Making disciples involves both Baptism and learning. It is God's choice to receive us, to initiate us, to make us God's own, to wash away our sins through Baptism. It is also God's choice to call us to respond in faith, through the Word, and to express that faith by reordering our lives and learning how to care for this world and its people. Both Baptism and the Word impart the same grace. Both offer the same forgiveness of sins.
Baptism is a visible means of touching life with grace.
The Word is a spoken means of touching life with grace. While one can respond to the Word privately, Baptism is a community event that involves a public response. By baptizing infants, Lutherans underscore the truth that Baptism is always an act of God's grace and that where God's Word is active, there faith will grow. By baptizing adults, Lutherans affirm that Baptism is not independent of the message about Jesus as God's Word, but that faith is an important human response to grace. Grace, not faith, creates the relationship with God.