While Baptism is no adiaphoron, but a divine institution and ordinance, we must not regard it as absolutely necessary in the sense that no one can obtain forgiveness of sins and be saved who has not received this Sacrament. "Necessitas baptismi non est absoluta." The reason for this is that already the preaching of the Gospel offers divine grace with forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation so completely and perfectly that any one who believes its promises is in possession of all spiritual blessings.
This truth Luther and all Lutheran dogmaticians consistently maintained against the papistic theologians, who endeavored to prove the absolute necessity of baptism, though they modified their doctrine somewhat by teaching that all infants that die without baptism suffer only negatively (poena damni, i.e., they do not behold God), not positively (poena sensus, i. e., they do not experience the torments of the damned). Hodge's claim that also the Lutheran theologians teach the absolute necessity of baptism (Outlines, p. 502) ignores the fact that it is true Lutheran doctrine that "not the lack, but only the contempt of Baptism damns" (Contemptus sacramenti damnat, non privatio).1
While the confessional Lutheran Church has always emphasized the absolute necessity of faith in the forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake (sola fide), it has never taught the absolute necessity of baptism. To those who try to prove the absolute necessity of baptism from John 3, 5 we reply that Christ here rebuked the pharisaic contempt for Baptism; for of the Pharisees and lawyers we are told expressly that they "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him," John the Baptist, while of "all the people and the publicans" the holy writers declare that they "justified God" (i. e., acknowledged God's counsel of salvation), "being baptized with the baptism of John," Luke 7, 29. 30. As Christ, so also we must insist upon the necessity of baptism (necessitas praecepti; necessitas medii) over against all who despise this holy Sacrament, repeating the words of our Lord: "Except ye be born again of water and of the Spirit, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God." This emphatic preaching of the divine Law must not be weakened under any circumstances where the pastor deals with such as show contempt for Baptism.