But
that this might be easier for us to do, Christ hath taken it upon himself; he
suffered himself to be baptized, he took his cross and carried it without
resistance or gainsaying, and was obedient to his Father unto death, even the
death of the cross: as Paul saith, Phil. 2. that he might deliver us from our
sins, and might appease his heavenly Father, which surely he did of his mere
grace without any desert of ours; whereof baptism is a sign and pledge; as Paul
saith to Titus: “But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man
appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that,
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life.”
Source: Martin Luther, “Sermon V:
Matthew 2 From the 1st to the 11th Verse, Inclusive,” in A Selection of the
Most Celebrated Sermons of Martin Luther (New York: S. & D. A. Forbes,
1830), 89–90
