The Baptism of Joel Arthur Muller,
On the First Sunday of Lent
You Will Be Saved
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen! God says in today’s Epistle, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus
is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will
be saved.”
Question: Are these Words from God a requirement of you or a promise to you?
Dear Christian friends,
Millions of our fellow Christians believe we have done the wrong thing this
morning; that we should never baptize an infant. Some Christians even say that,
when we baptize our infants, we show that we are held captive by the lies and
deception of the devil. When these fellow Christians reject and denounce infant
baptism way, they point to today’s Epistle:
• First, the opponents of infant baptism point to these Words, “If you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
• After quoting the Words to us, they reason to themselves and to us,
“How can an infant child confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord? No one
should be baptized until he confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord!”
Because so many Christians use today’s Epistle to argue against infant baptism,
I think we owe our newly baptized infant an explanation. This sermon has two
parts, Master Muller:
• in the first part, you will hear that infant baptism is a matter of
perspective;
• the second part will focus upon why your perspective concerning baptism
matters.
That Infant Baptism is a Matter of Perspective
As a weak and very limited analogy for you, infant baptism can be compared to
an assault rifle. (I know sounds strange to some of you, but there are people
in this world who feel no love or appreciation for assault rifles.) For some
people, assault rifles are an insurance policy against governmental tyranny;
for others, assault rifles are best described as weapons of mass destruction.
The difference is your perspective. Everybody has their own perspective.
Here is another, equally weak and limited analogy: infant baptism can be
compared to that long and terrible War Between the States that we Americans
fought against one another in the nineteenth century: from a northern
perspective, it was a war of southern rebellion; as for the South, it was a war
of northern aggression. The difference is your perspective. Your perspective is
formed by where you stand.
Like an assault rifle, and like the War Between the States, infant baptism is
also very much a matter of your perspective:
• When Christians reject infant baptism, they reject it because infant
baptism makes no sense to them from their perspective. From their perspective,
baptism is NOT a gift or miracle from God. They insist that baptism is nothing
more than a human act of obeying God’s command. Because of this
perspective—that must be baptism your work and not God’s work—these Christians
look at today’s Epistle as a command from God. “If you confess with your mouth
that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead,
you will be saved.” Then they reason to themselves, “Infant baptism makes no
sense! How is it possible for an infant to believe?”
• We are operating with a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE when we bring our
infants to the baptismal font. From our perspective, baptism is nothing short
of a divine miracle. Baptism is NOT our act of obeying God, but rather, Baptism
is GOD’S ACT of washing away our sins (Acts 2:38), adopting us into His family
(Galatians 3:27-4:5), uniting us to Christ (Romans 6:3-4), giving us the gift
of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6) and causing us to be born again (John
3:5)—“born of God” (John 1:13). From our perspective, we need baptism to be
God’s gift and miracle to us, rather than our act of obedience, because we can
do nothing apart from Christ—not even believe in Him. The opponents of infant
baptism wonder how it is possible for an infant to believe. We wonder the same
thing about adults! How is it possible for any of us to believe? After all:
o God says “we were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Dead
men do nothing. They cannot even choose to believe so that they may be saved!
o God says “the heart is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9); “the
intention of man’s heart is evil” (Genesis 8:21) and even “hostile to God”
(Romans 8:7).
o God says that, if you have even the smallest amount of faith, that
faith was given to you as a gift from God (Romans 10:17, Ephesians 2:8-9, 1
Peter 1:1).
From our perspective, Baptism is the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-6, 1
Corinthians 6:11)—and God Himself says that “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’
except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
So we have a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE from those who reject and condemn
our practice of infant baptism. Where they see baptism as a human work, we see
it as the gift and miracle of God. They see baptism as something that should be
done by people who can think for themselves; we see baptism as something God
wants to do for everyone because nobody can rightly think for themselves when
it comes to God’s gifts and promises!
Our TOTALLY DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE allows us to see today’s Epistle in a totally
different way.
• Those who reject infant baptism see today’s Epistle as a requirement
placed upon us: you must first believe before you can be saved.
• Our perspective allows us to see today’s Epistle in as divine promise
spoken to us, as the fruit and flower of God’s saving us. Do you confess with
your mouth, “Jesus is Lord?” Do you believe in your heart that God raised Him
from the dead? Then God has done a good and miraculous work in you. God has
raised you from the death of your sins by His miracle of baptism and He has
given you the gift of faith so that you may confess with your mouth that Jesus
is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.” Those who
are able to do these things—by the power of God’s Spirit—“will be saved.”
This difference between these two perspectives is as great as the difference
between night and day. The difference between these two perspectives on baptism
is much more important for your life than your perspective whether it is good
or bad thing for your next door neighbor to own an assault rifle.
Here Is Why Your Perspective on Baptism Matters
By now, it is obvious to you that your parents share our perspective on infant
baptism, young Master Muller. Your head is wet! Your parents did not want you
to wait until you grew older, but they brought you to the font today, while you
are still deep in your infancy. Your parents brought you today because they
want to do everything they can to help you “fix [your] eyes upon Jesus, the
author and perfecter of [your] faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).
This is something that the rejecters of infant baptism might miss. When today’s
Epistle looks like a command and requirement from God—that is, when faith is
something you must give to God in order to be saved—then the focus of your
attention will always be upon you. You will always be looking inside yourself
to determine the status your faith. During the bad times in your life—and you
can be they are coming—you might wonder whether you have enough faith, or if it
is even possible for you to be saved. During the good times in your life, you
might self-confidently think that you have plenty of faith and that all is
well. (Why not get a little more rest on a Sunday morning?)
Joel Arthur Muller, your parents have a different perspective on baptism than
that, and so do the rest of us here! We do not believe faith is something we
must give to God in order to be saved. We believe that FAITH IS SOMETHING GOD
GIVES TO US in order to be saved. We want you to believe that way, too. That is
why we baptized you this morning. We baptized you—no, God baptized you—in your
infancy so that you will never be fooled into thinking that you have done
something; so that your attention will always be upon “Jesus, the author and
perfecter of [your] faith” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).
• Today is not about you commitment to Christ, but about Christ’s
commitment to you!
• Today is about God’s Word of faith miraculously entering “in your mouth
and in your heart,” as God says in today’s Epistle, so that you may believe. By
that faith, given to you through baptism, you now believe that Jesus has raised
from the dead. Soon enough, not after you have learned to say “Dada” and
“Mama,” you will also say with the rest of us, “Jesus is Lord.” You will say
those words because God gave you those Words to say, along with the faith to
believe those very same Words!
• Today you give nothing to God, but God gives everything to you:
forgiveness of sins, resurrection of the body, eternal life, adoption, family,
and even faith. Like all the other baptized of Christ gathered here, in this
faith “you will be saved.”
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