Journal: Reformed Presbyterian Theological Journal
Volume: RPTJ 09:1 (Fall 2022)
Article: The Efficacy Of Baptism
Author: Jeffrey A. Stivason

RPTJ 9:1 (Fall 2022) p. 17

The Efficacy Of Baptism

Jeffrey A. Stivason

Professor of New Testament Studies Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary

²¹ Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him (1 Peter 3:21–22, ESV).

Benjamin B. Warfield wrote The Plan of Salvation in order to create a taxonomy of soteriological positions. One of those positions in particular is a temptress to the faithful. So, Warfield writes both to inform and to warn. This seductress is sacerdotalism, and she eschews abstraction. However, what she identifies as abstraction, the historic church has identified as invisible, spiritual, or subjective. But to her these invisible spiritual realities are merely synonyms for the meaningless, and she denounces them with venomous vitriol.

But what is sacerdotalism? Warfield defined sacerdotalism as the notion that “God in working salvation does not operate upon the human soul directly but indirectly….”1 In other words, when the bread of the Lord’s Supper or the water of baptism is said to work directly on the human soul as an agent of change (God working indirectly through them), then we have sacerdotalism.

The sacerdotal principle finds a complete form of expression in the Church of Rome.2 However, the principle is present “wherever instrumentalities through which saving grace is brought to the soul are made indispensable to salvation; and it is dominant wherever this indispensability is made absolute.”3 This principle has impacted self-described evangelicals (e.g., Anglicans and Confessional Lutherans) and even some sectors of the Reformed church.4

Sacerdotalism certainly has its appeal, especially for parents concerned for the spiritual well-being of their children. Vanquished is the notion of the invisible church with its mystery of election known with certainty to God alone. No longer must the believer worry about having their assurance shaken, diminished, and intermitted. Why? Because the visible church alone stands at the ready to dispense the means of grace, not as instruments which the Spirit employs, but as agents which employ the Spirit.

RPTJ 9:1 (Fall 2022) p. 18