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᛭ INI ᛭

Baptism. It’s the primary part of the Catechism. It’s the only Chief Part that gives any order to its questions. Sure there are “The First Commandment,” “The First Article,” and “The First Petition.” But those are just the first in a series. Not so with Baptism. “First. What is Baptism?” “Second. What benefits does it give?” “Third. How can water do such great things?” “Fourth. What does such baptizing with water indicate.”

Baptism. Baptized. That’s your fundamental identity. That’s who you are before God, for by it Jesus made you His disciple, by it He forgave all your sins, rescued you from death and the devil, and gave you eternal salvation. It delivers Jesus’ own death and resurrection, where He earned forgiveness and accomplished your rescue from death and devil, and won your eternal salvation. He gives all that to you in Baptism. “Baptism now saves you.” (1 Pet 3) You receive it by faith. Faith worked in the waters of Holy Baptism.

Baptized is your daily identity. That’s baptism lived out in faith toward God and in love toward one another. Faith toward God is lived out by His Law and Promises. “Daily contrition and repentance,” “daily emerging and arising” to life. His Law and Promises do that. That’s what the Third Commandment is all about. Hearing His Word, reading His Word, hearing Gospel sermons. It’s receiving the Supper of Jesus’ body and blood. It’s the life of prayer—2nd Commandment—even plagiarizing Jesus’ Words. The Lord’s Prayer is your prayer.

You love others, too. Cover their sins with forgiveness. Honor and serve those who are over you. Serve those who are next to you. To be baptized means to bear the fruit that matches the 4th Commandment, 5th Commandment, 6th Commandment, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th Commandments. In those ways you love your neighbor as yourself. For, “all the commandments are summed up in this one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Rom 12) If you live a life breaking of those commandments, you’re living a loveless life, a selfish life, a life that leads to and is death.

But Baptism ever stands. It always enlivens for it gives new life. It does no good apart from the faith it creates. If faith goes, the benefits of baptism go. Not that baptism doesn’t have those benefits, it’s just you no longer receive them. Like leaving the medicine bottle in the cabinet. The medicine has many benefits, they just don’t benefit the one who doesn’t avail himself of it.

Baptism is the primary identity and life of a Christian. The Baptized seeks out the teaching of Jesus. For that makes and keeps that Christian a disciple. He seeks out forgiveness in sermons and absolution. He seeks out the Supper of Jesus’ body and blood, for there is the medicine of eternal life. It weekly bestows the forgiveness of sins, which even the Baptized need. It’s why it’s prayed for in the Lord’s Prayer—a prayer He answers through preaching, through His Word, through His Absolution, and through His Supper.

You can always go after some other identity, and it will define you for awhile. But it will always come to an end. You can be student, friend, farmer, son, husband, father, worker, whatever you may happen to be. But those things can and do run out. They end at your death, if not before. But not so Baptism. In Holy Baptism, the Lord Jesus does something new for you. He makes you new! New in Him! Alive in Him! Forgiven in Him!

Now your life is spent in faith toward Him and in love toward one another. Why? Because you’re Baptized. You can’t be anything else but faithed in Jesus and loving toward your neighbor. If you want to stay that way, well Jesus, His Father, and the Spirit will do it for you. The Holy Trinity, who first marked you as His own in Baptism, will do it through Sermons and the Lord’s Supper. Those two things—Sermons and Supper—will keep you a Christian, keep you living in your Baptism, until your Baptism is finally fulfilled “in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” Sermon and Supper and Baptism too accomplish this promise God gives through Paul:

“The God of Peace Himself sanctify you completely, and your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.” (1 Th 5)

᛭ INI ᛭