270 Dimensions of Baptism
God's distance from us: it has everything to do with the reality of his pres-
ence with us and the questions which that poses. This is seen most clearly
in the second and primary way in which Luther employs the concept—in
his theology of the cross. In the form of the crucified Jesus we see God
present as the Suffering Servant, the Son of God; in Luther's potent phrase,
made popular in recent years by Moltmann, here is 'the crucified God'.^5
Here is God, revealed yet hidden in the twisted face of pain, nailed to the
cross. This face is the face of God—the God who is hidden in his
revelation.
There is a third way in which Luther employs the concept of divine
hiddenness. In his Commentary on Galatians faith is described as a hiding
of God in the human heart, the hidden indwelling of Christ in the midst of
our darkness.^6 Through faith God himself is present within us, but hidden
in the depths of our being.
Now all this indicates the theological significance for Luther of the
notion of God's hiddenness precisely as the manner of his presence with
us. So how does this relate to Luther's view of the sacraments, and for our
purposes more expressly, his theology of baptism? As a general response
we may state that Luther's view of the sacraments is not isolated from
these wider theological considerations. There is a basic principle which
may be summarized thus: the sacraments are signs in which God is present
and active precisely and only as a distinct form of the Word of God. As
signs they do not simply point to an absent God: they are effective. They
not only speak of the forgiveness of sins but effect it, not in any sense of a
mystical ex opere operato, but through the present yet hidden reality of
God. According to Luther, God cannot be understood in any other way
than through signs which God himself enters and through which he reveals
himself to us. Here God is present: we can know God only through these
masks, yet God is altogether more, far deeper and more profound than our
knowledge of him gained through these signs. For Luther, the sacraments
are effective signs.
The content of these signs is none other than the word of the gospel.
Without the message of Christ there can be no sacrament. The efficacy of
the sign is dependent on the Word of God. So, with regard to baptism, it
works forgiveness for sin and signifies the 'drowning' of the old Adam by
virtue of the Word which presents to us the promise of God as well as our
- J. Moltmann, The Crucified God (London: SCM Press, 1972).
- M. Luther, Commentary on Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (Grand Rapids:
Eardmans, 1930).