Thursday, April 21, 2022

David P. Scaer (Lutheran) Defending the "Baptism" interpretation of "Water" in John 3:5

In his commentary on John 3:5, John Calvin taught that Christ

 

employed the words Spirit and water to mean the same thing, and this ought not to be regarded as a harsh or forced interpretation; for it is a frequent and common way of speaking in Scripture, when the Spirit is mentioned, to add the word Water or Fire, expressing his power. We sometimes meet with the statement, that it is Christ who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost and with fire, (Mt 3:11; Lu 3:16), where fire means nothing different from the Spirit, but only shows what is his efficacy in us. As to the word water being placed first, it is of little consequence; or rather, this mode of speaking flows more naturally than the other, because the metaphor is followed by a plain and direct statement, as if Christ had said that no man is a son of God until he has been renewed by water, and that this water is the Spirit who cleanseth us anew and who, by spreading his energy over us, imparts to us the rigor of the heavenly life, though by nature we are utterly dry. And most properly does Christ, in order to reprove Nicodemus for his ignorance, employ a form of expression which is common in Scripture; for Nicodemus ought at length to have acknowledged, that what Christ had said was taken from the ordinary doctrine of the Prophets.

 

By water, therefore, is meant nothing more than the inward purification and invigoration which is produced by the Holy Spirit. Besides, it is not unusual to employ the word and instead of that is, when the latter clause is intended to explain the former. And the view which I have taken is supported by what follows; for when Christ immediately proceeds to assign the reason why we must be born again, without mentioning the water, he shows that the newness of life which he requires is produced by the Spirit alone; whence it follows, that water must not be separated from the Spirit.

 

Responding to Calvin and those who follow this interpretation of “of water and of the spirit” (ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος) in John 3:5, Lutheran David P. Scaer wrote that:

 

A number of attempts have been made to deny the strong sacramental implications of this pericope, since it establishes Baptism as an essential part of a complete Christian life: “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Some who have followed Calvin’s lead, including Barth, have taken the word “water” as simply another reference to the Holy Spirit. Another attempt to skirt the sacramental meaning of the passage is to take the reference to water as a reference to natural, ordinary birth, as a woman’s water breaks just before birth. What is required first is that a man be born from his mother and then later receive another birth from the Spirit, usually understood as a conscious experience in which the individual makes a decision for Christ. Such a rendering is strained, since the verb “to be born” appears only once, and only with difficulty could it refer to two birth experiences.

 

Through the Greek words βαπτιζω and βαπτισμα, which are the roots for the English “I baptize” and “Baptism,” are not used in this Nicodemus account, John’s gospel prior to this point does use them. The person of John the Baptist is introduced as early as the prologue (Jn 1:6-8), and his ministry is described in Jn 1:19-34. Jesus’ first disciples are those who followed John (Jn 1:35-42). Immediately following the Nicodemus account the evangelist relates how both Jesus and John were baptizing, the latter at Salim because of the abundance of water there (Jn 3:22-30). John, like other New Testament writers, is using the word “water” in reference to Baptism. Where John writes “water and the Spirit” the Small Catechism has “water and word,” and seems to be closer in expression, though not in idea, to Eph 5:26, “the washing of the water with the word.”

 

The word “Baptism” is not strictly a native English word taken over from the Anglo-Saxon, but a word borrowed from Greek through Latin. We use the word “Baptism” as a technicus terminus for the first sacrament. Though Baptism was already in use in the apostolic church as a term for the first sacrament, it was not the only term used. While in English the sacrament with water is referred to exclusively as Baptism, the New Testament uses “water,” “washing,” “new creation,” and “born again,” or better, “born from on high” or “born from God.” Thus, for example, in his first epistle John identifies those whose faith conquers the world as those who have born from God (1 Jn 4:5). They are the ones who have known Jesus in the water of Baptism (1 Jn 4:6). Wherever this usage appears in the New Testament, there is the assumption that the writer is referring to Baptism. (David P. Scaer, Baptism [Confessional Lutheran Dogmatics 11; St. Louis, Miss.: The Luther Academy, 1999], 62-63)