5. Covenant Succession

It is my privilege to baptize my granddaughter, [child] this morning. And rather than talking about the baptism of the covenant (as I normally do), I want to talk about the covenant of the baptism — and specifically, I want to narrow the topic down to covenant succession. What is covenant succession?

From the first Gospel promise that God made to Eve in Genesis 3:15 all the way through to the book of Revelation where this corporate seed is as numerous as the sand on the seashore, God’s promise has been that He will be a God to us, and to our children after us, and to our children’s children. Of course there is a negative side to covenant succession because when people break covenant (as Adam did) it affects their posterity. So even fallen man cannot escape from the covenant. But where sin is visited to the third and fourth generation of those who hate God, righteousness is visited to a thousand generations of those who love God. Generations is covenant succession. And a thousand generations is the amazing promise that I want to look at.

Now I should point out that it’s not automatic because it must be received by faith. This is a sacrament of faith. We must have faith in God and His promises, not faith in our parents and their genetics. But God has indeed promised to pass His grace from generation to generation if we will embrace Him by faith and pass the baton of faith on to our children. In fact, that’s what Galatians 4:1 says is the main responsibility of parents. After discussing baptism replacing circumcision in the first three chapters of the book, and then saying that all believers are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise, it says that our babies are heirs of that same covenant (that’s Galatians 4:1). And that same verse says that those babies are given to parents, whose responsibility is to be stewards (that means we don’t own the children — God does — as stewards) and guardians of God’s property. Galatians 4:1. And that is what baptism commits us to doing. It not only believes God’s promise of covenant succession, but [parents] are making the promise to be stewards of this covenant succession and to pass on the Biblical faith to their children and seek to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

When 2 John rejoices over a single mom’s children walking in the truth, it is rejoicing in covenant succession. The fact that all four grandparents of [child] love the Lord and are in this room is a testimony to the truth of covenant succession. We are not just individuals who reinvent the wheel every generation. That’s so American, but it is not Biblical.

God worked His covenant grace through [maternal great-grandmother], through [maternal grandparents], and is continuing to work it through [mother]. If you ask the great-grandparents who are here [paternal great-grandparents] to recount how many generations back the true faith goes on their side of the family you will again see God’s promise of covenant succession being lived out. This is why [father] can sing the hymn, “Faith of our fathers.” My dad was able to sing that hymn because his ancestors not only embraced God’s covenant grace by faith, but found that God’s covenant embraced their children, and their children’s children. That’s covenant succession. On my mom’s side, we have a family history going back almost 1000 years. In another 54 years it will be the 1000-year mark. And as you read through that history it is crystal clear that God’s grace enabled a covenant succession in our family at least 850 of those 1000 years, if not more. Norman the Huckthred helped to found a church in Sawley, England, near Remington. And there is a history of pastors and others who were passionate enough about the true faith that they were willing to fight for it, and they came to America in the 1600’s to escape persecution and ensure that true worship and true covenant succession would be possible for their children and their children’s children up to [child’s] generation. Covenant succession takes sacrifices. It’s not just God’s promises; it’s our commitment. So [parents], God is making a commitment to you in baptism, and you are making a commitment to Him. That’s why God said about Abraham, “I have known him [there’s God’s grace starting the whole process. “I have known him”], in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice, that the LORD may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Gen. 18:19). That’s covenant succession.

Why do we baptize our children? The most important reason is because God commands us to apply the sign of the covenant to our children now just like He did to Abraham. And I think most of you can defend infant baptism from the Bible. We aren’t dealing with that today. But we also baptize our children because baptism is not an empty sign. It is the sign of the covenant; the sign of covenant succession to those who will embrace God’s promise by faith.

Some of you are first generation Christians, and you might wonder, “What about me? I don’t have a long history of covenant succession.” Rejoice that you are the ones who have the privilege of starting that covenant succession. You can have great-great-great-grandchildren who will also be rejoicing in the covenant succession that your God-given faith began if you will embrace Genesis 18:19 as your theme verse.

So [parents], please bring your family up and let’s apply this sign of covenant succession.