2. Our children have always been in the covenant

The second principle is that every covenant that God has ever made with man has always included his household. God’s promise is, “I will be a God to you and to your children after you.” As we will see, the New Covenant has not changed this principle. Now that doesn’t mean that the whole family was automatically saved. But God made His claim upon the whole family, and gave His promises to the whole family, which promises could be laid hold of by faith. Even individual covenants (like God’s covenant with Phinehas) followed this pattern. Examples:

• Adam: Adam’s fall affected all who were in the covenant of creation:⁵ “through one man’s offense, judgment came to all men.” God’s promise of grace after the fall also affected his children: “I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman and between your seed and her seed.” (Gen. 3:15)
• Noah: God promised Noah, “I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you.” (Gen. 9:9)
• Abraham: To Abraham God said, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.” (Gen. 17:7)
• Isaac: “…to you and your descendants…” (Gen. 26:4)
• Jacob: “…to you and your descendants with you…” (Gen. 28:4)

The same was true of the Mosaic and Davidic covenants, as well as the individual covenants like that made with Phinehas.

Now the question may be asked, “Where has the New Testament explicitly excluded children from the covenant?” And the answer is that there is not one single verse in the New Testament that excludes them. Instead we find explicit inclusion of children in the covenant promises, and more to the point, an explicit linking of baptism with the Abrahamic covenant. For example, John the Baptist ties in his baptism with the Abrahamic covenant (Matthew 3:9; Luke 3:8).⁶ Peter ties his discussion of Baptism with the covenant promise (Acts 2:38-39), and says that this “promise is to you and to your children…” (Acts 3:39).

Paul ties his message of baptism with the covenant to Abraham in Acts 13:24-26. Acts 16:31 illustrates this Abrahamic pattern when it says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Verse 33 says, “And immediately he and all his family were baptized.” Galatians 3:26-29 lists baptized members who are heirs of the promise given to Abraham. That alone ought to clue us into the inclusion of children since every promise ever given to Abraham was to Abraham and his “seed.” The next verse explicitly says that a “child” of such parents is an “heir” (4:1) even before the “guardians” bring him to faith (4:2 with 3:23-24).

Baptism is also tied to other covenants which included children such as the Noahic covenant (1 Peter 3:20-21), the Davidic covenant (Acts 2) and the Mosaic covenant (Hebrews 10:22 in context of Hebrews 9-10). The New Testament is very clear: children are members of the covenant and heirs of the “covenants of promise,” and baptism is the sign of being admitted to the covenant.