25. Covenant Promises and Responsibilities

This morning as you witness this baptism, I want all of you parents to think about the baptismal vows that you made in the past. You have heard me point out many times that baptism is 1) God’s pledge to fulfill His promises to our children and 2) the parent’s pledge to fulfill their responsibilities before God to their children. Scripture doesn’t just say, “I will be a God to you and to your children.” It doesn’t just say, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” Scripture also says “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). It is true that God gave Abraham the promise that He would save his children, but that promise came in the context of the command to Abraham and Sarah to raise their children to fear the Lord, it says, “That the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him” (Gen. 18:19). That verse indicates that without grace Abraham would not have been able to engage in his covenant responsibilities faithfully. But it also indicates that without faithfully fulfilling his covenant responsibilities to the children, he could not expect the fulfillment of God’s promises.

So don’t ever divide those two elements or baptism will become a mere superstition on the one hand or an empty sign on the other. It will become a superstition if you leave it all up to God and repudiate your responsibilities. It will become an empty sign if you do not claim God’s many promises. Both Sarah and Hagar repudiated their responsibilities to Ishmael when they circumcised him, and it is not at all surprising that he grew up to reject the covenant. God’s promise and the parent’s responsibility need to be wedded together. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” That’s why we don’t baptize the children of unbelievers and we don’t baptize the children of those who are under church discipline. And so this morning, as you other parents witness this baptism, I want you to reaffirm your commitment that you have made to God concerning your children; to raise them in the fear and admonition of God, and once again claim God’s promises to them.

And God’s promises are many. This is not an empty sign. God did indeed promise salvation to baptized children. The whole household of the Philippian jailer was baptized in Acts 16:33 and it was to the whole household that salvation was promised: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved; you and your household.” Your faith can be effective in your child’s salvation. In Acts 2, Peter speaks of the outward sign of water baptism as pointing to the promise of Spirit baptism. And he immediately gives that promise to the children of the believers then gathered. “For the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are afar off.” Baptism is not an empty sign when the parents claim God’s promises. It becomes an empty sign and a superstition when we fail to believe the promises and we neglect our responsibilities. And that is what happened to the Israelite church, on occasion, in connection with circumcision.

Just like baptism, circumcision was applied to infants. Just like baptism, circumcision was a symbol of justification by faith (Rom. 4:11). Just like baptism, Jeremiah 4:4 speaks of circumcision as an outward sign of an inward cleansing. Just like baptism, Joshua 5 speaks of circumcision as dying to one’s old life and being raised to a new life. That was the promise of God. And the sign did not become empty and superstitious because it was applied to children. God commanded the church to apply that sign to infants. It became empty and superstitious at certain periods of Israel’s history because of the failure of the parents to embrace the covenant.

Baptism is a wonderful sign. Our children are not in a no-man’s land. They are not in the world. This morning [child] is becoming a member of the church. Now notice I didn’t say he is going to be saved this morning. He may already be saved, or his salvation may yet be future. But there can be no question about the fact that the children of believers who have received the sign of the covenant are welcomed by Christ into the church. In Luke 18 when parents brought covenant infants to Christ, the disciples tried to limit access, but Christ said, “Let the little children come to Me and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” They were at least outwardly in the kingdom, if not really in the kingdom. Matthew 18:5 indicates that such covenant children have Christ’s protection. Matthew 18:10 shows that they have angels assigned to them. In Ezekiel 16:20-21, God says that the covenant children were children “born to Me,” and He calls them “My children.” Never in the New Testament do we have any indication that children grow up and later join the church. In both Colossians and Ephesians Paul addresses children as being members of the church.

And so this should not be either an empty sign, or a superstitious sign if parents will do two things: 1) claim God’s promises to the children and 2) embrace their responsibilities to the covenant. As [parents] come forward right now, let’s corporately claim God’s promise in Isaiah 65:23 as we pray for this child. God promises, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants and My blessing on your offspring” (Isa. 44:3).