What Martin Luther Taught About Baptism

by Terry Wane Benton

While Martin Luther may have taught the idea of salvation by “faith alone,” you might be surprised to learn that he did not think faith alone excluded baptism. It was an umbrella term that included repentance and baptism. So, he didn’t place baptism in the category of works of merit.

Regarding Galatians 3:27, he wrote:

"To put on Christ according to the Gospel means to clothe oneself with the righteousness, wisdom, power, life, and Spirit of Christ. By nature we are clad in the garb of Adam. This garb Paul likes to call "the old man." Before we can become the children of God this old man must be put off, as Paul says, Eph 4:29. The garment of Adam must come off like soiled clothes. Of course, it is not as simple as changing one's clothes. But God makes it simple. He clothes us with the righteousness of Christ by means of Baptism, as the Apostle says in this verse: "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." With this change of garments a new birth, a new life stirs in us. New affections toward God spring up in the heart. New determinations affect our will. All this is to put on Christ according to the Gospel. Needless to say, when we have put on the robe of the righteousness of Christ we must not forget to put on also the mantle of the imitation of Christ." [from Luther's Commentary on Galatians].

He clearly says that we have no new standing with God before and without baptism, and that baptism is the moment we put off our old self and put on the garment of Christ.

Galatians 3:6

"When we pay attention to reason, God seems to propose impossible matters in the Christian Creed. To reason it seems absurd that Christ should offer His body and blood in the Lord's Supper; that Baptism should be the washing of regeneration; that the dead shall rise; that Christ the Son of God was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, etc. Reason shouts that all this is preposterous. Are you surprised that reason thinks little of faith? Reason thinks it ludicrous that faith should be the foremost service any person can render unto God." [from Luther's Commentary on Galatians].

He clearly believed that baptism is the washing of regeneration. So, he did not believe that faith alone excluded the washing of regeneration of baptism.

Galatians 5:5

"Unless you believe that you are righteous, you do Christ a great wrong, for He has cleansed you by the washing of regeneration, He died for you so that through Him you may obtain righteousness and everlasting life" [from Luther's Commentary on Galatians].

He believed that baptism is the washing of regeneration and that Jesus is the One who cleanses us in that moment.

Facts:

1. Luther believed that baptism is part of the washing of regeneration.
2. He believed that we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ through baptism.
3. He believed that in baptism we put on Christ and are born again, regenerated, and cleansed.
4. He did not believe in a “faith alone” that excluded baptism.

So, to him, faith alone was the proper motivation, but not the entire content of the ingredients of faith. In other words, I, too, could say faith alone was the reason I repented and was baptized, but that would not mean that faith was the exclusive ingredient of my salvation. Faith was the only reason I was baptized, but faith was not the only ingredient of my faith and salvation.

I would add that those who agree with Peter that baptism is the moment of faith in which remission of sins is received (Acts 2:38, I Peter 3:21) are not teaching a strange and new doctrine, but rather it is those who delete baptism from the salvation process who are teaching a false doctrine. Indeed, they are cultic in determination to blindly follow men who contradict the word of God.