Confessing Evangelical

It's not easy to convey just what a joy - and what a load off my shoulders - it has been to see Matthew finally brought to Holy Baptism. For at least the past nine months - before he was even born - one of my biggest concerns has been how, when and even whether we would have the opportunity to bring Matthew to this "life-giving water, rich in grace" (being at that time still members of a Baptist church). So to see Matthew finally receive this "washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit" had, for me, a distinctly Nunc Dimittis aspect to it.

In the happy glow of seeing Matthew baptised, it'd be easy for me to forget that Baptism is a beginning, not an end - and to forget the gravity of what has happened. So here, as much for my benefit as anyone else's, are some salutary words from Martin Luther's introduction to his 1523 Order of Baptism:

In all Christian earnestness I would ask all those who administer baptism, who hold the children, or witness it, to take this wonderful work to heart in all its seriousness. For here, in the words of these prayers, you hear how meekly and earnestly the Christian church concerns itself about the little child and how it confesses before God in plain undoubting words that he is possessed by the devil and is a child of sin and wrath, and prays very diligently for aid and grace through baptism that he may become a child of God.

Remember therefore, that it is no joke to take sides against the devil and not only to drive him away from the little child, but to burden the child with such a mighty and lifelong enemy. Remember too, that it is very necessary to aid the poor child with all your heart and strong faith, earnestly to intercede for him that God, in accordance with this prayer, would not only free him from the power of the devil, but also strengthen him, so that he may nobly resist the devil in life and death. And I suspect that people turn our so badly after baptism because our concern for them has been so cold and careless; we, at their baptism, interceded for them without zeal.

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See to it, therefore, that you are present in true faith, listen to God's Word, and earnestly join in prayer. For when the priest says, "Let us pray," he is exhorting you to unite with him in prayer ... so that the sponsors may hear and comprehend [the prayers] and also pray with him with one accord in their hearts, carrying the little child's need before God most earnestly, setting themselves against the devil with all their strength on behalf of the child, and showing that they realize this is not joke as far as the devil is concerned.

For this reason, it is right and proper not to permit drunken and boorish priests to baptize or such people to serve as sponsors. But decent, moral, earnest, and pious priests and sponsors ought to be chosen who can be expected to treat the matter with seriousness and true faith, lest the holy sacrament be made a mockery for the devil and an insult to God, who through it showers us with the abundant and infinite riches of his grace. He himself calls it a new birth by which we are being freed from all the devil's tyranny, loosed from sin, death, and hell, and become children of life, heirs of all the gifts of God, God's own children, and brethren of Christ. Ah, dear Christians, let us not value and administer this unspeakable gift so indolently and indifferently; for baptism is our only comfort and admits to every blessing of God and to the communion of all the saints. To this may God help us. Amen.