What is the relationship between baptism and faith?
• When we speak of faith in the biblical sense we speak of fiducia, or trust. Hence it is important to distinguish between genuine faith and a mere intellectual assent to facts about God or the gospel. A properly administered baptism is valid regardless of whether the person baptised receives it in such faith. But baptism only becomes effective when it is received in faith. As the Small Catechism teaches, baptism “effects forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and grants eternal salvation to all who believe.” That even small children believe is attested by Jesus in Matt 18:6: “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.” Luther encouraged congregations to pray that infants presented for baptism be granted the gift of faith. He would have argued strongly that infant baptism is believers’ baptism. Yet we r
