30. Sign and Seal 1
Since [child] probably won’t have the foggiest notion of what is going on in the rite of baptism, the question often comes up, what benefit is there in doing it? When I was a teenager I was taught that infant baptism was a superstitious ritual that came over from the Roman Catholic Church. Actually, there has been an unbroken practice of infant baptism recorded in every century of church history from Bible times to the present. In 251 A.D. all the churches got together in a church council to discuss various matters, and when infant baptism came up, the only question that surrounded the issue was whether infants had to be baptized on the eighth day or whether they could be baptized earlier or later. Now you might think that argument was silly, but the reason for it was the infants were circumcised on the eighth day in the Abrahamic covenant, and it has always been recognized until the time of the Reformation that the New Testament replaced circumcision with baptism as the sign of inclusion in the covenant. In fact, every argument that can be brought against infant baptism can also be raised against infant circumcision. They both are signs and seals of exactly the same thing. Anyway, the church council says that the symbolic “eighth day” language of the Old Testament was fulfilled in the Christian sabbath, and that the baby didn’t have to be baptized exactly eight days after birth; it could be baptized the first Sunday that was practical after birth. And that practice continued. But that was the first controversy surrounding baptism - not whether infants could be baptized (they agreed that was an apostolic practice) but on which day it could be practiced.
Turn with me to Romans 4:11. Almost everyone recognizes that baptism is a sign and seal of justification by faith, but this verse indicates that circumcision was also a sign and seal of justification by faith. I’ll read verses 11-12 because verse 12 says that Abraham’s circumcision is a pattern for the Gentile church as well. He is not only the father or pattern of faith, but the father and pattern of circumcision.
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.
Turn to Romans 3:1. I used to be skeptical about the value of applying the sign of justification by faith to an infant who could not express its faith. But skeptics asked Paul the same question regarding circumcision. Let’s read Romans 3:1-3. “What advantage then has the Jew, or what is the profit of circumcision?” (Rom. 3:1). Paul’s answer is, “Much in every way!” He doesn’t enumerate all the advantages, but he gives the main one:
Chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God. For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not! (Rom. 3:3-4)
You see, the faithfulness of God to His promises to our children is a part of the question that is often left out of discussions on baptism and circumcision. Baptism is God’s pledge of faithfulness to His promises, and it is also our pledge of faithfulness to our covenantal duties to trust and obey.
I want to briefly look at how those two factors relate in the life of a child. Turn to Genesis 17:7. In this passage we see clearly that God’s promises were made not only to Abraham, but also to Abraham’s descendants. In Genesis 17:7 He says, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” That’s one of the reasons why God made them circumcise their infants - it was because He had made promises to those infants. And the Bible is full of such references. When Peter told the crowds to repent and be baptized, he related that baptism to the children. “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For [he’s giving the reason why every one of them should be baptized. “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’” (Acts 2:38-39). God has promised to be a God to the children of believers and He has made good on that promise.
Various studies even in our day and age when family unity is not particularly strong indicate that between 75%-90% of people say that they came to Christ through the influence of family or close friends. The whole family is important in the covenant whether you are looking in the Old Testament or the New Testament and therefore circumcision and later baptism was applied to children as well as parents. The New Testament has several references to households being saved and it also has a surprising number of references to households being baptized even though only the parent is mentioned in connection with profession of faith. The promise is to you and to your children.
But if this is true does this mean that we don’t need to worry about doing anything to see that our children embrace Christ? Can we just passively wait for God do fulfill His promises? Obviously not. God’s promises are never made in a vacuum. They are made in the context of the covenant and a covenant entails responsibilities as well as blessings. Many people think that the promises to Abraham were unconditional. But look with me at Genesis 18:19. This verse proves that there were conditions Abraham had to fulfill in order to receive the promises. Obviously they were fulfilled by grace (and that’s where the verse begins), but the conditions are there nonetheless. “For 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.” God uses means, and the means He chose to use in order to bring this blessing was the fact that Abraham and Sarah would take their role as parents seriously. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous man walks in his integrity; his children are blessed after him.” The promise of blessing to our children is made to righteous parents and that is why we do not baptize the children of unbelievers.
So in baptism God is making a visible mark of His promise to us, and we as parents are making a promise to God to raise the children in the fear of the Lord, to pray for them and to seek to instill a trust in the Lord from the earliest times. But the first step in the parents responsibility is to simply believe the promises of God. Let me close by reading a few of the many promises that God gives that we as parents can lay claim to as we view this baptism and as we are reminded of the commitments that we have made in the past.
Referring to the spiritual unity that God intended in marriage Malachi 2 says, “But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit?” Notice that He is talking about spiritual unity here, not just any old marriage. He goes on:
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)
He sought godly offspring in the Old Testament and He continues to seek godly offspring for Himself today. 1 Corinthians 7:14 says, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean [in other words, they would not be outwardly set apart from the world by baptism. Baptism is spoken of in the New Testament as being a rite of purification. He says, “otherwise your children would be unclean”] but now they are holy.” That is, they are set apart to God.
That is why Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 33 say of Israelite children, they are “My children” and they are children “born to Me.” Isaiah 44:3 prophecies of our period saying, “I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” Isaiah 65:23 says that God’s grace to our children will exceed that in the Old Covenant. “They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth children for trouble; for they shall be the descendants of the blessed of the LORD, and their offspring with them.” Isaiah 40:11 speaks of Jesus saying, “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.”
Luke 18:15-16 says that Christ did just that, “Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when His disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, ‘Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.’”
God takes such care of the children of believers that Christ said our children have angels assigned to them. He said, “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” In fact, Christ identifies so closely with our little ones that He said on one occasion, “whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matt. 18:5).
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. (Acts 2:39)
So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)
Children when you see this baptism, remember that God has claimed you and calls you to trust in Him. Parents, when you see this baptism, remember that when you baptized your children you were in effect saying, “Yes Lord, I believe your word when it says you will be a God to my children. And I hereby make my oath of allegiance to you by promising to raise this child in the fear of God.” Scripture 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). Do we believe that?