John 8:54

⁵⁴Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, 'He is our God.'

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The church gathered today to worship in the name of the Triune God; the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He has set his glory above the heavens! How majestic is his name in all the earth!

But how shall we worship the Trinity if we do not know Him? And how shall he crown us with glory and honor if we do not worship Him? We know him by His name: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And how do we know that name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? We know it in Baptism! That name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the Baptismal formula. Only once does it appear in Scripture; when Jesus sent his apostles to Baptize in that name. To know the Triune God is to be baptized. True worship of the triune God is rooted in Baptism.

On Pentecost, when Peter preached to the crowds and they believed his message, He did not tell them to receive Christ, or invite him into their hearts, he told them to repent and be baptized in order to receive forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the sign of the New Covenant; God's promise and pledge to not take our sins into account. Indeed, Baptism is the sign of promise that God totally forgets our sin.

Baptism is the beginning of our Christian life. It is the beginning of worship. It is the foundation of life in Christ. It defines who we are. It sets the boundary lines of the church and determines who is and who is not in the church. Baptism is the foundation of everything else in the Christian faith and life. We know the Trinity only in Baptism. We know forgiveness and salvation only in Baptism. The Christian life is given meaning and significance only in Baptism. In Baptism worship, confession, absolution, Holy Communion, prayer, loving your neighbor, suffering, and Christian death and burial all find their meaning.

Baptism is an external sign which separates us from all people who are not baptized. By baptism we are known as a people of Christ, our leader, under whose banner of the holy cross we continually fight against sin. It defines the people of God.

And the sign of Baptism is this: we are thrust into the water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; however, we are not left there, but are drawn out again. The significance of Baptism is death to sin and resurrection in the grace of God. So that the old man, conceived and born in sin, is thereby drowned, and a new man, born in grace, comes forth and rises.

Baptism is not a simple past act. Baptism is not fully complete until death. Rather we live the rest of our lives in our Baptism having the assurance that God will not count sin against us. However, not counting sin against us is quite a different thing than wiping out sin in its totality. Sin is not altogether blotted out until a person dies. St. Augustine once said, "Sin is altogether forgiven in baptism; not in such a manner that it is no longer present, but in such a manner that it is not imputed." It is as if to say, "sin remains in our flesh even until death and works without ceasing. But so long as we do not give our consent to it or desire to remain in it, sin is overruled by our baptism that it does not condemn us. Rather it is daily being more and more destroyed in us until our death."

We live in our Baptism by resisting sin. Confession and absolution is nothing other than returning to Baptism which is the drowning of sin. Receiving the Sacrament of the Altar is a return to Baptism to put away sin. Baptism is the continual dying or drowning of sin, but it is not fulfilled completely in this life. It is only complete when we pass through bodily death and completely decay to dust. That is when a person is completely sunk in Baptism and sin is completely drowned and cast off.

Therefore, this life is nothing more than a spiritual baptism that does not cease until death. "He who is baptized is condemned to die," says Martin Luther, "just as if the pastor when he baptizes were to say, 'You are sinful flesh. Therefore, I drown you in God's name and in his name condemn you to death, so that, with you, all your sins might die and be destroyed.' Sin never ceases entirely while the body lives. There is no help for the sinful nature unless it dies and is destroyed with all its sin."

Therefore the life of a Christian, from baptism to the grave, is nothing else than the beginning of a blessed death. For at the Last Day God will make him altogether new, just as the baptized, once placed in the water, is drawn out again.

Baptism signifies death and resurrection. Just as the Flood prefigured Baptism where the entire sinful world was drowned and Noah was drawn out of the waters and resurrected to a new life, as it were.

Therefore a person finds that as long as he lives, natural and sinful appetites such as wrath, impurity, lust, greed, pride and the like still stir. But the sacrament signifies that they are to be drowned fully through death and the resurrection.

How does baptism then help me, then, if it does not blot out and remove sin? This blessed sacrament helps you because in it God allies himself with you and becomes one with you in a gracious covenant. In Baptism God begins to make you a new person. He pours into you the Holy Spirit who begins to slay your nature and sin and to prepare you for death and the resurrection at the last Day. He pledges himself not to count your sins against you, and, likewise, you pledge to strive against sin with many trials and sufferings and at last slay it at death. To those who do not struggle against sin and resist it, God will not forgive their sins, for they do not live according to their baptism, and they hinder the work of God which was begun at their baptism. But do not, thereby, become negligent in the killing of your sinful nature. Do not allow sin to remain in you and go unrepentant. For by this you turn from your Baptism.

Baptism then gives meaning to suffering and even death, because by suffering and death sin is put away from us. God, the Holy Spirit, trains and tests you all your life and purges out sin with many good works and with all kinds of sufferings. It is God who thereby accomplishes that in baptism you may become free from sin, die and rise again at the last day so as to fulfill your baptism.

God pledges himself not to count your sins against you. He does not condemn you because of them. Although evil thoughts and appetites may be at work, even though at times you sin and fall, these sins are already broken by the power of the Sacrament.

No one should be terrified if he feels evil lust or love, nor should he despair even if he falls. Rather, he should remember his baptism and comfort himself with the fact that God has pledged himself to slay his sin for him and not to count it a cause for condemnation, just as long as he does not say "Yes" to sin or remain in it. Know then that you cannot do a single thing that is pure. But you are baptized and through your baptism God has bound himself in a covenant with you. He will not count your sin against you, but will slay it and blot it out and this will be completed at your death and resurrection. Thus the irony is that the very death which is the result and curse of sin has, in Christ, becomes the ultimate remedy and freedom from sin.

So if you fall into sin, remember all the more your baptism and how God has there made a covenant with you to forgive all your sins. Only continue to fight against sin even until death.

Herein lies the meaning of Confession and Absolution. Confession and Absolution renews and points out again the sacrament of Baptism. It is as if the pastor in the absolution were saying, "Look, God has now forgiven you your sin as he long ago promised you in baptism; and now he has commanded me, by the power of the keys, to assure you of this forgiveness. Therefore you now come again into that which baptism is and does. Believe, and you have it."

It follows then that baptism makes all suffering, and especially death, something profitable and helpful. All these simply serve baptism in doing its work, that is, in the slaying of sin. For he who would fulfill the work and purpose of his Baptism must die. Sin, however, does not like to die, and for this reason it makes death so bitter and so horrible. But the grace and power of God is such that sin, which has brought death, is driven out again by its very own work, namely, by death itself.

Finally, the lifting up out of the baptismal water signifies the spiritual birth and the grace and righteousness which begins in baptism and lasts until death. Only then will it be finished. Only then shall we arise from death, from sin, and from all evil, and then shall we live eternally. Then we will be truly lifted up out of baptism and be completely born, and we shall put on the true baptismal garment of immortal life in heaven.

Lifted up from the waters of baptism we are joined to the Triune God: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus is the union of the divine nature and the human. In Jesus, God and man become one. In baptism we are taken into Jesus and man becomes one with God; man and God are joined in baptism. Only in Baptism do we know the Trinity.

And joined to God, as we rise out of the waters of Baptism, we are lifted up to the glory which is set above the heavens. We do not glorify ourselves, it is the Father who glorifies us. Then it is said of us, as it is said of God, "how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let us therefore walk with fear, that with a firm faith we may hold fast to the riches of God's grace and joyfully give thanks to his mercy forever and ever. Amen.