Dr. Murray's 'Memorial Moment' for today

Richard Abanes please note:

Infant baptism is one of the corollaries to the doctrine of grace. If infants cannot be baptized then salvation is not by grace alone. If infants cannot be baptized then salvation is by grace plus the "age of accountability." And grace plus anything is not grace at all. It is works. Salvation is ever and always without works.

"In Baptism there is the promise of salvation (Mark 16:16): 'He who believes and is baptized will be saved.' If anyone denies here, as the fanatical spirits do today, that righteousness and salvation are granted to an infant as soon as he is baptized; if anyone evades this promise in this way by saying that it becomes valid when a man reaches the use of reason and is able to do good works and to obtain what is set forth in the promise by doing good works; if anyone says that Baptism is not a sign of the will of God toward us but only a mark that distinguishes believers from unbelievers�such a person utterly deprives Baptism of salvation and attributes salvation to works. This is what the false apostles and their disciples (Galatians) did in everything. They preached the Law and its glory to excess, but they neglected and despised the promise given to Abraham four hundred and thirty years before the Law. They refused to recognize that Abraham of whom they nevertheless boasted as the father of their entire nation was justified by nothing else than by faith alone when he was still uncircumcised and living so many centuries before the Law, as Scripture clearly testifies in Gen. 15:6: 'Abraham believed God, etc.' Later on, when he had already been reckoned as righteous on account of his faith, Scripture mentions circumcision in Gen. 17:10: 'This is My covenant, which you shall keep between Me and you.' By this argument Paul convicts the false apostles vigorously and shows most clearly that Abraham was justified by faith, without circumcision and before circumcision and four hundred and thirty years before the Law. He argues this way also in Rom. 4, namely, that righteousness was imputed to Abraham before circumcision and that he was righteous while he was still uncircumcised, therefore long before the Law" (Martin Luther, Luther's Works, 26:241-42).

Prayer: Lord God, You saved Abraham apart from works, just as You saved those who cannot work through the sacrament of holy baptism. Help me put to death the pride through which I would try to augment Your grace by my work. Amen.