Part Four: Holy Baptism

p. 370 In the plain form in which it is to be taught by the Head of a family.

What is Baptism?

Answer. Baptism is not simply water, but it is the water comprehended in God’s command, and connected with God’s Word.

What is that Word of God?

Answer. It is that which our Lord Jesus Christ spake, as it is recorded in the last chapter of Matthew, verse 19: “Go ye, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

What gifts or benefits does Baptism confer?

Answer. It worketh forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and confers everlasting salvation on all who believe as the Word and promise of God declare.

p. 371 What are such words and promises of God?

Answer. Those which our Lord Jesus Christ spake, as they are recorded in the last chapter of Mark, verse 16: “He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not, shall be damned.”

How can water produce such great effects?

Answer. It is not the water indeed that produces these effects, but the Word of God which accompanies and is connected with the water, and our faith, which relies on the Word of God connected with the water. For the water, without the Word of God, is simply water and no baptism. But when connected with the Word of God, it is a baptism; that is, a gracious water of life and a “washing of regeneration” in the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul says to Titus in the third chapter, vers. 5-8: “According to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying.”

What does such baptizing with water signify?

Answer. It signifies that the old Adam in us is to be drowned and destroyed by daily sorrow and repentance, together with all sins and evil lusts; and that again the new man should daily come forth and rise, that shall live in the presence of God in righteousness and purity for ever.

Where is it so written?

Answer. St. Paul, in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter 6, verse 4, says: “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that like as he was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”