Baptismal Regeneration

In sorting through questions about efficacy of baptism, it’s important to realize that terms are used differently by various theologians. Chemnitz, for instance, claims that baptism has a twofold effect, “regeneration and renewal.” The very fact that he describes these as distinct effects should alert us to the fact that he’s not using “regeneration” in the typical post-Reformation Reformed sense. When he explains the first effect of baptism, that point becomes even clearer:

“sins are washed away in remission through Baptism by the Word, so that they are not imputed, if they who are baptized remain in Christ through faith; and thus guilt is taken away . . . . And this remission is not half or partial, but full, perfect, and complete.”

More explicitly, he says elsewhere that “Regeneration indeed, that is, adoption and the forgiveness of sins is complete and finished in believers immediately after Baptism, and yet it nevertheless extends through the whole life of man.” Renewal is also begun in baptism, and from there “grows daily, but is finally completed in the life to come.”

What Chemnitz calls “renewal” is closer to what Reformed theologians call “regeneration,” and he claims that it begins with baptism. But he doesn’t call that transformation of life “regeneration.”