When Paul talks about works in Romans
(and Galatians), what he has in view are works of the Mosaic Law, Paul does not
include baptism in the category of works any more than he includes, say,
repentance in that category. Baptism is, in fact, something that we allow to be
done to us, and in what way it is a fitting way to express faith and grace. For
Paul, faith and baptism are like two sides of a coin, distinct but never
disconnected, both looking to Christ for the benefits of salvation—the one as
attitude and the other as act. (Stanley K. Flower, Rethinking Baptism: Some
Baptist Reflections [Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2015], 23)
A sacramental understanding of
conversion-baptism would deny the Pauline teaching about justification by faith
alone if baptism were a “work” in Paul’s mind, but that is a misreading of the
apostle’s concerns. When Paul affirms justification by faith in Romans and Galatians,
he is setting faith in Christ against adherence to Mosaic Law, thus arguing that
Jews and Gentiles are accepted by God in the same way. His essential point is
about Christ versus Torah, not faith versus baptism. When Paul says “faith
alone,” is he saying “by faith, not by repentance?” Of course not, as he makes
clear in a text like Acts 26:20. Conversion can be denoted by either repentance
or faith, or by both together, each assuming the other. Similarly, Paul assumes
that baptism accompanies faith, as is evident in Galatians 3, where those who
are saved can be described either as those who have faith in Christ (3:26) or
as those who have been baptized into Christ (3:27). Baptism is a “work” only in
the sense that it is something that we do, but the same thing could be said of
faith. Believing the gospel is something that we must do to be saved, even
though it is not a physical act. The mere fact that we do it does not make it a
“work” in Paul’s terms.
Justification by grace alone through
faith alone in Christ alone is language rooted in the Protestant Reformation of
the 16th century, but the major reformers in both the Lutheran and Calvinistic
streams all thought of baptism in sacramental terms. The Lutheran tradition has
always spoken of baptism as a means of regeneration, while emphatically
justification by faith alone, which means that it is historically inaccurate to
see a sacramental view of baptism as opposed to the understanding of the gospel
recovered in the Reformation. I think it is accurate to say that the baptismal theology
that I have proposed is essentially a Reformed/Calvinistic view as applied to
confessing believers. The Reformed tradition refers to baptism as a “sign and
seal” of inclusion in the covenant people, and the crucial word is “seal.” I
would not argue that the term “seal” is ever used in Scripture to refer t
directly to baptism, but at a conceptual level it seems to capture the biblical
balance in which faith is the crucial reality on the human side of salvation,
but baptism ratifies faith experientially. As a seal, baptism ratifies both God’s
offer of grace and the human reception by faith, as Calvin argues:
It seems to me that a simple and
proper definition would be to say that it is an outward sign by which the Lord
seals on our consciences the promises of his good will toward us in order to
sustain the weakness of our faith; and we in turn attest our piety toward him
in the presence of the Lord and of his angels and before men. Here is another
briefer definition: one may call it a testimony of divine grace toward us,
confirmed by an outward sign, with mutual attestation of our piety toward him.
(Institutes Book IV, Chap. XIV, 1).
Even though I am not convinced by
Calvin’s application of this to infants (who have to faith to ratify), it makes
very good sense of the biblical linkage between the benefits of salvation and
baptism for confessing believers. To say “sacrament” is to say “grace,” not to
introduce a means of gaining merit before God. Even in the Catholic tradition
that does speak of merit earned during the Christian life, baptism is not conceived
of as a means of gaining such merit. In Catholic thought, baptism conveys
sanctifying grace that empowers obedience but it is obedience in the form of
acts of love for God and others that leads to merit. However, baptism may be
described, it is not in biblical terms a meritorious “work.” (Ibid., 33-34)
