A little more than a month ago, my husband and I stood
before our congregation and answered this question for the seventh time:
"[Do] you acknowledge that although our children are conceived and born in
sin, and therefore are subject to all miseries, yea to condemnation itself, yet
that they are sanctified in Christ, and therefore, as members of His church,
ought to be baptized?" We answered sincerely; our answer was "yes."
Are infants also to be baptized?
Yes, because God is a family God.
The three
persons of our triune God live in a covenant, family relationship. That
God established His covenant relationship with His people means that He made
them part of His family. Throughout the scriptures, He extended the
promises of His covenant to believers and their children (Gen. 17:7, Acts
2:39). For that reason, when Zacchaeus was converted, our Lord declared,
"Today salvation has come to this house," and for that reason the
households of Lydia, the Philippian jailer, Cornelius, and Stephanus
were baptized. What about those whom the Lord calls as individuals?
He places those who are solitary in His family (Psalm 68:6).
That family of God, the church, is always viewed organically in the
Bible. For that reason every male child was circumcised in the Old
Testament - even foreign slaves who were not of Abraham's line (Gen.
17:12), Ishmael, with whom God did not establish His covenant (Gen. 17:18-19
and 25), and Esau, whom God hated (Rom. 9:13); for that reason all the children
of believers are to be baptized in the new. Does this unnecessarily apply
an Old Testament paradigm in the New Testament? No. The sign of the
covenant has changed because Christ's blood has atoned for the sins of His
people: no more blood needs to be shed (Heb. 10:12). But God's covenant
is one covenant, the covenant that He remembers forever (Psalm 105:8).
Circumcision did not distinguish the biological children of
Abraham while baptism marks his spiritual descendants. The outward sign
of circumcision pointed to the necessity that God circumcise the heart (Deut.
30:6), the same reality to which baptism points, as Col 2:11-12 explains.
Circumcision was and baptism is to be applied to the family of God
organically, for to say that one can know and baptize only Abraham's spiritual
descendants on the basis of their profession is a misconception. Only God
knows the heart. Throughout the history of the church there are those who
confess with mouth though they do not believe with the heart. Not everyone
who says to Jesus "Lord, Lord" will enter the kingdom of heaven
(Matt. 7:22). The angel of death passed
over the homes of the Israelites who had sprinkled the blood of the Passover
lamb on the lintels and posts of their doors; similarly, we sprinkle entire
households with the water that pictures the shed blood of God’s Firstborn, the
Passover Lamb.
Yes, because those who can receive the
reality can receive the sign.
The water of baptism does not
wash away sin: the sacrament is a sign of a spiritual reality, the washing
away of sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. Do some receive that
reality is infants? The Bible teaches that they do. God loved Jacob and
hated Esau before they had done any good or evil, and He knew Jeremiah before
He formed him in the womb. When the Bible says that God loves and knows
a person, the meaning is this: that person is saved. The beloved apostle
wrote not only to the fathers and the young men in the church but also to the
little children. What did he have to say to them? "I write
unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake"
(1 John 2:12). Not only were their sins forgiven them, but, John
declared, "You know the Father" (v. 13). How did they know Him?
Not with the knowledge of a theologian, to be sure, and not even with the
knowledge of the young men or the fathers whom John also addressed, but with a
knowledge comparable to the knowledge my infant son has of my husband and me.
When he was born, washed, and placed in my arms, he knew Mother and
desired to be fed. He cannot yet see my husband clearly, but in a crowd
of people he turns toward Father's voice and fixes his eyes on Father's face.
He could not tell you our names - he cannot even reach out his arms for
us - but he knows us. Our presence calms his crying and elicits his first
smiles. His knowledge of us is a beautiful picture of the certain
knowledge and hearty confidence without which Jesus said this: "Ye shall
not enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). It's the nature of healthy, living things to
grow. As our son grows physically, his knowledge of us will grow, too.
The same is true of all who are infants in the faith, no matter if they
receive the gift of faith as infants or adults.
Nourished with the sincere milk of the word, they will join the rest of
the family at Father's table when they are able to apply that spiritual food to
themselves.
Yes, because paedobaptism is consistent
with Reformed - that is, Biblical - theology.
An infant does not choose
to be born. In fact, if given the choice, he would probably not want to leave
the warm familiarity of his mother's womb. But when he is born, he experiences
what it means to be loved and tenderly nourished. So God regenerates and baptizes
His children, then places them in the arms of mother church. They are not
born and baptized of their own will. Ultimately, the sacrament
of baptism is not a sign only to the individual who receives it.
Though believing parents and the congregation of witnesses vow
to help or cause their baptized children to be instructed in the truth of the
scriptures to the utmost of their power, some children of believers will leave
the church, manifesting that they are not all of us (1 John 2:19). In
that sad situation the sorrowing parent, who understands that all "they
are not all Israel who are of Israel," must bow before the sovereignty and
goodness of God in salvation (Rom. 9:6 and 18-24). To the individual who
is baptized, the sacrament, like the preaching of gospel, is used to one of two
ends, salvation or condemnation, according to the sovereign will of God (2 Cor.
2:14-16). But when believers witness water being sprinkled on the
forehead of a helpless baby, they are reminded of the washing away of their
sins and their baptism into the Spirit. When Jesus Christ washed me, I was
beyond helpless. Indeed, spiritually speaking, I was dead, unaware of my
sins and unable to repent of them. But
he washed me. And not only did He wash me, He clothed me as well.
When our little boy was baptized one month ago, we dressed him a white
linen romper that I had sewed for him. I'm like him, spiritually
speaking: I've been clothed in the white robes of Christ's righteousness (Is.
61:10) and sprinkled with the water of consecration (Num. 8:6-7, Ex. 36:25),
set apart for His service and commanded to offer myself as a
living sacrifice of thankfulness to Him (Rom. 12:1). Because
salvation is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God who shows
mercy (Rom. 9:16). And, wonder of wonders, He shows that mercy to the
children of those who love Him to a thousand generations (Ex. 20:6).
Note: For many of these Scriptures references and passages I am indebted to our pastor for the many sermons that he has preached on baptism.
