousness. Grace is also needed by the child who is presented for baptism, because this child is shapen in iniquity and in sin did the mother conceive it. It is not as the poor Roman Catholics state, that the water of baptism cleanses from original sin. It is also not true what many other churches believe, that the child is a child of God because it was born on the estate of the covenant of grace. That is what we consider the overestimation of baptism.

However, there is also an underestimation. We do not have to look so far away to find that error. What is it that the Lord promises in the baptism of our children? It is that He will continue to be and to remain the God of the covenant. And again, what kind of covenant? The covenant of grace. But what is grace, dear reader? It is that He does not look only on who we are in our deep fall in Adam, one whom we need to know not only from the Bible, but also experientially in our own heart and life. That means being subject to all miseries, yea, death itself, and all that will follow if we die in an unreconciled state with God. But He also looks in baptism upon the work of Jesus Christ, the accomplished work in His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Here I will mention only one text, "Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12).

Here we have two things, namely, law and gospel, Adam and Christ, curse and blessing. See now the faithfulness of the Lord, who promises, also in an outward way during baptism, as He did to Israel in the Old Testament, that He will continue to work from generation to generation. He declares a willingness to seal this promise by the water which is sprinkled upon the forehead of the child, as a sign of the significant matter—regeneration and forgiveness o f sin, or justification, along with sanctification. He desires to make it sure and certain that the outward sign is to be used as a pleading ground; not the sign itself, but all that lies behind it, the entire doctrine of the covenant of grace.

We have used the word "pleading." What does it mean? Well, when we speak about underestimation, dear reader, what is it that we are doing with the baptism of our children? People of God, what are you doing with it? Oh, how ashamed we all must be. Why? It is because there is, in general, no work with it at all. We say, "The Lord has to do it." True, there will never be any spiritual sign of life in a soul if the Lord is not the first cause of it. Man lies spiritually dead in sin and misery. But is this not evident when we have no work with it? Indeed, we do another work. And what is that? We reject His promises in unbelief. We stand there, admitting it entirely, but without the least exercise of faith. Oh, what a great responsibility we take upon ourselves.

Tell me, my reader, what will be heavier, overestimation or underestimation? They are both sin in the eyes of the Lord. For that read Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3. If we may belong to those whose baptism became true in their lives when the Lord converted them, and say, "The Lord must do it," that is different than when a professing member is saying this. Do you know why? God's children, when faith is not in exercise, always go condemned over this world, especially when they make use o f the sacraments. Oh, we cannot emphasize enough that faith remains a gift of God, and this they experience.

Yet, when we have so many privileges, which are missed by millions, and we will remain unconverted, even our own baptism will testify against us. Now, on the other hand, nothing is so strong in spiritual life as when believers may come into need for the conversion of their dear children and are enabled to plead upon the covenant, its promises, and the signs of it. When such a soul may plead, which is never to be disconnected from the exercise of faith, he may lay something before the Lord which is not of himself. Judah was not able to deny that the signet, bracelets, and staff were his, and the Lord Himself could not deny the truth to Moses when he laid before Him His own promise to bring His people Israel into Canaan. It was His own Word. Thus, dear reader, we conquer the Lord, so to speak, for He cannot forsake His own work and His Word once given.

The poet of Psalm 119 said in verse 49, "Remember the word unto Thy servant, upon which Thou hast caused me to hope." Is it not true, people of God, that today you are so occupied with the things of this life and this world, but less occupied with the souls of the baptized seed of the congregation? The Lord Jesus said to His disciples in Matthew 6:31- 33, "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

There is such a danger for under - valuation pertaining to holy baptism when we are ignorant regarding the doctrine. Such a power lies in it, no less than in the Lord's Supper. It has a different significance but is yet about the same matter, namely, God's faithfulness in Jesus Christ towards His church here upon earth. When it is not rightly understood, Satan obtains a great advantage over us. Are not the souls of our children the most important? And has not the Lord promised that "His Name shall endure for ever: His Name shall be continued as long as the sun: and men shall be blessed in Him: all nations shall call Him blessed"? The Bible is full o f His promises toward His church, but they lie there so unused and untouched.

May it humble us greatly, but then let it not cause us to take anything into our own hands, which we fear is the practice of those who overestimate baptism. May we be given to wait in a way of longing for that precious and powerful ministration of the Holy Spirit, who shall do this instrumentally only by a sound explanation of His Word and by the use o f the three Forms of Unity which He has given to His church in the time when it was incredibly dark for them in the world. They were under severe persecution, but much light was given them from above. It was also in that time that our precious forms for baptism, the holy supper, and other uses were developed.

— to be continued —

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