22. Set Apart for God
Why do we baptize our children? One of the reasons is that it is a reminder to parents that children are in need of salvation as well as adults. Baptism doesn’t save them, but it does point to the fact that they are in need of the sprinkling of Christ’s blood. They are in need of the baptism of the Spirit. Psalm 51:5 says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” If children were innocent and free from sin the sign of baptism would be meaningless.
So this is an important reason, but that reason is not enough by itself because the children of non-Christians are also in need of salvation, yet the Bible forbids us to baptize them. Another one of several reasons is that God cares for our children. They are not in a no-man’s land as some people teach. He calls them children born to Me in Ezekiel 23:37 and “My children” in Ezekiel 16:20-21. God claimed them in a special way. And Christ did the same when he held the infants and children in his hands and blessed them and said, “Let the little children come to me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
In Malachi He rebuked those seeking divorces because of the devastating impact that would have upon the children.
The LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth.” (Mal. 2:14-15)
The text says that God is seeking for himself godly offspring the inspired, and it also affirms that what the parents do has an impact upon whether that purpose of Christian marriage is realized or not. Baptism is not only a sign of the covenant that the child is entering into, but also a sign and pledge of the covenant that the parents have been a part of. Parents pledge that they will take seriously their responsibility to the children to raise them in the fear and nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Ultimately, however, the reason for the baptism of children rests in God’s command to apply the sign of the covenant to them, and God’s many promises that He would bless our children. The New Testament says that we are a part of the Abrahamic covenant, and baptism has replaced circumcision as the sign of that covenant. The promise that He would be a God to Abraham’s children was continued on in the New Testament with records of many households coming to salvation, and many households being baptized. Paul indicated that he baptized the household of Stephanus at Corinth. When he went to Philippi, Lydia was the first convert, and when she made profession of faith, her whole household was baptized with her. Even in jail the same pattern held true when Paul baptized not only the Philippian jailor, but his whole household. Households continue to be included in the covenant in the New Testament because Peter says that the same principle of God’s grace being poured out on our children holds true.
In Acts 2:39, after telling the people to repent and be baptized, he says, “For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” The promise that is pledged in baptism is to our children. And there are a multitude of such promises that parents can in faith lay hold of. Isaiah 44:3 says, “I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” Isaiah 40:11 says, “He will feed His flock like a Shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those who are with young.” In Acts 16:31 Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Another reason the Bible teaches the baptism of infants is because God has set the children of believers apart to a different relationship to the Lord than other children have. Paul said that this was so even if one of the parents was an unbeliever. In 1 Corinthians 7:14 he says, “For the unbelieving husband is set apart by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is set apart by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.” The children are treated as being part of the holy covenant community of the church. That is why Paul never addresses children as anything other than members of the church in his epistles.
So this morning we are going to be setting apart [child] to the Lord by baptism. This baptism is God’s claim upon her life. It is also the parents’ pledge that they have faith in God’s promises and that they will seek to raise this child in the fear and nurture of the Lord.