As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter.
Part 3 of Martin Luther's examination on Baptism is the shortest of all and includes only one Bible verse in the Catechism. It is the question of how can water accomplish such great things? It is not the water, no more than it is the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper which accomplishes, but it is the Word of God transforming and empowering these objects to give them the presence of all they symbolize in God's Word being accomplished.
This is the Spirit of God in us by the Word in the water which accomplishes all in making our souls the soil into which the Spirit grows and transforms us.
Job says the Spirit of God makes us in the womb. In the Psalms, David says that Christ's hands form us, and again in Job the breath of life or our souls are put into us by the Father. We live as mortals with immortal souls, but are always in need of that Spirit to which we seek to return and long for, and feel lost all our days until the Spirit of God is within us. The unsaved exist in fear of God and in frustration of being so empty, when our fulfillment is always in the Spirit of God in us.
Job 33:4
The spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
The reality is, before Christ and Pentecost, only a few people ever had the Spirit of God in them. There was such enmity between God and the fallen that when God appeared His perfection would consume humans in mass like the plague.
The few who had the Spirit of God upon them, were Inspired by the Holy Ghost and it was through them that the Scriptures or God's Word was delivered to all humanity, in God was moving these Prophets to deliver the Law and the Promise of a Gospel of their Redemption by a coming Savior.
II Peter 1:21Such Prophets were rare even in the Priestly order age of the Kingdom of Israel. These Spirit filled people were in such renown that the King of Egypt upon understanding Joseph had the Spirit of God upon him, made Joseph the second King of all Egypt to rule for Pharaoh.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Genesis 41:7
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
It was a point of the jealousy felt for those Prophets in nations, that when God's Spirit Inspired several others in Moses time, that his siblings of Aaron and Miriam were upset at losing that status. Moses instead longed for the day when God put His Spirit upon the entire people in making them all Prophets.
Numbers 11:29
And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!
This is what Baptism is. The same Spiritual adoption of Pentecost and the same Holy Ghost within the Apostles is the Gift of every Christian, as the Holy Ghost invited into the hearts of the children of God, transforms all into this peculiar people, the Royal Priesthood. Each having Gifts in Spirit to Glorify God and in those Gifts to share the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.
"Dearest Jesus, We Are Here"
by Benjamin Schmolck, 1672-1737
Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878
5. Now into Thy heart we pour
Prayers that from our hearts proceeded.
Our petitions heavenward soar;
May our warm desires be heeded!
Write the name we now have given,
Write it in the book of heaven.
Baptism is the washing and regeneration by the Holy Ghost. The same likeness of the dove which settled upon Christ in being Baptized is the same Tongues of Fire of Pentecost in the same Spirit of God upon all Christians, transforming them to Spiritual offspring of God.
Third
How can water do such great things?
Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Titus 3:5–8)
The Spirit of God is the most Precious of Gifts God has ever given, for His Presence transforms us to Spirit from immortal soul. This is the mystery of creation which Scripture reveals the Angels sought to inquire into as Angels are spirit, and change not once formed in good or evil. They witnessed God creating this physical world and then a likeness of Himself in humans. Humans who had the breath of life in them from God, which was a breath which would be sown with the Spirit of God in Faith transforming clay into the Spiritual children of God in being with God.
satan and the fallen demons rebelled at this, and attempted to seize the throne of God, as how could these humans be elevated over the angelic to being sons and daughters of God?
A corrupt spirit from disobedience or rejecting God is a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which there is not any remedy as this is corrupt spirit as are demons and this can not be redeemed.
King Saul suffered such a condition where the Spirit left him, and an evil spirit troubled him, because that spirit fit the failings of Saul.
I Samuel 16:14
But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
In one of my favorite Bible stories, the Kings of Judah and Israel assembled, and the King of Israel presented 400 false prophets which predicted victory in war. The King of Judah asked though instead if there was not one Prophet of the Lord left to inquire. That Prophet was brought and spoke the Truth, and that Truth from God's Spirit revealed the King of Israel would die in battle.
I Kings 22: 6 - 8
Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said unto them, Shall I go against Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king.
And Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might enquire of him?
And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the LORD: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
Baptism not only redeems each of us to the Lord in Spirit, but Baptism creates us as the Body of Christ, the Congregation of the Lord, the Living Church. This is the Great Mystery which Baptism fulfills. The Father is the Person of the Spirit of God. Christ is the Thought or Word of the Father. From them is the Presence of God in the Holy Spirit. There is one part missing in this Triune God, and that is the Spiritual Body. That part is fulfilled by every Christian added to the Person of the Trinity. That is what God's Plan was about and what all of us struggle through as Christians and are carried by Christ and delivered to eternal Life with the family of God.
Ephesians 5:25 -27
25 even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Each of us in Baptism becomes the Living Word of God as the Spiritual offspring of God by the Holy Ghost within us. This is the greatest miracle and story of all time and it is disregarded by the unsaved and is not understood by those who are saved.
Baptism is every Christian becoming the Spiritual Body of the Almighty God.
Nuff Said
agtG
