Why We're Baptizing a Baby?

In a week or so we will have the blessing of witnessing the baptism of an infant, the child of two of our members.  But, what does this mean? Are we baptizing this child so that s/he would be saved? Are we baptizing the child out of tradition? Why do we baptize our children anyway, especially if they are infants who have no natural means to exercise a saving faith?

Here is a brief study that might help to understand what is going on:

Baptism is a Sacrament.
A sacrament is a sign and a seal of God’s covenant of grace. So, what does that mean?

First, it will be helpful if we answer the question, “What is God's covenant?”
A biblical covenant is more than a contract.  It is an agreement between two or more parties that is bonded in blood.  A God-ordained, God-arranged biblical covenant is always an act of grace.  But the first covenant of grace found in the Bible was originally arranged between God the Father and God the Son in eternity past. It was a promise of the Father to the Son that He would have a people for Himself (Adam and Eve).

At creation, God, out of grace, made a covenantal arrangement with Adam, promising to Adam life if Adam fulfilled his end of the covenant. Yet, Adam and Eve sinned. They broke covenant. However, God knew Adam and Eve would sin. The covenant between God the Father and God the Son was a promise of the Son to provide a way to reconcile Adam, Eve and their descendants back to God. So, God-made Covenants are always an act of grace and mercy from God for a people He wanted for Himself (see Romans 5).

There are several Old Testament models of this covenant (ex.: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David). God’s Covenant was explained to man (Abraham especially) of what God was up to;  that is, how a holy God was going to have a people for Himself. In those covenant ceremonies, God makes a promise, taking an oath by His own name that He was going to accomplish this reconciliation between a holy God and a sinful people.  To show how serious He was and how serious this covenant promise was (to be a people of God), God sealed it in blood by the sacrifice of animals.

There are two basic administrations of this Covenant of Grace: one called the Old and the other called the New. The Old Covenant or Testament (O.T.) looks forward to the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus Christ, while the New Covenant or Testament (N.T.) other looks back.  This is important: the whole point of the Covenant is JESUS CHRIST and everything He did to have a people for Himself. It is an oath to special people, elect people to do what God promised!

The QUESTION for these elect people has always been and continues to be, “Do you believe, and will your children and your children’s children believe?” In other words, will you and your descendants after you trust and obey God in a saving way, becoming His covenant people?
   
But, how do they know this promise was made? How would the world know this promise of the Covenant was made? How would succeeding generations know?

God placed upon them a sign and sealed it to them.

Old Testament the sign-seal was circumcision:
The original sign was given to Abraham (see the account in Gen. 15-17). Abraham believed God; God reckoned (put on his account) righteousness because of faith (Romans 5). God still placed on Abram/Abraham a sign and gave him circumcision.

Why would God do that? In an obvious way this physical sign made him “holy.” By this we mean that he was ceremonially set apart for a special purpose; to be labeled as one who is on God’s "team."

God also did this to show the serious nature of the covenant.  Further, He did this to show symbolically how awful sin is that it must be cut out and thrown away.  What happens in this sign is not nearly as radical as what must happen in reality - WE NEED HEART SURGERY (see Jeremiah 4:4; 9:25-26)! We need a radical stripping away of sin in order to be reconciled with God!

In the future, the person who will make good on this promise of God will pay with his life in blood! The only One who could and did fulfill the Covenant and all covenant promises, and the only One who can perform the heart surgery. That person would be Jesus Christ.

Circumcision also reminded God’s people of all the blessings He had for them, paid by God in blood if only they would keep covenant.  HOW? By an obedient faith!

Now, was this Old Testament sign of circumcision given because of Abraham’s faith?
The sign of circumcision pointed to Jesus Christ. Abraham believed, but then God stamped on him this sign to remind him about what he believed - the promises of God in a future deliverer-redeemer Jesus (see Romans 4:10ff)!  This sign and seal of this covenant was then placed upon Abraham's sons, and a requirement was made to place this sign-pointer and seal upon all future sons of the those who were in covenant with God.

No biblical sign-seal testifies of your life or work or even merely of your personal faith. Instead it is a testimony that God saves by faith. It is not your personal expression to God, but God’s expression to you of His promise that you receive and a promise that is applied by faith.

The testimony of the Covenant remains true no matter what the life of that person receiving it is like.

The sign is a badge of God’s Covenant. It says “The covenant of God is promised and stamped upon this one.”  It does not say “this person has genuine faith”!


In the New Testament, the sign-seal is baptism.
Colossians 2 tells us clearly that circumcision is the historical O.T. precedent for N.T. baptism.  Both are very similar, but because Christ fulfilled His promise of the Covenant, the N.T. offers a more grand, glorious and full expression of the promises in the Covenant. Both the O.T. circumcision and N.T. baptism have one fundamental principle:  they both are signs of the same Covenant of Grace. The O.T. points forward to the promise of Messiah-Savior, while the N.T. points back to the fulfillment of the promise by the Savior. 

Both O.T. and N.T. sign-seals point to the saving work and the benefits of Jesus Christ. They point to the reality that:
•    Christ’s work cleanses the sinful heart
•    Christ makes a sinner righteous
•    Christ alone brings sinners God has chosen back to God to have union and communion with Him.

Circumcision is a statement and testimony to JESUS CHRIST.  Baptism is a statement and testimony to JESUS CHRIST!
       
Both signs stamped upon believers and their children offer the same requirement:  YOU MUST BELIEVE! Believing in a saving-faith kind of way is obeying (applying, acting, trusting, and doing).

Unbelief is utterly inconsistent with the Covenant of God and makes a mockery of the sign placed upon you or your child(ren). This is what hypocrisy means: a heart denial and unbelief. To violate the sign-seal means that the curses of that Covenant are applied. This is even true in the New Testament. This is why the NT does what the OT does:  warn members with the covenant stamp/sign about unbelief (1 Corinthians 11; Heb. 3:19-4:1; 6; 10:28f).

We have one example in I Corinthians 10:1-11. The Jews had received the sign, and were all baptized into Moses, but with most of them God was not pleased. Why? Because: (a) they lusted after evil things,  (b) they became idol worshipers, and  (c) they  committed immorality.  So God visited the promised curses upon them.  In other words, they did not have a true, obedient and trusting saving faith.

This is a warning to you who have received baptism at any age!


What about Romans 6?
Doesn’t Romans 6 say that baptism is about you dying, you being buried, and you being raised? So isn’t it about what is happening to you?

No.  And yes.  Romans 6 is not saying that you or I went through our own physical crucifixion. The context of Romans 6 fits into the overall context of Romans 5-8, which fits into the context of all of Romans, which is answering the question: Who is ever made right with a holy God?  No one is able to make himself right through any means.  We are made right with God by the bodily/spiritual life, death by crucifixion, burial in a tomb, resurrection, ascension of Jesus Christ (compare 1 Corinthians 15).

This baptism in Romans 6 shows not what you or I did bodily/spiritually.  It focuses and centers upon the work of Jesus Christ who died, was buried, raised again and now seated at God’s right hand in heaven.  Baptism makes a statement about the promise of Christ's life and work given to you if you would only personally believe.  This work of Jesus Christ is applied to you through the means of saving faith and by God the Holy Spirit who places you into Jesus Christ's grand and historical event (of his death, burial, resurrection and ascension).

By his life and work Jesus Christ fulfilled the original covenant agreement he had with God the Father.  The covenant was a promise, and that promise was fulfilled in Christ.  In fact, Jesus fulfilled all the covenants and all the other promises of God found in Scripture.  Those Old Testament people who had true faith looked forward to the perfect and fulfilled life-work of Jesus, while we, on the other side of that monumental, historical life-work of Jesus, look back. 

So, Romans 6 is all about Jesus Christ and his actual death-burial-resurrection-ascension, not about your or my death-burial-resurrection-ascension which you or I have done.  Romans 6 points to Jesus and what he did and then tells us that you or I are placed into Christ's life and work by the Spirit.  Baptism points to our union with Jesus Christ - if we indeed believe in him.


Now, finally let’s talk about the way God has treated children of believers.

Let’s step back to the O.T. circumcision again.  It was:
1.     A sign-seal of circumcision that was given to a people (family-tribe-nation).

2.     It started with Abraham, was given to him and to generations after him.  Remember, it was not a pointer to Abraham’s personal faith as much as it was a pointer to God's Covenant made with sinners and served as a seal of a righteousness found in another: Jesus Christ!

So, in Genesis 17:7-14, we read of a sign of the covenant that was given to believers AND to all who were within their household.  It is a corporate, generational symbol for believers and their children (Jer. 32:38-40; Isa. 49:21; Ez. 37:24-26; Psalm 103:17, etc.)

GOD NEVER looked upon children and households that were marked by this covenant sign as pagans. They were marked and set apart to be God’s Covenant people on earth for a special purpose.
   
Here’s what I mean. God commanded the seed (children) to be given the mark of His covenant. Why? Because they were saved?  No!  For God knew well he commanded some to be marked and set apart but who would never come to faith!

Here is a precious teaching for you from Scripture: there is a covenantal succession from one generation to another with all its inherent blessings (Psa. 102:28 cp. Isa. 65:23)!  Successive generations of believers were covenantally holy, though not necessarily personally holy.  God expected that those set-apart by the covenant stamp or brand would obey the Covenant by faith.

That brings us to baptizing little children in our day:

One feature in the New Covenant is the promised restoration of the parent and child relationships, NOT the separation or dividing believing parents from unbelieving children (on earth).  Having said this, we do know that trusting in Jesus Christ in a saving way would indeed separate families because Jesus said it would (Matt. 10:35-37; 12:46-50; etc.).
   
As in the O.T. the practice is the same:  give the sign to a special people (not just national or religious Jews), to a new elect group and to their household (including children), and to everyone who place their faith in the one and only Reconciler, Jesus Christ!

How do we know?
1.  Matthew 19:14 and Mark 10:14 Jesus tells us that children of believers are of the Kingdom.
   
2.  Luke 18:15-16 is quite clear that suckling babes are of the Kingdom of God!

3.  Acts 2:39  Peter tells us that the Promise of covenantal salvation given in the Old
     is to you AND TO YOUR CHILDREN and to those who are afar, and to everyone whom God
     calls to Himself!
           
Take note:  What did Peter wish for his audience to understand?   Did he wish them to believe that children of believers are now excluded as members of the Covenant? NO!

4.  I Corinthians 7: (this passage implies a covenant sign)
     Children of a believer are covenantally holy (in other words, set apart for special purpose).
     Children of unbelievers are “unclean,” which word is the same word to refer to
     demonic spirits.  God does not say these children are holy because they are saved!  They are holy
     because they are children of one or both parents who are Covenantally God's.
     God does not call children of them pagans like He does in the O.T.!

5.  Did parents in the New Covenant place a covenantal sign on their children and
     did the apostles sanction it or okay it?  Yes!   (Acts 21:18ff).

6.  Are children called “saints”? Yes! In Ephesians 1 Paul is addressing the Saints,
     and then in Ephesians 6 he speaks to a special class of saints:  “Children, obey your parents.”
   
     Note:  This is a N.T. expanded expression of O.T. Covenant promise, “Children obey that
     you may live long in the earth!”
   
7.  Are parents to nurture children? Yes!  So what?
     a.  God never commands believers to nurture pagans! Adult or children! You
          evangelize pagans; but God commands you as a believing parent to nurture
          your children.

     b.  The same covenant duty for O.T. parents applies to N.T. parents and their covenant kids!

          So, by principle and example in Scripture we are to give our children the stamp
          of God’s covenant, which today is baptism.

          God sees your children as covenantally holy and special, therefore you are not
          to treat them as pagans, but as His special children to nurture. You are to reflect
          upon your own baptism and remind your children of their baptism - as a pointer
          to the work of Jesus Christ (what He did to have a people set apart for Himself)
   
There is a warning:  as a member of the Covenant you are to have a genuine, saving faith and demonstrate that faith in obedience (for example, see the book of James). You are to "keep covenant". However, if you break covenant, violate it by persistent unbelief or rejection then you are rejecting Jesus Christ. When you demonstrate total unbelief you bear the sign of hypocrisy and apostasy;  you are not speaking truthfully from the heart about Christ.
   
It is not that you would be lying about your internal condition but rather that your internal condition is lying about Jesus Christ and His fulfilled and complete, gracious work in the Covenant!

This is why we baptize our children today.


That leads us to the application of baptism.
We now turn to several passages:

Psalm 127
The context for Psalm 127 is worship. It is a song of ascent; a song sung by God’s people as they ascended the holy hill in Zion on their way to a worship festival in Jerusalem.

Here  is a principles we can derive from this psalm:
You must have and teach a biblical view of children. God is involved in your family. He must bless you as parents, or else your parenting is  futile (127:1). If He blesses you as parents, then worry is futile (127:2). God blesses parents with children (vv 3-5).


From Psalm 128
Godly families are the strength of the Church. God takes care of those who fear Him. A good family life is a blessing from God (vs. 3-4). The prosperity of the Church and family are interrelated (vv. 5-6).


From Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Parenting is a life-style. A good working knowledge of the Bible is a key to successful parenting (vv1-3). A total commitment to God is a key to successful parenting (vv 4-5). A model walk ((vs 6) and a total relationship (7-9) are also keys to successful parenting.


You must aim at maturity in your child(ren) (Col. 1:29). That means you aim at:
1.  Christian virtues which flow from true holiness (Matt. 5:3-12)

2.  A certain measurement of Christian fruit (Gal. 5:22-23)

3.  Developing within your child(ren) a biblical world-view, a true Christ-like perspective, character
     traits, service skills, and so forth.

4.  Developing within them good Christian decision making principles and skills (such
     as putting God first, faith versus feelings, others versus self, long range and short
     range goals, learning reconciliation and conciliation, forgiveness, etc.)

5.  Seeing a faith-filled salvation worked out in your child's life.


Parenting requires other things as well:

1.    Teaching and modeling Christ as parents.

2.    Teaching forgiveness.

3.    Teaching and modeling truth telling.

4.    Teaching and modeling problem solving.

5.    Insisting upon Biblical rules (short and simple).

6.    Enforcing biblical order (ex: Deut. 21:18-21; Rom. 1:30)


So, in a nutshell, these are some of the reasons why we, as Reformed Prebyterians, baptize infants and children.