Heidelberg Catechism: 'How does holy baptism signify and seal to you that the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross benefits you?'
LORD’S DAY 26
69. How does holy baptism signify and seal to you that the one sacrifice of Christ on the cross benefits you?In this way: that Christ has instituted this outward washing with water,1 and has joined with it this promise, that as surely as I am washed outwardly with water, whereby commonly the filthiness of the body is taken away, so certainly I am washed with His blood and Spirit from the pollution of my soul, that is, from all my sins.2
1 Mt 28:19; 2 Mt 3:11; Mk 16:16; Jn 1:33; Acts 2:38; Rom 6:3-4; 1 Pt 3:21
70. What does it mean to be washed with the blood and Spirit of Christ?
It is to have the forgiveness of sins from God, through grace, because of Christ’s blood, which He shed for us in His sacrifice on the cross;1 and also, to be renewed by the Holy Spirit, and sanctified to be members of Christ, that so we may more and more die to sin, and lead holy and blameless lives.2
1 Ezek 36:25; Zech 13:1; Eph 1:7; Heb 12:24; 1 Pt 1:2; Rev 1:5, 7:14; 2 Jn 3:5-8; Rom 6:4; 1 Cor 6:11; Col 2:11-12
71. Where has Christ promised that He will wash us with His blood and Spirit as surely as we are washed with the water of Baptism?
In the institution of baptism, where He says, “Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”1 “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that does not believe shall be damned.”2 This promise is also repeated where the Scripture calls baptism “the washing of regeneration” and “the washing away of sins.”3
1 Mt 28:19; 2 Mk 16:16; 3 Tit 3:5; Acts 22:16
