TSW ~ E.W. King: Baptized Once

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Baptized Once

By Eric William King

I am writing this to those Christians who were baptized as an infant or in their youth. I am also writing this to those who may have been baptized in their latter years but have fallen away from their faith. Have you fallen away from your Christian faith? I have good news. If you have been properly baptized by the water and the Word your baptism is still valid.

Your baptism is always something that you can return to, it lasts forever. Just as a person in young adulthood may turn from his faith into all sorts of sin so may a person who was infant baptized but when you were baptized you partook of a Holy Sacrament that never goes away. Though we sometimes may walk away from God….He never walks away from us. He is always there for you. All you need to do is put your faith back in Him.

Notice this faith statement from St Martin Luther found in our “Large Catechism”:

“…Baptism is nothing other than water and God’s Word in and with each other (Ephesians 5:26). That is, when the Word is added to water, Baptism is valid, even though faith is lacking. For my faith does not make Baptism, but receives it.”

In other words, once baptism is received it is finished. God counts it upon you whether you waver sometimes or not. A valued gold necklace is always a valued gold necklace whether an honest man or a thief wears it. I was baptized as an infant in a Lutheran Church in Phoenix Arizona in the year 1968. By God’s grace and mercy I was raised in a Lutheran Church and attended church all the way into my junior high years. After that things got really messed up for me.

Through my twenties I was on an intense journey of extreme ups and downs and even joining different denominations; marriage, divorce…all kinds of bad stuff. I was even re-baptized in other churches. Coming through many deep and dark, “dark nights of the soul” I one day by God’s grace felt His call. I truly returned to my God and found out that He had never left me. He had been with me since my infant baptism. All I had to do is simply trust in Him and believe.

St Martin Luther understood this point very clearly, notice:

“Therefore let us be decided that Baptism always remains true and retains its full essence. This is true even though a person should be baptized, and he, in addition, should not truly believe. For God’s word cannot be made inconsistent or be changed by people.”

So though we may not always remain faithful - God does. Notice this Scripture:

“If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” (2^nd Timothy 2:13)

Do you get it now? Is not this extremely Good News! Indeed it is. God has promised to finish the work that He has begun in us. “…Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6)

St Martin Luther has stated that if parents take their child to God’s altar and baptize that child nobody has the right to say that it was invalid because the child grows disobedient. Is God not patient with us all? Can that child’s baptism count? Should we give in or give up? Has God forgotten you? Nay. God forgets no one.

That child always has the opportunity to return to his baptism so graciously given him by his loving parents through God’s grace. Notice what St Martin Luther states here, again from the “Large Catechism”:

“So we do likewise in infant Baptism. We bring the child in the conviction and hope that it believes, and we pray that God may grant it faith (Luke 172; Ephesians 2:8). But we do not baptize it for that reason, but solely because of God’s command. Why? Because we know that God does not lie (Titus 1:2). I and my neighbor and, in short, all people, may err and deceive. But God’s word cannot err.”

In ending this article which I hope has stirred up true faith, hope, and love in your soul, I wish to quote one last section from St Martin Luther regarding Baptism and how important this Sacrament is in our lives as Christians. He says…..

“For this reason let everyone value his Baptism as a daily dress (Galatians 3:27) in which he is to walk constantly. Then may he ever be found in faith and its fruit, so that he may suppress the old man and grow up in the new. For if we would be Christians, we must do the work by which we are Christians. But if anyone falls away from the Christian life, let him again come into it. For just as Christ, the Mercy Seat (Romans 3:25), does not draw back from us or forbid us to come to Him again, even though we sin, so all His treasures and gifts also remain. Therefore, if we have received forgiveness of sin once in Baptism, it will remain every day, as long as we live. Baptism will remain as long as we carry the old man about our neck.”

Resting in the finished work of my Savior and King, Jesus the Christ.

Eric William King (April 12^th 2020 – Easter Morning)

Also read Eric's other articles about the Sacrament of Baptism:

"Christian Baptism"

"Water and the Word"

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1 comment:

Nugget of TruthJuly 16, 2020 at 8:59 AM
Matthew 21:15-17

15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’[g]?”

17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Baptized Once

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1 comment:

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