What Did Luther Have to Say About Baptism?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question.  Dear Dave and T. A.:  “A friend of mine sent me a copy of a page from Luther’s Small Catechism, which he says, is used to instruct new Christians.  It asks the question, what benefit does baptism give? Then answers that ‘it works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this as the words and promises of God declare.’  I thought that Luther taught that a person was saved by faith alone.  Can you explain this apparent contradiction?”  

T. A. McMahon:

Take it, Dave.

Dave Hunt:

Well Tom, you’re asking me to explain a contradiction and if they contradicted themselves it’s not up to me to explain it, let them explain it, Luther himself.  Part of the problem is that there was a great deal of Roman Catholicism that hung on to Luther, his anti-Semitism—

T. A. McMahon:

Even though he nailed his 95 Theses to the door—

Dave Hunt:

That’s right.  Well Tom, I have read those “95 Theses, Disputation on the Efficacy and Power of Indulgences;” I read it very carefully several times.  And, I do not want to be critical of Martin Luther because we owe him a great deal.  He shook up the Pope.  This really sparked the Reformation and so we are grateful for that.  On the other hand—

T. A. McMahon:

It sparked it but it didn’t really begin it, it began before Luther, right?

Dave Hunt:

No, he accomplished something that no one else had.  Of course, there were Reformers before, they were burned at the stake but they didn’t really create the stir, they didn’t arouse all of Europe so we have to give him credit for that.  On the other hand, as I read his 95 Theses on Indulgences it seems to me that he still believed in indulgences, at least to some extent.  The Augsburg Confession, for example, Luther didn’t show up because he would have been arrested but Melanchthonwrote it in cooperation with Luther.  As I read the Augsburg Confession they are actually saying, we are the true Roman Catholics and we are true to the church, the church has strayed.  You know, the Reformers didn’t want to leave the Catholic Church; they wanted to straighten it out a bit.  So, there was considerable amount of Catholicism that hung on and part of it was this teaching of baptismal regeneration of the essential character of baptism.

T. A. McMahon:

In other words baptism saves.

Dave Hunt:

That’s right and that’s why you want to baptize infants.  And the Catholic teaching, in fact even to this day, as you would know as a former Roman Catholic, if a baby dies, let’s say it is a week old and it dies and it has not been baptized, it cannot go to heaven.  So now we are putting an efficacy in a physical act which the Bible is absolutely against.  In fact, this was the lie of the serpent in the Garden of Eden and this was what deceived Eve that this physical fruit would have some power.  When Jesus talked about, the water that I give you, he is not talking about H2O.  If any man thirsts, he’s not talking about thirsting for water.  In fact, in John 6 He says, “You believe on me you will never hunger or thirst again.”  Well, He surely is not talking about physical hunger and thirst.  So, sacramentalism partakes of that error that this physical piece of wafer has spiritual power, that the physical waters of baptism has spiritual power, this sacrament in other words.  In fact, the Catholic Church says, anathema to you if you deny that the sacraments offer or pass along grace ex opere operato, that is, in the very act itself, this very act, this sacrament has power in itself.  I don’t find that in the Bible, I find that it is by faith alone, in Christ alone, in His finished work.

T. A. McMahon:

Dave, you are not going to try and reconcile, sola fide is one of the cries of the Reformation, by faith alone, yet almost all of the reformers taught that there were efficacious work such as baptism, the Eucharist and so on.  Give me some help here.  How could they possibly, I mean, I don’t think they are talking out of both sides of their mouth but they are trying to reconcile something that is contradictory?

Dave Hunt:

No Tom, they are talking out of both sides of their mouth, I’m sorry.  And, to such an extent they were so firm on the power of infant baptism, John Calvin said, even if you were baptized by a fornicating, unbelieving, godless, Roman Catholic priest.

T. A. McMahon:

Popish, I think was the term he used.

Dave Hunt:

Well, he laid it out pretty clearly that you are still saved and regenerated and don’t you dare get baptized again.  So you know that the Anabaptist, that meant to be baptized again, these people who had been Roman Catholics, they didn’t know Christ, they had their faith in the church and in its sacraments rather than in Christ.  When they finally put their faith in Christ and were born again, they were saved, as the scripture says.  They realized they ought to be baptized as believers.  This is what Philip says to the Ethiopian in Acts 8.  He said, “What doth hinder me to be baptized?”  Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may be baptized.”  So, these people who were baptized after they got saved, they were killed, not only by the Roman Catholics but by the Lutherans and the Calvinists as well.  So that’s how strongly they adhered to the efficacy of infant baptism.

T. A. McMahon:

Now Dave, they offer a verse, you know we are almost out of time here but Acts:2:38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
See All..., “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Dave Hunt:

Tom, we don’t have time to talk about that but this was a Jewish audience.  They understood what the mikveh was, the ritual cleansing.  You had to be washed in water.  The priest, for example, at the laver before they went in, the Jews understood this so this baptism to them was a declaration that they needed to be cleansed.  But this baptism was in the name of Jesus Christ because of His death upon the cross.

T. A. McMahon:

And if you understand it, the way the Lutherans and Catholics and those of Reformed persuasion are laying it out, then you have to contrast that with all the other scriptures that say you must believe, it’s by faith, it’s by faith, it’s by faith.

Dave Hunt:

Paul said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel.  The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.  It’s very clear, never once does it say he who is not baptized shall be damned.