Baptism and Grace in Robert O. Fife’s Reflection
Robert O. Fife reflects on baptism, Christian identity, and the grace of God through a sobering memory connected to Dachau and Martin Niemoeller. The article asks how Christians should regard believers who may misunderstand baptism while still suffering faithfully for Christ.
- Fife connects the doctrine of baptism with questions of grace, faith, and Christian identity.
- The article recalls Dachau, Martin Niemoeller, and the witness of believers under Nazi persecution.
- The excerpt frames baptism as a serious biblical matter while warning against blindness to God’s grace.
by Robert O. Fife
This article is no longer available online, but all of the articles about baptism that appeared in the March 1 and 8, 2009, issues of CHRISTIAN STANDARD—plus this bonus article—are available for purchase as a single, redisigned, easy-to-read and easy-to-use downloadable resource/pdf (a fuller explanation is below).
Baptism: 7 Practical Perspectives
Baptism: 7 Practical Perspectives
Item 02973 • $2.99
What does the Bible teach about baptism? What does baptism symbolize and what does it accomplish? Why is there so much disagreement?
Seven writers offer their insights on this controversial but fundamental topic in this 14-page resource that—with the exception of one article—originally appeared in the March 1 and 8, 2009, issues of Christian Standard.
The writers closely examine the Scriptures, while also offering insights drawn from personal experiences. As one writer puts it in his summary statement: “Baptism is a richly meaningful act, commanded by Christ, in which we humbly ask the risen Lord for what he alone can give. It is a prayer that confesses our need and his supremacy. It does not detract from truth that the Lord alone saves; it confesses that truth.” All downloads include permission to reproduce the material up to 10 times for ministry and educational purposes. To order this resource, CLICK HERE; To sample the first few paragraphs of Robert O. Fife’s article, continue reading below . . .
Dachau and the One Holy Church
As the sun arose on a spring morning in 1945, I stood at the gates of Dachau, one of Hitler’s horrendous concentration camps. It had been liberated only a few hours. I will not here attempt to describe the horror, but will say only that what you may have read in disbelief is true. Other soldiers and I could talk only in shocked whispers as we gazed upon the scene.
I did not know at the time that imprisoned within those very gates was a now famous Lutheran pastor, Dr. Martin Niemoeller. After years of harsh confinement, he and a little company of fellow prisoners of different nationalities and Christian traditions had been granted the privilege of worshiping together in Cell 34. Niemoeller had preached the Word of God and celebrated the Lord’s Supper with his fellow believers.
In his words, they became the “Una Sancta”—the one holy church in that place. Niemoeller was a leader of the German “Confessing Church” that stood in opposition to Hitler’s efforts to pervert the gospel with Nazi doctrine. (Perhaps it also is of interest to readers of this article that Niemoeller later felt it necessary to defend before his fellow Lutherans his having communed with non-Lutherans.)
After the war I heard Niemoeller preach, and read his inspiring little book, Dachau Sermons. My heart was moved to think that what Jesus had promised had become historically true: the gates of Hades had not prevailed against the church (Matthew 16:18).
Or was it really the church—the true church—that was in Dachau? To my knowledge, no members of “independent” Christian churches or churches of Christ were imprisoned there!
Baptism and the Grace of God
What does this memory have to do with our subject? It poses a serious question to us who believe that baptism is the immersion of a penitent believer into the name of Jesus, for the remission of sins. The question is this: Was Niemoeller a Christian?
Some of us agonize over this question as we search the Word of God. Is it unbiblical to affirm that Christian baptism is “for the remission of sins”? No, for this is the very language of the Bible (Acts 2:38).
What then? Are we to understand that a believer, who for the sake of Jesus endured a dreadful ordeal in an outpost of Hell, had no right to the Christian name because he was mistaken in thinking that his christening as an infant was true Christian baptism? The Nazis certainly thought Niemoeller was a Christian!
We are further compelled to ask, If one misunderstands an ordinance of the Lord, is his faith of no avail even if he “dies daily” for Jesus? (1 Corinthians 15:31). I am humbled by the thought that if persons such as Niemoeller or Bonhoeffer are to be called only “believers,” perhaps I, who am also fallible and have suffered but little, should ask whether it is presumptuous for me to wear the name Christian.
In my desire to be loyal to the Word of God have I become blind to the marvelous grace of God? . . .
