Understanding Grace in Baptism
For over a decade I held to the position known as believer’s baptism. The theological term for this is credo-baptism which states the only true baptisms are those that occur after a personal profession of faith. I now hold the view of covenant baptism sometimes called infant baptism. Covenant baptism requires that a convert to Christianity be baptized and allows and encourages the baptism of children of believers as well. Covenant or infant baptism allows for both the credo-baptist view of baptism upon a profession of faith of converts and the baptism of the children of believing parents as valid baptisms.
It took me over a decade to come to this position and this was not a easy decision for me to make. Below is why I hold to the position that I now hold and the confession of faith on this issue that I hold to as well. For me the issue ultimately revolves around what scripture teaches us about the grace of God.
Scriptural Support for covenant baptism
I had my conversion experience during a chapel service in a independent Baptist church. I assumed that I would always be a Baptist with the credo-baptist view of believer’s baptism for the rest of my life. To my great surprise one day I was reading through and meditating on the book of Acts I came to understand the paedo-baptist view as the scriptural view. In chapter 2, Peter says to a group of Jews gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost that Jesus offered the promise of the new covenant foretold in the Scriptures. Peter said that “the promise is for you and for your children and for all those who are far off.” This passage arrested my mind. It wouldn’t let me go. What were those Jews thinking when Peter spoke of this new covenant? How did they understand Jesus fulfilling the promise made in the later prophets?
Many of us when we study the Bible we begin with the NT. Most often we start with the gospels. That certainly isn’t a bad place to start but it isn’t always the best place to start! To understand the NT fully we must start in the OT which creates the cultural framework for understanding the NT. Jesus was a Jew and he highly valued what we call the OT. In Luke’s gospel after his resurrection one of the first things that he did was to begin to preach to his disciples who he was from the OT beginning with Moses and the Prophets (Luke 24:27). It is important that we understand what the Jews believed in the OT so we can understand how they thought in the NT. The central aspect of being a Jew revolved around the idea of God’s covenant. Covenants were given to them and their family. This is shown in the covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the promise of the New Covenant given in the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They knew that to identify with the people of God was to be in covenant with him. The last covenant given to all the Jews was begun with the physical sign of circumcision. This was required of all males as the outward sign of obedience to be members of the covenant community.
Males of every age be they adult converts or children of believers were required to be circumcised. Anyone who wished to become a Jew had to be circumcised. The Jewish people as a nation were to be a royal and holy priesthood to God (Exodus 19:5-6). Yet they failed to keep God’s commandments. God promised in the later prophets that he would one day create a better covenant and that the Jews should be looking for this new covenant to occur.
During Pentecost after the out pouring of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts chapters 1 and 2, Peter started preaching that Jesus life, death, and resurrection was the beginning of new covenant and fulfillment of the promises concerning the coming of the new covenant. Many of the Jews gathered there began to believe God had fulfilled his promise. When Peter says “and for your children” he was promising more than just the possibility that their children could be saved. He was stating the inclusion was already made possible but what Jesus had done. The grace and truth of God had come in Jesus (John 1).
It is hard to imagine that this Jewish audience would have thought of anything else but that the promise given was also for their children! Some argue that it is just the promise. Whereas the old covenants all involved them and their children in this line of reasoning the new covenant was more exclusive only to them. Yet Peter states that this new covenant is even more inclusive than the old! In the first covenant is was only their sons that experienced the sign of the covenant. In the new covenant it was now open to their sons and daughters and for the young and old. This new covenant fulfilled the promise given by the prophet Joel,
“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.”
Some think that prophecy is nothing more than fortune telling. That is not biblical prophecy. Biblical prophecy always deals with spiritual matters. Prophecy in the new covenant ultimately is talking about Jesus to those who don’t know him or have wandered away. The fact that Peter says in the last days “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” means that they will know about Jesus and be talking about him intimately from a early age! That is just awesome to me especially since I have a daughter and a son on the way!
Throughout the rest of Acts there are several passages that speak about how once the head of the household converted to Christ then the whole household were also baptized. This meant that whole families were coming into the new covenant of God through Jesus. God desires for new converts to be baptized into the Church upon their profession of faith. In the believer’s only view this meant that each family being baptized was made up only of adults or children old enough to consent to being baptized. The problem with this view is that it does not account for how the Jews thought or how the early church understood the practice of baptism. For a history on the developing views of baptism check out our article on baptism towards a open handed position. For the both the Jews and the early Church baptism was the physical means by entering the covenant community. It was affirmed by a profession of faith, not just once but for the whole of a Christian’s life.
Baptism is a important issue. Jesus commanded us to do it (see Matthew 28:18-20). Ultimately one must come to a conviction on where they stand on this issue by how they understand Scripture. In the covenant baptism position there is a scriptural, cultural, historical, reasonable, and inclusive view welcoming in converts through professions of faith and for the children of believers to come into the Church by the grace of God even before they have the opportunity to personally validate their faith through profession. Baptism is seen as a means by which God without merit of the individual freely gives us his grace. The confession of faith that I now subscribe to states it very well in this way:
“The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered… to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongs unto, according to the counsel of God’s own will, in his appointed time.”
This is my personal position is now derived from the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 28.
1. Baptism is a sacrament of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible Church, but also to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life: which sacrament is, by Christ’s own appointment, to be continued in his Church until the end of the world. [Mat 28:19, 1 Cor 12:13, Rom 4:11, Col 2:11-12, Rom 6:5, Gal 3:27, Titus 3:5, Mark 1:4, Rom 6:3-4, Mat 28:19-20.]
2. The outward element to be used in this sacrament is water, wherewith the party is to be baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by a minister of the gospel lawfully called thereunto [the ministry]. [Mat 3:11; 28:19-20; John 1:33.]
3. [Immersion by dipping is a valid expression of baptism.] Dipping of the person into the water is not necessary [as the sole valid form of biblical baptism]; Baptism is [also] rightly administered by pouring or sprinkling water upon the person [that is being baptized].* [Mark 7:4; Acts 2:41; 16:33; Heb 9:10, 19-22. Matthew 3:13-17]
4. Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both believing parents are to be baptized. [Mark 16:15-16; Acts 8:37-38, Gen 17:7, 9 with Gal 3:9, 14 and Col 2:11-12 and Acts 2:38-39 and Rom 4:11-12; Mat 28:19; Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15; 1 Cor 7:14.]
5. Although it be a great sin to contemn or neglect this ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not so inseparably annexed unto it, as that no person can be regenerated or saved without it, or that all that are baptized are undoubtedly regenerated. [Luke 7:30 with Exod 4:24-26, Acts 10:2, 4, 22, 31, 45, 47; Rom 4:11. Acts 8:13, 23.]
6. The efficacy of baptism is not tied to that moment of time wherein it is administered; yet, notwithstanding, by the right use of this ordinance the grace promised is not only offered, but really exhibited and conferred by the Holy Spirit, to such (whether of age or infants) as that grace belongs unto, according to the counsel of God’s own will, in his appointed time. [John 3:5, 8. Acts 2:38, 41; Gal 3:27; Eph 5:25-26; Titus 3:5.]
7. The sacrament of baptism is but once to be administered to any person.
[Titus 3:5, Ephesians 4:5.]
* Clarifications are in brackets. Scripture references provided.
Final Thoughts
Baptism for children is about teaching them to trust in God’s will and that their salvation is ultimately in his hands not their experiences. Baptism is meant to show the world that God is changing lives from youth to old age. It is open to all who will believe. Baptism is an act of obedience be it the obedience of converts upon profession of faith or the parents of children being baptized upon profession that they will be raised in the faith. Baptism is not a means of salvation. Sadly many people have been baptized as infants and adults think the act saves. The Scriptures clearly teach that only God saves by his sovereign grace.
Some may ask why baptize infants at all if it could give them false assurance of salvation? Shouldn’t that be their decision when they are older? Infants and small children can’t decide when they will go to bed, when or what they will eat, what they will wear, when or where they will use the bathroom, or what they believe. Children can not work or provide for themselves and must rely on their parents. In a very real sense baptizing a child of believers presents a very beautiful picture of how God saves us not of ourselves. Believer’s children like adult converts can only be saved by the grace of God. Parents must decide what is best for them and lead them in that direction and be accountable to God for that decision.
I am convinced that God cares immensely more about children then even the very best of parents. This is why I understand he opens up baptism for them. God created the community of the Church in part to be a place for all people regardless of age to experience His presence. God wants people in the Church to grow as members not just observers. God calls believing parents to baptize their children because he wants them to grow and consider themselves as members of the Church as part of God’s people. A person is ultimately saved by God’s call and work (John 1:13). Jesus saves by his Sovereign Grace not of anything we do so that none of us can boast except in what He has done (1 Corinthians 1:29, 2 Corinthians 10:17).
Some disagree with covenant baptism from a strong personal conviction. Others from the religious tradition in which they were raised. I can worship with them even though I believe that they are wrong on this issue. I believe that they are missing part of what God desires for their children. I feel that they are missing part of the beauty of the new covenant community. Yet I will not break fellowship with someone who gets the timing or method of baptism wrong. I take seriously Jesus words that “by your love for one another that all people will know that you are my disciples.” I pray for the day that all believers are in one accord on every issue of Scripture and that we all will be right. I believe it is the covenant baptism position. I believe it best shows the grace of God that he saved young and old, male and female. My hope is in Christ and the day that he fulfills the words of the apostle Peter from 1 Peter 2:9 that he finishes building up all the people God.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Until that day comes,
Pastor Will
