Catechesis – Page 2 – What Does This Mean?

Is Baptism Necessary?

Encore Post: At first, it seems like a strange question to ask — even the wrong question to ask. Since Baptism is God’s work to save us, why wouldn’t we want to be baptized? There are several different reasons why this issue comes up. The first arose during the Reformation. The Anabaptist movement believed that children are innocent and that God does not hold them accountable until a later age. In the Augsburg Confession (Article Nine) and the Apology of the Augsburg Confession (Article Nine) firmly rejects this argument (more in a later post on infant baptism).

The other reason is that in this sinful world, sometimes people die without being baptized. Lutheran theologians answer the question by saying Baptism is necessary but not absolutely necessary for salvation. Baptism is necessary because God commands us to baptize and to be baptized. (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 2:37-38) Jesus tells us that you cannot enter the kingdom of God if you are not born of water and the Spirit. (John 3:5) Yet the Scripture is very clear that the preaching of the Gospel also is a means of grace, which creates faith (Romans 10:14-17), forgives sins and brings everlasting life. (Romans 1:16)

So, God’s word can and does save, even when the opportunity for a Christian to be baptized has not come. But God is so rich in his mercy, that he gives his grace over and over again, in the form of the preaching of the Gospel, the baptizing of his children and in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and in Absolution. Each means brings forgiveness of sins, life and salvation in its own way, providing for us certainty that we are God’s own and will live with him forever. We refuse them at our own peril, for God gives them to us for our good and strengthening in the face of the assaults of the world, devil and our sinful desires. While God requires us to do so, so they are necessary, it more that we get to enjoy these blessings.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Baptism Saves You

Encore Post: Perhaps the point of greatest conflict between Lutherans and the Evangelical movement is our confidence that the Bible teaches that baptism saves you. As I noted in another post, most Protestants think of Baptism as a simple ceremony where a Christian declares that he puts his faith in Jesus as his personal savior. They think of baptism as something we do and so think that to say that baptism saves us, that it is the same thing as saying salvation is something we earn by what we do. Yet the Bible clearly says, “Baptism saves you” (1 Peter 3:21-22) and”unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5)

If Lutherans believed that baptism was something we do, we also would reject the teaching that it saves. After all, the heart and center of the Lutheran confession is salvation is by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone. But we believe what the Scriptures teach, that salvation is God’s work, not ours. God the Father saved us, not by what we have done, but washing us and renewing us in baptism by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:4-7) Jesus gave himself for the church, cleansing us by the water and the word. (Ephesians 5:25-27) In Christ, through faith, God has buried us with Jesus in baptism and made us alive with Christ, forgiving our sins.(Colossians 2:11-14) So, when we say we are saved by baptism, we are saying that God saves us by baptism.

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What is Baptism?

Encore Post: You may have discovered that Christians value Baptism a lot. Yet there are few subjects that the various Christian traditions disagree about more. Catholics believe baptism is a means of grace that removes original sin and forgives all actual sins committed before baptism. It does not forgive sins committed after that — for that you need to go to confession, be absolved and do penance. For many Protestants, it is a work you do in obedience to God’s command, showing you’ve accepted Jesus as your personal savior. For others, it is just a meaningful symbol of salvation.

Lutherans believe that baptism is a means of grace, one of the ways, instituted by Jesus himself, God uses to save us. (Matthew 28:19) It combines the Gospel of Christ’s saving obedience, suffering, death and resurrection with water to wash away our sins. (Ephesians 5:25-27, Titus 3:4-7) It is God himself who does the baptizing, using human hands.

Like the other means of grace, Baptism creates faith in hearts where there is none and strengthens faith where it exists. Baptism also marks us with the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It makes us his children and heirs — heirs with Christ.

Finally, it is an undeniable declaration that we are saved. Why? Because we had nothing to do with it. In most cases, it is written in record books we can see and in all cases is written in the Book of Life. When Satan tries to cause us to doubt our salvation, we can tell him: “get lost! I am baptized.” Nothing can separate us from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. And where he is, we will also be.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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What is a Sacrament?

Encore Post: The Roman Catholics have seven sacraments. Lutherans have two (or maybe three). Protestants of a variety of confessions have none. The reason why the list differs is because each has a different definition of sacrament. The word is from Latin and literally means “holy things.” It was used by Jerome in the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible used by the Catholic Church, to translate the Greek word μυστήριον (mystery), a word for the saving truths of the Christian faith.

The Church came to use it for the ways God gives his grace to his children. The Roman Catholic Church lists seven sacraments: Baptism, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Penance, Marriage, Ordination and Anointing of the Sick (Last rites)

Lutherans, following Martin Luther, use a narrower definition. For us, a sacrament is something that Jesus instituted, that God uses to give us his grace and so create faith and save us and that combines God’s promise with a physical element (water in Baptism, bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper) Lutheran theologians sometimes have included Absolution, where God forgives the sins of his people through the voice of a pastor. Because Absolution does not use a physical element, Martin Luther and other Lutheran theologians have been reluctant to list it as a sacrament.

We treasure the sacraments because they are gifts from God. They are objective and outside of ourselves. Because they do not depend upon us, but upon Christ who gives them, we are absolutely certain that in them we receive God’s grace, that we are saved, that he forgives our sins, that we are his children and that we will live with him forever.

For us, this changes why we go to church on Sundays and other days. We don’t go because we are doing something for God but because God has done something for us and wants to give us gifts. Here is the strength to live life in the struggle against the world, the devil and our flesh. Because of these gifts, we have the strength to do good works. For these gifts we thank him and give our lives over to his service and to care for others.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Faith and Prayer

Encore Post: Amen is a word from the Hebrew language that we teach even to smallest of our children. It is a word of agreement. It means “this is true” or “I agree.” We use it at the end of every prayer — so much so our children think it means, “we’re done praying now.” Martin Luther explains that, when we say amen, we’re saying “yes, yes, it will be so” or “it is most certainly true.”

Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer because it is unlike any other. God himself wrote this prayer. To all other prayers, God may say :”Yes,” “No” or “Wait.” We can be absolutely sure not only that he will hear and answer this prayer, but that he will say “yes” to it. The requests we make in it are promises from God and he will do these things. We can plan our lives around this prayer, knowing that our lives will end when he takes us to be with him forever.

Some Christians turn prayer and faith into some kind of magic formula. They teach that Jesus wants us to be healthy, wealthy and prosperous. If we believe we will have the things we desire, all we need to do is pray for them and act as if they already have come true and God has to do it for us. When we do not get what we want, the prosperity preachers tell us we didn’t believe strongly enough. They miss the truth that God works not only through blessing, but that he uses suffering to strengthen our faith. In the end, their faith is a false faith. Rather than being compassionate it is cruel. It blames victims for the things that harm them.

But God is more than a cosmic vending machine. He is our father and wants what is best for us. He works tirelessly to care for us, to provide for us and to bring us safely home to him. He is also not a distant God, watching us from a distance. In his Son, Jesus, he became one of us, suffered the trials and evils of this world with us, suffered, died and rose again to bring an end to sin, sorrow, grief, pain and the power of the devil. He will return at the end of days to raise our bodies from the dust and restore us and all creation. In the meantime, we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say amen to it, knowing he is eager to care for us.

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The World, The Devil and Our Sinful Desires

Encore Post: “Lead us not into temptation” is the one petition in the Lord’s Prayer that puzzles some Christians. God loves us, so why would he set us up to be tempted? That instinct is very good. The Book of James explains: “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15)

Part of the problem is the word “temptation” has changed since it was first used in the Middle Ages in the English version of the Lord’s Prayer. To tempt means to test someone to see what they will do. In modern English, we think of it to mean to lure someone into doing evil. The other problem is that, as we’ve seen with the other parts of this prayer, that we forget that God already does this. He already makes his name holy, his kingdom already comes to us and will come to us, his will already is done on earth and in heaven, he already gives us daily bread and forgives us. So, of course, he already does not lead us into temptation, but delivers us from evil. We pray so that he will guard us and strengthen us when our enemies tempt us to sin. They are the unholy trinity — the World, the Devil and our flesh — our sinful desires. Many Christians make the sign of the cross when they pray this petition, reminding them that because of the death of Jesus on the cross, God promises to do this — and does.

God allows testing of our faith because it strengthens us. We often do not know why God tests us in particular, but it has the effect of taking away from us anything we might trust other than God and his promises. Yet even though God will let these things challenge us, he promises to give us the strength to withstand it. (1 Corinthians 10:13) We remember that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, except he did not sin. (Hebrews 4:15) So, we pray that we withstand temptation and remain faithful until the day we are with him forever.

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God Lets It Go, So Let It Go

Encore Post: Forgiveness is simple, really. You tell someone they do not need to pay you back something they owe you. It is sometimes the hardest thing you’ll ever do, when the thing you need to forgive is a deep hurt. What God is calling on you to do is let it go. When we pray to have our sins forgiven, God wants us to remember he is releasing you from the debt you owe him and wants you to do the same.

The Greek word Jesus used (ἄφες) in the Lord’s Prayer for forgive literally means “to loose, to release, to let go.” In financial terms, it is used to write off a debt and not expect repayment. We daily rebel against God’s will, break his law — sometimes deliberately. Worse, we were born that way. Even though every non-Christian religion tells us we can repay that debt — we cannot. We rack up even more debt faster than we could possibly repay. But God loved us and in Jesus suffered and died to pay that debt in full.

When others hurt us, deliberately or not, the pain can eat us up. If we hold on to that debt day after day, year after year, it can cast a shadow over the rest of our life. When we pray that God forgive us, knowing he already has, it can give us strength to forgive others. That is why we pray to be forgiven — so that we can forgive others.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Daily Bread

Encore Post: In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us not only how to pray, but what to pray for. Out of all the petitions he invites us to bring to the Father, only one talks about physical needs. So far, we’ve prayed for God’s name to be made holy, his kingdom to come, his will to be done. We will also pray to be forgiven, spared from temptation and to be delivered from evil. Into this one petition, Jesus packs all of our physical needs for food, shelter, health, good government — in short — happy lives. This is very different from what we actually pray for. Our everyday struggles fill our prayers. Only occasionally do we get around to praying for spiritual blessings.

Why is this? To begin with, it is not wrong to pray for such things. This petition, in fact, invites us to do so. Also, Jesus very often calls on us to be persistent in prayer, to bring all our needs to God, to cast our cares on him. Prayer, in fact, is all about our relationship with the Father. What it is about is a matter of perspective.

Just like a good earthly father, God is at work providing for our daily needs. A small child does not see his father’s hard labor to make a living. How he pays the bills to keep the utilities on and put away money for education. She doesn’t see how he and her mother go to the store to buy food, tend a garden, buy or sew clothes and much more. All these he does because he loves her, even when she isn’t a model of sweet behavior. Yet he and her mother delights when the child comes and endlessly asks for these things.

So, God works to provide everything we need. We pray for them so that we remember all that he does for us, so that we do not worry about such things and so that we can focus on the work he gives us to do. It encourages us to remember how Jesus laid down his life for us, died for our sins and rose from the dead. In our greatest need, he provided what we most need — forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. When we pray for what we need, we see how he gives them to us and remember they are not so important. It allows us to remember that life is forever, and he will always care for us and be with us, in life, through death and into the life to come.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

If it is God’s Will….

Encore Post: Why does God want us to pray for his will to be done? After all, God can do anything he wants to do . When he speaks, it is done. He loves us, cares for us and wants only good for us. He promises to answer our prayer. Yet Jesus tells us to pray, “thy will be done.”

As with other aspects of God’s nature, the limits of our nature make the mystery of God’s will impossible to understand fully. God’s will will be done eventually, but in this world it is often not done. We can choose to do things our own way. With the world we often rebel against it. We sometimes do not understand why he allows evil to happen to us. Sometimes we do not even know what God wants us to do.

So, when we ask God for something that he does not promise to do unconditionally, we often pray “if it is your will.” this kind of prayer helps us to accept what God wants for us and trust it will be for our good. In that we have good company. Jesus himself prays that way in the Garden of Gethsemane. (Matthew 26:42). Because he made the Father’s will his own, his sacrifice saved us. Now we pray that God will make his will our own will.

Rev. Robert E. Smith

Concordia Theological Seminary

Fort Wayne, Indiana

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Thy Kingdom Come

Encore Post: When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we state our hope and belief that God’s Kingdom is different than the kingdoms of the world. As Jesus says to Pontius Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” But certainly it has entered into this world now and the world will see it in all its fullness when Jesus returns to judge both the living and the dead.

God’s Kingdom comes to us a couple of ways. God’s Kingdom comes to us through the Proclamation of the Word and Faith. Another way to say it is that God’s Kingdom comes to us when and where Jesus promises to be for the forgiveness of our sins in the divine service. Finally, what we see currently only by faith will be unveiled to the world, and God’s Kingdom will be fully known.

God’s Kingdom is not like the Kingdoms of the world. God’s Kingdom is a spiritual kingdom and it must be distinguished from the civil realm. God works in terms of the Gospel, that in Jesus Christ’s death on the cross atones for the sins of the world. Currently God’s Kingdom looks quite humble. Even the King rides to his throne on a donkey, not some regal warhorse. His crown in this world was one of thorns. He governs not with an iron fist, but through his ministers who are called to preach His Gospel and administer his gifts- namely Baptism, Bread and Wine, His body and Blood- to his faithful.

The civil realm as we are all able to look around works in terms of fear and power, certainly not the Gospel but rather Law. Of course, as we pray this petition we also express the desire for the Lord to bless our civil kingdoms (government) with His mercy and grace that we might live in peace. And we should obey the laws of the government as long as obeying the laws does not cause us to sin. We also acknowledge rightly that God does not intend to use the Gospel to overthrow secular government and public order. We reject that before the resurrection of the dead, saints and righteous people will possess a secular kingdom.

So, we as Christians see ourselves in two kingdoms. And we continue to pray this petition as fervently as ever in anticipation when the Lord will return to usher and reveal His Kingdom fully.

Rev. Jacob Hercamp
Christ Lutheran Church
Noblesville, Indiana

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