“The Blessings of Baptism”
Titus 3:4-5

Click for Audio

Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
The Baptism of Our Lord–First Sunday after the Epiphany—January 12, 2020

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Each year on the First Sunday after the Epiphany, it is customary to commemorate the Baptism of our Lord, as recorded in today’s Gospel Reading. So, this morning we meditate on “The Blessings of Baptism,” based on today’s Epistle Reading, from the third chapter of Titus: “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

It is always a joyous occasion when a baby is born. We are especially happy and thankful when the baby is healthy.  But, the Bible makes clear that even babies with the best physical health are nevertheless born with a serious, spiritual sickness. As David writes in Psalm 51, which we read earlier: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.”

Ever since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, all of their descendants, all members of the human race, have been born with a deadly, spiritual disease called sin.  Inherited sin, passed down through the generations, original sin, from birth. Left untreated, this spiritual sickness always ends the same terrible way, as St. Paul declares in Romans: “The wages of sin is death”—eternal death and damnation in hell.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us.” God showed his kindness and love for you by sending his Son to be your Savior. The Babe of Bethlehem was without the stain of sin. He alone was holy, he alone lived a perfect, blameless life, without any sin.  As St. John writes, “He appeared to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.”

Yet, he did suffer the penalty for sin. Not his own sin, for he was without sin. He suffered for our sin, as St. Peter says: “Surely he bore our sins in his body on the cross.”

Jesus himself put it this way: “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”  “This is how God showed his love for us,” St. John writes. “He sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . .  he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. . .  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”

Jesus Christ laid down his life for you. He lived a perfect, holy, sinless life, for you; he died a sacrificial death, for you.

Because God the Father has accepted his Son’s sacrifice, for you, your sins are all forgiven. God loves you, God forgives you, God our heavenly Father receives you as his beloved child, because his Son died for you. As St. John says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!”

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done.”

God does not demand that you earn your own salvation, with your own good works, because he knows that your good works could never be good enough. Instead, God GIVES you the free gift of forgiveness and eternal life, earned FOR you by Jesus Christ. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”

The dictionary defines mercy as: “kind and compassionate treatment in a case where severity is merited or expected.” “For the wages of sin is death—but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

“You must be born again,” Jesus said. That is the only way to cure the spiritual sickness we are all born with: to be spiritually born again, cleansed, purified, made holy by the blood of Christ. “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

That’s what Holy Baptism is, the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, a means by which we are spiritually born again as children of God. Baptism is not a good work that we do for God, but a good work that God does in, and for, and to us. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

The question often arises, can babies really believe?  There are many gravestone inscriptions from very early in the Christian era that testify babies, who died as young is only nine hours old, had been baptized.  The gravestones say in Latin that these babies had been dulcissime nate, “most blessedly bathed.”  So, we know from the archaeological record that the earliest Christians did indeed baptize their babies.

And Jesus himself conclusively answers for us the question of whether or not babies can believe, in the 18th chapter of Matthew, when he calls babies, “These little ones who believe in me.” In fact, Jesus actually tells us adults we must have faith like a little child: “I tell you the truth, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will not enter it.”

“Let the little children come unto me,” Jesus says, “and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”  Babies are included in his great, all-inclusive commandment: “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.”  The phrase “all nations” in the original Greek does not refer so much to geography, but to people of every type and description, what Revelation calls, “every nation, tribe, people, and language”—and that also includes people of every AGE, all the way down to the smallest infant.

In fact, when Mary, pregnant with Jesus, goes to visit Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist: “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and in a loud voice exclaimed, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.’”  So, John the Baptist had faith in Jesus as the Messiah even before he was born.

Jesus commanded us to baptize all people. He did not exclude anyone. He did not exclude babies. God’s promise is true: through Baptism, God the Holy Spirit works faith in the hearts of babies, real, active faith, to trust in Jesus.

Of course, we do have many examples in Scripture of those who were baptized when they were older, after coming to faith, such as the jailer at Philippi in today’s reading from the book of Acts. For those who are baptized after coming to faith, God also works through Baptism, to strengthen them in faith.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

Many families have treasured, white baptismal gowns, passed down from generation to generation.  St. Paul explains this symbolism in Galatians, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  The white baptismal symbolizes being clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

When the Holy Land was ruled by the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria a large barrel with water from the Jordan River was brought back to England, and still today members of the royal family are baptized with water from that supply. Our church has a lovely silver baptism shell, and inside our baptismal font is actually a silver baptismal bowl, brought over from the old church, from which your ancestors may have been baptized.

All such trappings are very nice, but none of it is essential.  In Ephesians, St. Paul tells us the essence of Baptism, what is really necessary for a valid Baptism: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.”  That’s what makes a true Baptism, “washing with water through the word,” specifically the word that Jesus himself commands: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

St. Paul says in Ephesians, “You were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.”  There is no such thing as Lutheran Baptism, there is only “one baptism,” Christian Baptism.  So, we recognize all Baptisms as equally valid, as long as water is applied, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

People often ask, “Is Baptism absolutely necessary for salvation?”  Jesus answers in the Gospel of Mark: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”  So, it’s not lack of Baptism, but lack of faith, that condemns.  However, our Lord commanded Baptism for all his followers, so Baptism should not be spurned or neglected if one has the opportunity to be baptized.  But, the New Testament gives the example of the thief of the cross beside Jesus, who came to faith shortly before death and did not have an opportunity to be baptized.  Yet to him Jesus declares, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”

In the book of Acts, the Apostles Peter and Paul beautifully describe “The Blessings of Baptism”: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This promise is for you and your children”; “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins.”

In 1st Corinthians, St. Paul describes Baptism this way: “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” And St. Peter sums up “The Blessings of Baptism” in his First Epistle: “Baptism now saves you.”

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”