Posted on by Jack Kilcrease

The Double Benefits of Baptism

Objective and Subjective Justification

Earlier in his Annotations on Romans, Johann Gerhard discusses the nature of salvation in Christ at some length.  In particular, Gerhard affirms and grounds the forensic nature of justification in the work of Christ. Contrary to the claims made by some within the Lutheran tradition, the distinction between “objective” and “subjective” justification is not a late innovation. Rather, Gerhard employs the conceptual distinction to explain Christ’s work in both his death and resurrection. Gerhard writes:  

He [God the Father] also condemned it, in that He punished our sins in Christ, which were imposed on Him and imputed to Him as to a bondsman. So also, by the very act of raising Him from the dead, He absolved Him from our sins that were imputed to Him, and consequently also absolves us in Him, so that, in this way, the resurrection of Christ may be both the cause and the pledge and the complement of our justification.1

In a word, Christ paid for all the sins of humanity when they were imputed to him in the crucifixion. Raising Christ from the dead, God the Father “absolves” Christ of the sins of the whole world. This is possible because Jesus has already paid for all sins. Among the many striking images for redemption that Gerhard uses, this is one of the most vivid and compelling. 

From this it follows that even before believers subjectively lay hold of Christ in the act of baptismal faith, God pronounces them absolved. Through faith they participate in the objective absolution of Christ in the resurrection. Hence, the pastor does not tell his congregation that “if” they believe, then they will be absolved. Rather, the pastor—serving as the voice of Christ—calls the congregation to trust that God in Christ has already pronounced them absolved.

Justification and Sanctification

Gerhard sees baptism as a means by which sinners are justified and sanctified. The visible and auditory divine words in baptism efficaciously performs this act of divine grace by uniting the sinner to Christ and his real presence in the sacrament.  Salvation in Christ does not merely pertain to forensic justification, but also to sanctification. God’s Word is effective and produces both.

At the beginning of chapter six of his treatment of Romans, Gerhard argues that Christ gives a double benefit through his justifying word: justification and sanctification. In treating Romans 6:1 (“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” KJV), Gerhard writes: “Since regeneration and renewal, justification and sanctification are joined together in believers by an indivisible connection, therefore after dealing thus far with the first benefit of Christ [justification], he now proceeds to His second benefit.”2  In Romans 6:2, Paul asserts that Christians have wholly died to sin. Gerhard affirms that this occurs through both justification and sanctification: “But how are believers dead to sin?  We reply: In justification and regeneration they receive the Holy Spirit, who begins to renew the nature corrupted by sin and to mortify sin in their flesh, for which reason they are said to be dead to sin.”3 

Of course this raises the question of how the Holy Spirit grafts believers into Christ and his benefits. For Gerhard, baptism is the sacramental instrument through which the Holy Spirit communicates Christ’s twofold grace to the sinner: “The Apostle demonstrates that the salutary medium through which sanctification—that is, the renewal of our corrupt nature, obtained by the death of Christ—is conferred on us: Baptism, which is, of course, a washing, not only of regeneration, but also of renewal (Tit 3:5).”4

One is justified and sanctified through baptism by mystically participating in Christ’s death and resurrection. Commenting on Romans 6:5 (“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” KJV), Gerhard writes: 

Just as death and resurrection were joined together in Christ so He requires that in us, too, the death of sin and the life of the Spirit should likewise be joined together with Christ—in death and in life. If we have been implanted in Him so that we are like Him in death, we will also be- or rather, we should be—implanted in Him and like Him in resurrection.5

…. Although Paul makes statements at on the surface appear to suggest that the sinful nature is completely extinguished by baptism (Rom. 6:6-7), this is not the case. Our old nature begins to die in the sanctifying act of baptism, but it is clearly not wholly done away with. We see this in numerous statements of Paul and other New Testament writers (Rom. 6:8-14). Our lack of perfection is why we need the forensic judgment of the gospel. The Triune God gives this to us in our baptism and perpetually renews us through daily repentance and faith. Gerhard writes:

You are not under the strict rigor of the law, demanding perfect and absolute obedience in each and every point. You are under the grace of the Gospel, which teaches obedience that has begun is pleasing to God through faith, if a person has been reconciled to Him. To the reborn he promises victory over sin from the fact that they have been given the gift of grace, which causes them to mortify the desires of the flesh, and which brings it about that the weaknesses of sin that cling to them are remitted to them.6

Ultimately, as Gerhard correctly notes, Paul believes the removal of guilt frees humans for the exercise of righteousness, not sinful behavior. True freedom is found in doing the good.  Nevertheless, our sanctified behavior is not the basis of receiving eternal life. In response to Romans 6:23 (“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus”), Gerhard emphasizes that sin earns a “wage” through performing works in contradiction to God’s law. Contrary to the claims of the premiere Counter-Reformation Roman Catholic apologist, Robert Bellarmine, Paul does not say that good works gain a “wage” in the form of eternal life. Rather, Paul asserts that our incorporation into Christ’s death and resurrection is received as a “gift.”

  1. Johann Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, trans. Paul Rydecki (Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2014), 214. ↩︎
  2. Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 253. ↩︎
  3. Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 254. ↩︎
  4. Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 254. ↩︎
  5. Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 257. ↩︎
  6. Gerhard, Annotations on the First Six Chapters of the St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, 264. ↩︎

Cover image from Missionary Sister of St. Columban, “Crucifixion Journey,” accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.columbansisters.org/crucifixion-journey/. Other image from “Holy Baptism,” St. John Lutheran Church, Cardington, OH, accessed December 22, 2025, https://www.stjohnwindfall.church/holy-baptism.html.