"Baptized into the Holy Trinity"
John 3:1-17
Holy Trinity, May 18, 2008
Pastor Aaron A. Koch
Mt. Zion Lutheran Church
Greenfield, Wisconsin

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

You'll sometimes hear the phrase "born-again Christian"-as in 1/3 of Americans identify themselves as "born-again Christians."  Usually, those who would use that term for themselves mean that they've had some sort of special, life-changing experience where they've "found Jesus" or committed their lives to God and have begun a new life and a new way of living.  Usually they can point to the exact day when their born-again experience occurred.  And certainly God's Word has the power to make drastic changes in the lives of people, as they are brought form unbelief to faith, as they are rescued from the power of sin through Christ to live for righteousness.

What I find interesting, however, is that most of those who would call themselves born again deny the very thing that gives the new birth.  In today's Gospel, Jesus says that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  But when Nicodemus doesn't get it, Jesus explains more directly by saying, "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."  Jesus is, of course, referring to baptism there.  As our first birth is from the watery womb of our mother, so our rebirth in Christ is from the watery font of our mother, the Church.  Jesus connects the Spirit with the water.  That's the place where the Spirit is poured out upon us very concretely through the Word and Name of God.  But too often "born again" Christians will deny this Scriptural truth.  They will say that baptism is just something we do out of obedience to Christ as our formal initiation, but what really counts is our commitment, our decision to believe and follow Jesus, and that sort of thing.  They don't believe baptism actually does or gives us anything.  It's just a ceremony.

So on this Trinity Sunday, as we rejoice in the truth that the only true God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we will be focusing especially on the meaning of our baptism into His Triune Name.  And I suppose right there is a good place for us to begin.  What does it mean to be baptized in God's name?  Well first of all, it means that God is the one doing the baptizing.  He's the One doing all the important stuff.  When people reject the power of baptism, it's often because they think that what we are doing is the main thing.  But baptism is not something we do for God; it's something He does for us.  It's done in His name, which means it's done by Him, on His behalf, to you and for you.  Martin Luther said in the Large Catechism, "To be baptized in the name of God is to be baptized not by men, but by God Himself.  Therefore, although it is performed by human hands, it is nevertheless truly God's own work."  A pastor is just the mouth and the hands that God uses.

And when God puts His name on you with the water, He is marking you as His own.  Just as we put our names on items that are valuable to us, that we don't want stolen or lost, so also God puts His name on us; for we are so valuable to Him that He gave up His only Son to the death of the cross and purchased us not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood.  We belong to God in baptism.  We are His children.  We bear the family name-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So baptism most certainly is not just some empty ceremony.  It gives us the greatest of blessings.  For it joins us to Christ Himself.  That's why it's a new birth, a being born again.  Your first birth was a stillbirth, spiritually speaking.  You were born in the darkness, dead in sin.  All of the sins that bug you and all of the sins that don't bug you are symptoms of that.  Your earthly birth ends in death.  So you need a new birth that doesn't end in death.  You need to be reborn in Christ.  Baptized into Christ, you share in His eternal life.  Jesus uses the language of water and the Spirit.  That's creation language, as when the Spirit hovered over the waters in the beginning.  So also now He blows across the waters of baptism with the Word of Christ to recreate us.  Word and water and Spirit bring about new life.

And please notice once again that all this is God's work.  Just as you had nothing to do with deciding to be born the first time-that was your parents' doing-so also it is not your decision or commitment that causes you to be born the second time-that is your Father God's doing.  All the glory for your being born again belongs to Him.

But someone might say, "I thought we were saved by Christ, not by Baptism."  To which we respond: "Indeed, we are saved by Christ, and Christ alone.  And that is exactly why Baptism saves us, because Christ has put Himself and His gifts into it through His Word."  Baptism is not separate from Christ; rather it encompasses all that He is and all that He has done for us.  That's why I Peter 3 says, "Baptism now saves you."  Romans 6 says that you are baptized into Christ's death and resurrection.  Therefore, when you are baptized, you are being given in the here and now the benefits of what Christ did long ago.  You were entirely under the power of Satan and the grave and eternal death was to be your destiny.  But when you were baptized, you were wonderfully drenched with the forgiveness and life that spring forth from Good Friday and Easter.  You were transferred into the kingdom of light.  That's why the sign of the cross is made both on the forehead and on the heart of the one being baptized, to mark him as one redeemed by Christ the crucified, and to show that through Baptism that redemption is being given to him right then and there.

These eternal blessings, of course, are for both adults and children.  We even baptize infants.  And we do so for a number of Scriptural reasons.  First of all, they are included in Christ's command to baptize all people.  Nowhere in His command or anywhere else in the Scriptures is there even a hint that baptism is to be limited to a certain group of people on the basis of their age-especially since baptism in the New Testament is compared to circumcision, which was done to those 8 days old.  Now it is true that the Bible records primarily adult baptisms.  But that is so because the church was new and expanding into pagan territories where there were many adult converts.  And even then the Scriptures tell us that the entire household of the adult convert was baptized, which would certainly include at least some young children or infants.

Secondly, we also baptize infants because they are fallen sinners who need God's grace.  They may appear to be quite innocent.  They don't really have the ability to sin outwardly in the ways we think of.  But David speaks quite clearly in Psalm 51 about their inward condition, "Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."  And children are also accountable to God for their sin; there is no such thing in Scripture as an "age of accountability." Therefore, we rejoice that although infants cannot yet understand the Gospel in its spoken form, they can be given the Gospel in its baptismal form for the forgiveness of their sin.

And thirdly, we baptize infants because they too can believe.  We must remember that faith is not primarily an intellectual thing, but a matter of the heart.  To say that infants cannot have a heart of faith which trusts in Christ and receives His gifts is to limit the work of the Holy Spirit.  Just as an infant can rely on and trust in a nursing mother and a caring father and know their voice, so an infant can have true faith in God the Father and know His voice.  When it comes right down to it, no one can believe, including adults, except by the Holy Spirit; that is His doing.  So then, the question to be asked is not "Can infants believe?" but "Can God give His gifts to infants?"  And the answer is most certainly "Yes."  Infant baptism illustrates in a most beautiful way that we are pure receivers of God's gracious working.  There is certainly no reason to withhold baptism from a child for months or years, any more than you would want to withhold immunizations from them until they were old enough to make their own decision.

God's own powerful, life-giving Word is in the baptismal water.  That's how baptism can do such great things.  There is the preached Word of the Gospel.  There is the poured Word of baptism.  There is the eaten Word of Holy Communion.  It's always the Word of God that does the good stuff.

It's like someone who receives a package in the mail which has something very valuable inside.  If a person were to judge by external appearances, the package would seem like nothing special, just cardboard and brown paper wrapping.  But upon opening it, a person would find that it was no ordinary package at all, but one that contained precious diamonds or nuggets of gold or some other great treasure.  So it is with Baptism.  Judging by external appearances, it seems to be nothing special, just a few handfuls of water.  But when faith looks inside this package, it finds that it's no ordinary water at all, but water that contains the greatest treasure, the very Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.

So you can see what a terrible tragedy it is that some see Baptism only in terms of its watery wrapping and not in terms of the great treasure that lies inside.  Or they say, "We are saved by faith alone and our external works contribute nothing."  True enough.  However, Baptism is not our work but God's.  And if He has chosen to use something external and ordinary like water to give us His grace, who are we to reject His choice?  Furthermore, faith doesn't exist by itself but must have something which it believes and to which it clings and takes hold of.  And that something is the saving Word of Christ, which has been placed into Baptism.  So to say that Baptism saves us and that we are saved by faith alone is to say the same thing.  For faith clings to the water in which Jesus our Savior has put Himself.

Baptism and faith go together.  Baptism is not a magic spell, as some suppose, which saves a person regardless of what he believes.  Baptism calls for faith and trust in the blessings that it gives.  And, indeed, by water and the Word the Spirit creates that very faith and trust in people's hearts.  But unfortunately, some lose their faith and reject what God has done for them in Baptism, and thus they return to their former state of damnation.  The Scriptures say, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved."  Likewise, baptism is not a license to live however you please.  For Paul says in Romans 6, "Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?  Certainly not! . . . We buried with Christ through baptism so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."  And that new life is none other than the life of Christ, a life of faith and love.

All of this and more is what it means to be "born again."  If someone wants you to point to the specific day you were born again, fluster them real good and tell them the day of your baptism.  And if you don't know what that date is, go home today and find it out.  For it is on that date that the Holy Trinity gave Himself concretely to you with all the blessings of His holy name.  He is the Father who so loved you that He gave His only begotten Son to die for you, conceived in the flesh by the Holy Spirit.  And through the working of the Holy Spirit, you are brought to faith in Christ who gives you everlasting life and restores you to the Father forever.  Let this one true faith always be on your lips.  Blessed be the Holy Trinity and the Undivided Unity.  Let us give glory to Him, for He has shown mercy to us.  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever and ever.  Amen.