Life of Hope, Hope of Life

…Martin Luther on Baptism

Here’s a quotation to write on our hearts:

But by baptism we are restored to the life of hope, or rather to the hope of life. For this is the true life, which we live, before God, in our renewed state. Before we come unto that life, we are in the midst of death. We are ever dying and rotting on the earth like other carcasses are; as if there were no life at all in us. But we who believe in Christ possess a hope that we shall be raised again at the last day unto the life eternal. It was in this manner also that Adam was raised again from his state of death by sin through this promise, thus spoken by the Lord. Not that he was raised to a perfect life; for he did not as yet regain that life which he had lost. But he conceived in his soul a hope of that perfect life, when he heard that the tyranny of Satan was thus to be bruised and destroyed.”
(Luther on Genesis 3:15)

(Download for free, or purchase Luther’s Genesis commentary here: https://wolfmueller.co/luthergenesis/.)

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Thanks! PrBW

6 Comments

Thanks. However, what becomes of a person who has not been baptized even though they believe. Or children whose parents did not have them baptized?

Thanks

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller says:

January 29, 2021 at 4:13 pm

St Augustine has comfort for this situation: “It is not the absence of baptism that damns, but the despising of it.”
1. Rev. Jerry Gernander says:
  
  January 29, 2021 at 4:51 pm
  
  We discussed this just last night in adult catechesis. I paraphrased St. Augustine in this way to address the concern: “It is not being deprived of baptism that condemns, but despising baptism that condemns.” This would be the despising of baptism by parents; when the child is old enough to hear God’s call to be baptized, then the child can ask. The materials I use also included these words which we studied: “God gives His Church Baptism as a means to bring children to Him. While God has bound us to the use of these means, he has not bound Himself.”