Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/74

Contributor - John Drost

Title - The Ordinance of (Infant) Baptism

Topic - Baptism

1. The ordinance of baptism as it is practiced by churches of the Reformed family finds its basic meaning and root in the concept of the covenant. When we look at the whole of the Scriptures and ask ourselves, what essentially is God's Way of Salvation, the answer to that question is: His Covenant. It is through His Covenant that God enters into relationship with fallen man. The Covenant, therefore, becomes the basis of our relationship with God in Christ.

2. About this covenant a number of things may be said:

a. Its basis is in the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son:

Psalm 2 :8: "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen, for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost part of the earth for Thy inheritance."

Isaiah 53 : 10: "And it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief; ... when he makes himself an offering for sin, he shall see his off spring, he shall prolong his days."

Matthew 17 :18: "This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved . . ."

2 Cor. 5 :16: "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."

b. The covenant is formally established with Abraham, but revealed immediately after the fall.

Genesis 3 :15: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your heal, and you shall bruise his heel. Genesis 17 : 7: "And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your descendants after you.

c. The covenant is eternal (see Genesis 17 :7 above) and therefore cannot be abolished or abrogated, only fulfilled and completed!

d. The covenant is a Covenant of Grace. It is initiated by God and completed by Him. Although there are two parts (as to any covenant), the maintenance of the covenant depends solely upon God. The promise of salvation is in the way of faith and not of works. Our share in the covenant is none but unrighteousness (see Psalm 51).

Genesis 15 :17: "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces." (God established the covenant by his promise and His gracious coming to man, man is purely a recipient).

Deuteronomy 7 . 7, 8: "It is not because you are more in number, but because the Lord loves you that he brought you out . ." John 15 :16: "You did not choose me but I chose you ."

e. The covenant is universal, not national or: restricted to Israel. God promises Abraham: "In you all the families of the earth will be blessed." (Genesis 12 :3).

f. The deeper significance of this covenant is that out of the relationship with Abraham and his descendants will eventually come the Christ. Galatians 3:16: "Now the promises were made to Abraham and his, offspring. It does not say offsprings but offspring, meaning Christ . . ."

g. The sign of the covenant in the Old Testament. The flesh 'Is circumcised as a sign that God's Son and God's children are not children of the flesh but children of the Spirit. John 1 : 13: "Who were born not of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." The sign is a sign of incorporation. Those who receive the mark of circumcision become part of the covenant and share in its benefits. Genesis 17 : 10.

h. The mark of the Old Covenant is administered to male children on the eighth day following birth as representatives of future families and generations. The mark is administered in the context of Israel's faith, for God's covenant is not primarily a bond with the individual, but it is a bond with His people, initiated "once and for all" in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). Thus the child shares in the solidarity of the people to whom he belongs."

3. When Jesus Christ comes and accomplishes his mission, the Old Covenant ceases and the New Covenant begins. It is the New Covenant in His blood. I Corinthians 11 : 25: "This cup is the New Covenant in my blood, do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me . However the substance, the essence of the Old Covenant is taken up in the New Covenant without change. Matthew 5 :17,18: "Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them." In other words, the Covenant of God is ONE, and its UNITY is found in Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant therefore is not to be minimized as outdated in this regard having no bearing on our saving relationship with God. God's Majesty and Grace are no less real here than in the New Testament. The New Covenant, it is true, is a better Covenant (Hebrews 8 :6) for what is anticipated in the Old Testament in types and shadows is realized and fulfilled in the New Testament.

4. The Covenant then is and remains the basis and "method" of God's saving relationship with man. And thus, as circumcision was the mark of that saving relationship in the Old Testament, so baptism brings man into a saving relationship with God in the New Testament. As circumcision was the sign and seal whereby the child came to share in the benefits of salvation (Exodus 20: 1: "I am the Lord our God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the House of bondage") in the .Old Testament, so baptism is the sign and seal whereby the child shares in the benefits of salvation through Jesus Christ, the fulfilled Covenant.

5. The following words sum up the meaning of baptism:

a. Justification. Baptism is sharing in the work which Christ has done for us in cross and resurrection, his once and for all sacrifice at Calvary. The meaning of baptism is not in the rite but in the REALITY in Christ of which baptism is seal and sign. (The N.T. always uses baptisma, the reality in which we 'are baptized, not baptismos, which is the mere rite.) Thus in Romans 6 we have a description of this reality when Paul says: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like His." (Rom. 6:3-5) Jesus Christ is the ground of our salvation. It is in and through him that we have received the 'remission of sins'. We are cleansed by his blood.

b. In justification provision is made for our salvation. In regeneration we are given Christ's benefits. The work of Christ for us (declared ours in justification) both encloses and leads to his saving work in us.(regeneration and sanctification). In other words, the new birth, the new life, the cleansing work of the Spirit, repentance, conversion, all of which are the substance of regeneration, may be anticipated through baptism, since baptism is not only a sign (some use the word "symbol") but also a seal, an assurance or guarantee. To be baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit means therefore that we may TRUST that the whole of salvation is ours. Baptism not only signifies but also confirms in the life of the person baptized His promises.

c. Incorporation. Through baptism we have received a new identity, belonging as we do to the family of God (Romans 8 : 16, 17: ". . . we are children of God and if children heirs . . ."). This is true because we were incorporated into the fellowship of Christ's death and resurrection. (I Cor. 6 :19, 20: "You are not your own, you were bought with a price"; also: I Peter 1 : 18, 19.) Finally we are incorporated into the fellowship of the Church, the Covenant Community: I Corinthians 1 :2: " to the church of God, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together, who call upon the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Also: I Peter 2 : 9.)

WHY INFANT BAPTISM?

1. On the strength of the Covenant Reality as God's Way of Salvation in both the Old and the New Testament, i.e. in the whole of the Scriptures.

2. On the strength of the Sovereignty of His grace. Infant baptism testifies to the fact that God's grace comes before man's faith; in fact man is unable to respond until God's grace is operative in him. God sets the first step in our lives. Even before we know Him, He knows us, before we love Him He loves us. We have not chosen Him but He has chosen us.

3. On the strength of the reality of sin. Each human creature is conceived and born in sin. We share unmistakably in the sin of the first man. The wrath of God is against us (Romans 5 : 9). We need to be rescued. God comes to the rescue in Christ and the Spirit. This is what He confirms in baptism.

4. On the strength of the faith (through grace) of God's people in whose solidarity the child stands: the solidarity of a believing family, the solidarity of a believing congregation.

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