TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

eferred to as "a symbol of an inner cleansing from sin, a
representation of the new birth in Christ Jesus and a mark of
Christian discipleship." 27
Defense of the Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration
Now with this apparent recent departure from our American
Methodist, United Brethren, and Evangelical sacramental heritage
can we justifiably and with integrity use the language of baptismal
regeneration now solidly inserted into our baptismal liturgies? I am
sensitive to the issues raised by Ted A. Campbell's article "Baptism
and New Birth: Evangelical TTieology and the United Methodist
Baptismal Covenant I," which appeared in the Fall 1990 issue of the
Quarterly Review. I do not completely espouse his concern,
however, that the doctrine of baptismal regeneration need
necessarily diminish the stress we should again give to the New
Birth. In support of my contention, I would like to call up the
teachings of John Wesley and Philipp Jakob Spener.
It must be admitted at the outset that baptism was never in the
forefront of the doctrinal disputes in which Wesley engaged and that
his references to baptism were really made in relation to weightier
issues such as New Birth, justification, and sanctification rather than
in their own right. 28
Perhaps the way to summarize Wesley's views
on baptism is to agree with Paul Sanders that the founder of
Methodism's mature theology was both catholic and evangelical and
that, by inference, his utterances on baptism reflected the two
polarities of this tension.
From his evangelical side we hear those well-known statements of
Wesley like his commentary on John 3:5, "Except a man be born of
water and the Spirit. ..." "Except he experience that great inward
change wrought by the Spirit, and be baptized (whatever baptism can
be had) as the outward sign and means of it." 29
It was clear that
Wesley considered the direct work of the Holy Spirit in the human
heart to be far more important than baptism which, in this instance,
was the outward sign and means of the inner working. Baptism
appears optional; the work of the Holy Spirit is not.
The striking distinction between baptism and the new birth comes
from Wesley's sermon "The New Birth," where the new birth is
defined as "that great change which God works in the soul when He
48 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993