Luther’s teaching: Baptism is nothing
else than the Word of God in the
water, commanded by His institution, or, as Paul says, a
washing
in the Word; . . .
we do not hold . . . that God has imparted to
the water a spiritual power, which through the water
washes away
sin. Nor [do we agree] that, by the assistance of the
divine will,
Baptism washes away sins, and that this ablution occurs
only
through the will of God, and by no means through the Word
or
water. The Smalcald Articles 1537
Biblical argument:
John
3:5 Jesus answered,
"Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can
enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and
Spirit.
Acts
8:36 As they (the eunuch and Philip) traveled
along the road
they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Look,
there is
water. What is to prevent my being baptized?"
Church’s teaching: drawing on Sacred
Scripture and the earliest of post-
apostolic Tradition, the Didache, has always strictly prescribed
living or flowing water as the proper matter for the
sacrament of
Baptism.