Heidelberg Catechism: 'Is then the outward washing with water itself the washing away of sins?'
LORD’S DAY 27
72. Is then the outward washing with water itself the washing away of sins?No; for only the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.1
1 Mt 3:11; 1 Pt 3:21; 1 Jn 1:7
73. Why, then, does the Holy Spirit call baptism “the washing of regeneration” and “the washing away of sins?”
God speaks in this way for a good reason. He wants to teach us that the blood and Spirit of Christ remove our sins just as water takes away dirt from the body;1 but more importantly, He wants to assure us by this divine pledge and sign that we are as truly washed from our sins spiritually, as our bodies are washed with water.2
1 1 Cor 6:11; Rev 1:5, 7:14; 2 Mk 16:16; Acts 2:38; Rom 6:3-4; Gal 3:27
74. Are infants also to be baptized?
Yes, since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God,1 and both redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, who creates faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents.2 Therefore, by baptism, as a sign of the covenant, they must be grafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers,3 as was done in the Old Covenant by circumcision,4 in place of which in the New Covenant baptism was instituted.5
1 Gen 17:7; Mt 19:14; 2 Ps 22:11; Isa 44:1-3; Acts 2:38-39, 16:31; 3 Acts 10:47; 1 Cor 7:14; 4 Gen 17:9-14; 5 Col 2:11-13
