Johann Gerhard asserts that the word and the water do not merely mediate the presence of the Triune God. The sacrament also conveys the presence of the risen man Jesus, who possesses a hypostatic unity with the second person of the Trinity. Jesus is not merely present according to his divinity, but also according to his deified and, therefore, omnipresent humanity. The substantial blood of the risen Jesus is literally present in the waters of baptism, which cleans us from our sins. Gerhard writes:
[T]he Son of God in the fullness of time took upon Himself a true human nature and united Himself with it in an indissoluble link. Thus it further follows that He is present at Baptism not only according to His divinity, but also according to His assumed human nature. And especially the blood of Christ is not to be excluded from holy Baptism: 1. Because the Son of God’s true human nature also assumed flesh and blood, in which, with which, and through which His human nature now performs all His works; 2. because the power of holy Baptism arises and springs forth from the merits of Christ and from the shedding of His blood as it occurred on the timber trunk of the cross; 3. Because in holy Baptism we were washed from sins through the blood of Christ; 4 because we were baptized into Christ’s death. Now, however Christ’s death also includes His shedding of blood.1
In this fascinating formulation, Gerhard connects the forensic and effective power of baptism to the risen Jesus himself. God gives the divine salvific promise through the word and the water. At the same time, the risen and glorified Jesus manifests his self-donating presence….
For Gerhard, the effective justifying and sanctifying power of the Word of God in baptism is not effective only in a single momentary event. Rather, as with Luther, baptism remains continuously contemporary to the believer throughout life. By means of faith, Christians draw daily on the justifying promise of baptism. The fact that true believers daily fall into sin does not cancel the promises of God.
Gerhard holds that the Abrahamic covenant applied via circumcision is identical with the new covenant established by Christ and applied through baptism. Therefore, statements about God’s covenant faithfulness in the Old Testament can be parlayed into sedes doctrinae for God’s faithfulness to the covenant of grace given in baptism (for example: Gen. 17:7, Exod. 6:5, Lev. 26:9, 26:44, Num. 18:19, Deut. 4:31, 7:9, 1 Kgs 8:23, 2 Kgs 13:23, Neh. 1:5, Isa. 54:10, 55:3, Jer. 32:40, 33:20-21, Ezek. 16:60, 37:26, Hos. 2:19).3
The Israelites had a covenant of unconditional grace with God through the promise to Abraham. Yet, they still rejected access to God’s promise through unbelief. Nevertheless, they remained capable of continuously returning back to the promise. So too can Christians of the New Testament era return to their baptism into the blood of Christ through water and word. Hence, the efficacy of baptism is not merely limited to a moment when it is administered, but extends to the whole life of the Christian. Gerhard writes:
St. Peter had grossly sinned and had denied Christ; nevertheless after his conversion he comforted himself with his Baptism, 1 Pt. 3:21 “Baptism saves us” (he includes himself). Thus the holy Scriptures also speak about the working of Baptism in präterito, präsenti et futuro (in the past, present, and future), so that we are taught that the power and working of Baptism [are] not to be seen only in the twinkling of an eye moment [when] we are baptized, but stretch out over the entire lifetime.4
- Johann Gerhard, A Comprehensive Explanation of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, 57. ↩︎
- Gerhard, A Comprehensive Explanation of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, 106-107. ↩︎
- Gerhard, A Comprehensive Explanation of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, 109. ↩︎
Cover image from Christopher Powers, “Hebrews 12:2,” Full of Eyes, October 14, 2022, downloaded April 15, 2025, https://www.fullofeyes.com/8067-2/ [Patreon Account]. Other images from Christopher Powers, “Jeremiah 23:18,” Full of Eyes, April 9, 2024, downloaded April 15, 2025, https://www.fullofeyes.com/8067-2/ [Patreon Account]; and Johann Gerhard icon, ChatGPT 5.2, December 2, 2025, https://chatgpt.com/.