“There is nothing worth comparing to this lifelong comfort sure! Open eyed my grave is staring: even there I’ll sleep secure. Though my flesh awaits its raising, still my soul continues praising: I am baptized into Christ; I’m a child of paradise.” – 594:5
If you’re like many lifelong Lutherans, you don’t remember your baptism, because you were baptized as an infant. For that reason, we may at times undervalue the great treasure which we have in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. As such, the hymn God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It (LSB 594), is a phenomenal reminder of what baptism does for us.
The hymn begins by establishing the basic fact of what baptism accomplishes in my life: in these waters His sacrifice on the cross is applied to me and God’s name is placed upon me, adopting me as God’s child. God the Father is my Father, and I have all of the rights and privileges of God’s children.
Stanzas 2, 3, & 4 confront the “unholy trinity” of sin, satan, and death which baptism defeats. Sin no longer can disturb my soul, because through baptism Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice has cleansed me of all my sins. My guilty conscience needs trouble me no more, since my sins are washed away in baptism, washed away in the flood of Jesus’ blood. Baptism doesn’t merely forgive us our sins committed prior to baptism, but baptism is made new for us every time we confess our sins and are absolved for Christ’s sake.
This hymn even calls out Satan, confronts him head-on, and declares that the devil has nothing over us anymore, since God has united with us in baptism, and therefore gives us the strength to overcome Satan’s temptations and accusations. The devil is not so mighty, anymore, since I am baptized into Christ.
The final enemy, death, cannot end my gladness anymore. Death, for the Christian, is not the end of happiness, but the end of the sorrows of this life, and the beginning of paradise. Even when we die, and our bodies decay over centuries in graves, we hold onto faith that because our bodies have been sanctified in holy baptism, He who has begun that good work will bring it to completion in the resurrection on the last day when our bodies rise from the grave, and we stand forever as children of paradise. Nothing can frighten us anymore, not even the open eyed grave can make us tremble, for the comfort we have in baptism conquers all fears. Indeed, what joy is ours in these blessed waters, a treasure and comfort beyond compare: I am baptized into Christ!
1 God’s own child, I gladly say it:
I am baptized into Christ!
He, because I could not pay it,
Gave my full redemption price.
Do I need earth’s treasures many?
I have one worth more than any
That brought me salvation free
Lasting to eternity!2 Sin, disturb my soul no longer:
I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger:
Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me
Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood,
Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood?3 Satan, hear this proclamation:
I am baptized into Christ!
Drop your ugly accusation,
I am not so soon enticed.
Now that to the font I’ve traveled,
All your might has come unraveled,
And, against your tyranny,
God, my Lord, unites with me!4 Death, you cannot end my gladness:
I am baptized into Christ!
When I die, I leave all sadness
To inherit paradise!
Though I lie in dust and ashes
Faith’s assurance brightly flashes:
Baptism has the strength divine
To make life immortal mine.5 There is nothing worth comparing
To this lifelong comfort sure!
Open-eyed my grave is staring:
Even there I’ll sleep secure.
Though my flesh awaits its raising,
Still my soul continues praising:
I am baptized into Christ;
I’m a child of paradise!Text:Erdmann Neumeister, 1671-1756; © 1991 Robert E. Voelker, translator.