Read the Large Catechism with me.
Ten-minute studies on short readings from the Large Catechism.
Let's do this.
Click on the link below and read the short assigned reading. Then, if you have time, check out what I have to say about it. If not, no problem. Just soak up the goodness of the LC.
Holy Baptism, Part 2: Click here and read 14-22.
The basics:
- The water of Baptism is not ordinary water, but water with God's Word and command, and sanctified by it, so that it is divine water.
- It is wrong to omit from it God's Word and institution, so that we see the water as randomly taken from the well. For then we say, "How is a handful of water to help the soul?"
- God's Word, command, and name are in the water, which is a treasure greater and nobler than heaven and earth.
- The water of Baptism is a divine, heavenly, holy, and blessed water on account of the Word, which is a heavenly, holy Word, for it has, and is able to do, all that God is and can do.
- The Sacraments and all external things which God ordains and institutes should not be regarded according to the way we see them from the outside, but as the Word of God is included.
- When we look at members of the government, we may see on the outside heathens. Why should we esteem them more than others? Because the fourth commandment says honor they father and thy mother, and therefore, we behold a new and different man, adorned and clothed with the majesty and glory of God. This is how we should regard Baptism.
- God also confirmed Baptism through miracles from heaven - When Christ was baptized, the heavens were opened and the Holy Ghost descended visibly.
- The water and the Word of Baptism should never be separated from one another. For if they are separated, the water is the same as any other water. But when it is added, as God has ordained, it is a Sacrament, and is called Christ-baptism.
My thoughts today:
I don't know how any Christian could read the Large Catechism section on Baptism and not believe that Baptism is more than an outward sign of your own belief.
It amazes me that there were people in Luther's time already thinking Baptism was just an outward sign. I have always just assumed that was a newer American protestant thing. It seems like time and again Luther is writing about problems in the church that are still problems in the church. I don't know why I am surprised by this, though, since you know, we still have the same problems as Adam and Eve. But anyway...
I was recently reading a short story of Martin Luther's life to our boys. There was a line in the book that has really stuck out to me. It said that Luther had a friend who told him, "You have opened the floodgates and the rush cannot be stopped," in reference to many who were using Luther's words to go too far into new heresies that he never intended. People who had problems with the church all along, used his wave of the reformation to change other things, too. Where he just wanted to reform the heresies of his beloved church, they wanted to move away from everything they had been taught by it.
And so, with the floodgates of rushing water, out went the saving waters of Baptism. That, when attached to God's Word and promise and command, is a saving, life-giving water, then became some work we could do to show others that we were Christian. A sad transition and a great loss for the church.
When we change what God says He does for us into something we do for ourselves, we always lose.
