Word of Salvation – Vol.34 No.29 – August 1989

 

Believers’ Children and Baptism

Sermon by Rev. M.P. Geluk on Lord’s Day 26 (Q.74)

Scripture Reading: Genesis 17:1-4; Acts 16:11-15; 25-34

 

With the foregoing Lord’s Days, we have seen how God’s Spirit uses the sacrament of baptism to move us to faith in Christ.  That’s what sacraments are for – to strengthen faith in God.  There is a word of God at baptism – it’s the baptismal formula “I baptise you into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.  And there is the Word of God about baptism by which we mean the several passages in Scripture, where it refers to baptism.

We now want to consider the place of believers’ children in all this.  In our confession the question is asked, “Should infants, too, be baptised?”  You know, of course, about the struggles and controversies surrounding that whole question.

The Calvinist theologian R.B. Kuiper had this to say after he returned twenty years later to the place of his younger ministry and met up again with many old acquaintances:

“A great many whom I had taught as children and young people are now leaders in their several congregations.  And I must confess with shame that more than a few of these I had regarded as not at all promising.  And as I now from time to time conduct Sunday services in churches of that area, my wife usually accompanies me, and frequently she is approached by former pupils – some of them once upon a time a bit unruly – who express a deep appreciation of their early training.  In consequence I had become convinced more firmly than ever before of the meaningfulness of the covenant of grace, of the fruitfulness of Christian education, of the effectualness of the prayers of Christian parents for their children, and above all else, of the faithfulness of our covenant God.”

Many pastors have had similar experiences when visiting churches they previously served.  There are pleasant surprises when one sees former rebels faithfully serving Christ and His church.

But unfortunately the opposite is true also.  There are sad surprises when one hears of former pupils who have left the church and Christ as well.  You can see the hurt and disappointment on the faces of the parents when they tell of their children who have broken with God.

Yes, Scripture tells us about Isaac and Timothy, who, as they grew up, believed and obeyed God.  But we are also told about Esau and Demas who turned their backs on God and followed the ways of the world.

So believing parents can either rejoice, or agonize over their children, and much of that joy or sorrow is tied up with the kind of response their children have given to God.

What value then is there in our children growing up in a Christian home, in a covenant community where they receive Christian training and education in Sunday School, catechism classes and Christian school?  You will probably say that these helped a great deal, if your child has grown up into a believing relationship with Christ.  But if the opposite is true then you will have wondered about the effectualness of a Christian upbringing.

Well, let us look to God with our joys or sorrows, our thankfulness or concerns, and hear the teaching of Scripture concerning:

    Believers’ Children and Baptism.

1.  How does God see them?

2.  What are they promised?

3.  How should they respond?

1.  In the first place then, let us consider how God sees believers’ children and how this relates to baptism.

You know, of course, that many Christian churches regard the baptism of infants with abhorrence.  They prefer to see their children as objects of evangelism, and will teach them the Scriptures and face them with many testimonies until, hopefully, they will make a decision for Christ.  Before such a decision for Christ is made, Baptist believers do not quite see their children as pagans.  In fact, it’s not quite clear how they consider God seeing their children.  Probably as individuals who are neither saved nor lost until they themselves decide for Christ.

Reformed believers should know how God sees their children, for it has been made quite clear in Scripture.  We certainly do not baptise children of parents who are not believers.

Neither do we baptise children because they are so nice or innocent looking.  Nor because, Christian parents are in good and regular standing of church and society.  Reformed people baptise their children because children of believers also belong to the covenant of grace.

Do we have scriptural evidence for that?  If we don’t then Baptists are right and we better stop baptising infants.  The covenant of grace points to a relationship of favour that God established between Himself and those who believe in Him.  Baptist Christians have, of course, no difficulty with that.  But what Baptist Christians must learn to see and what Reformed Christians must not forget is that God in this covenant does not only deal with believers on an individual basis.

Yes, God dealt with Rahab the prostitute and Ruth as individuals, and there were others like them, who came into the covenant from the outside.  But inside that covenant are all believers and their children.  Believers’ children are born inside the covenant, because their believing parents are inside.  Unbelievers and their children are always outside the covenant, unless, of course, they come to faith, which then will bring them also into the covenant.

Now God sees all those inside the covenant as a whole and not as individuals, although God wants each member of the covenant to have a personal relationship with Him.

This is the witness of Scripture about God seeing those inside the covenant as a whole.  God said to Abraham that He would make him into a great nation (Gen. 12:2) and we would have to understand that as a nation of believers, like Abraham was.  Later Abraham was told that God was establishing His covenant as an everlasting covenant, between Himself and Abraham, and his descendants.

The blessing of such a relationship was pointed to when God said that He will be the God of Abraham and the God of Abraham’s descendants (Gen.17:7).  So Abraham developed into a nation, and he had many descendants, and to all who belonged, God bound Himself to them in covenant relationship.

In OT times this covenant of grace was mainly with believing Israelites but in NT times believing gentiles are also included.  All who belong to Christ Jesus through faith in Him are regarded as children of Abraham for he is the Father of all believers (Rom.4:11; Gal.3:14, 29).

When the Bible, therefore, speaks of a covenant then not individuals are meant but a whole group of people.  To this covenant community God says, “I will be God to you and to your descendants.”

Now this promise of God to the people of His covenant, is it only meant for adults who believe, or also their children?  God says He will be God to Abraham’s descendants.

Does this mean when these descendants become believers, or from the time they become descendants, that is, when they are conceived and born?

Through the prophet Isaiah God speaks of this covenant relationship with His people Israel while they were still in the womb and that he will pour out His Spirit on their offspring (Is.44:2,3).  When through Ezekiel God renews His covenant promise to His people, to be their God, and they His people, then children are mentioned (Ezek.37:25-27).

In the NT it is said that children are holy, even if only one parent is a believer (1Cor.7:14).  That’s not a holiness in the sense of being born again and converted, but in the sense of being set apart as a member of the covenant.

When Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mat.19:14), then the Lord was referring to the children of Israel, Abraham’s descendants.  The kingdom of heaven belonged to them, Jesus said, for it was promised to Abraham and his seed.

And the apostle Peter repeats that, when after Pentecost he said to the crowd, “The promise is for you and your children, and for all who are afar off – for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39).  Peter was still speaking to Israelites but soon he would discover that God was calling Jews and Gentiles into His covenant.

And their children!

For sure enough, the NT records five baptisms where the households were included (Acts 11:14; 16:15, 33; 18:8; 1Cor.1:16).

Debates about the ages of these household members, misses the point.

The point is that the NT apostles used the expression “you and your household” and that meant that the OT inclusion of believers’ children in the covenant, continued right on into the NT.  The suggestion therefore that children are excluded from this covenant of grace is foreign to the whole biblical way of thinking.

God has a covenant relationship with children of believers.  And those in the covenant were made aware of that by God.  David says in Psalm 22:10, “From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.” Jeremiah heard God say to him, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.” (Jer.1:5).

The evidence of Scripture, therefore, points to believers and their children being in covenant relationship with God.  God says, I will be God to you and to your children.  And in the OT time circumcision was given as a sign and seal of belonging to that covenant.  The first to receive that sign was Abraham and he was 99 years of age.  But on the same day his son Ishmael was also circumcised and he was 14 and then when Isaac was born he received circumcision on the eighth day (Gen.17 & 21).

It’s you and your children.

In the NT times baptism came in the place of circumcision.  The sign changed but not God’s covenant of grace.

God sees believers and their children, as members of His covenant, and the sacrament of baptism is a sign and a seal that they belong to God.  Believers’ children, therefore, are quite different to God than children of unbelievers.  “I will be God to you and your children” is not said to all children but only to believers’ children.

2.  But now in the second place let us ask what believers’ children are promised?

Well, it is the same as that which believing being parents are promised.  God says “I will be your God” to both believing parents and their children.  So when you are in the covenant of grace, either as a believer, or as children of believers, then God is your God.  You are mine, He says!

That means, that you stand in a special relationship to Him wherein you are promised salvation.  When you call upon the Lord in repentance and faith, then God will be sure to forgive you your sins.  To all who are in the covenant, God promises the Holy Spirit who produces faith.

But, you might think at this point, that God promises salvation to all who call upon Him in repentance and faith, whether they are inside or outside the covenant.

That is very true.

However, the point is that we are sure of God calling covenant children, but we do not know whom He will call outside the covenant.  We are commanded to bring the gospel of salvation to all people, young and old alike.

But we do not know whose hearts the Holy Spirit will turn to God.  Believers’ children, however, have no such uncertainty.  God is working in their hearts, with His Holy Spirit, through the Word, all the time.

God will keep His promise to believers, and their children.

Your baptism is a sign and seal of that promise.

Baptism always points to God and what He promises.

We do not baptise children because they might be believers in the future, or on the assumption that they are regenerated.  We, in fact, know nothing about the child as such.

We don’t know if it has the potential to believe, whether or not its nature is more inclined to turn to God, than other children in the family.  All that is mere speculation and we should stay clear of it.

What baptism does say is that they, like their believing parents, are included in the covenant and church of God, and that both redemption from sin and the Holy Spirit, the author of faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them also.  Baptism does not say what the children will be in the future for God, but baptism does say what God, both now and in the future, will be for them.

Believers’ children, like all other children, are also born with sinful hearts.  They too share in the condemnation of Adam.

They don’t know about this as infants, but that does not change the fact of their sinfulness.  Nor do they know as infants, that God has promised salvation to them.  Not until they become older do they know that God has always seen them as His.  The believing parents and the Christian church must tell these covenant children, that God is also their God.  He has and will call upon them through His Word and Spirit to repent and believe.  And when they do, God will surely save them.

They can look to their baptism, for through baptism, God seeks to move them to faith.

3.  In the final place, let us see how believers’ children should respond.

Well, we know that now.

Children of believers, as they grow older and reach the years of discretion, should respond to the calling of God by repenting of their sin and believing in Christ as the Saviour from sin.

They have to be born again and converted.  And when they can speak for themselves and know what their church confesses Scripture to be saying, then they should make a personal and public profession of their faith.

Why then doesn’t this happen with all covenant children?  Why do things sometimes go wrong?  Why are there believers’ children who turn their back to God, and the Christian faith and become covenant breakers, and in the process grieve the Holy Spirit, and bring deep sorrow to their believing parents?

Well, there are several things to be said here,

Firstly, we have to honestly admit that somewhere we, the parents are partly to blame.  Some of us parents may be more exemplary than others, but none of us are perfect.  And I wouldn’t want to say that in the Christian upbringing of children, I am doing a better job than others.  And you should not be saying or thinking it either.

As Christian parents we have a beautiful task and opportunity – bringing up .covenant children in an environment of love and service to God, where repentance, obedience and respect are taught and practised.  We know God will call our children to faith.  But we have to confess to being big stumbling blocks to our children at times.  We can be destructively critical, bad examples, and subtly hypocritical.

So somewhere in the process of covenant children leaving the Lord, we parents do play a negative part, for which we ourselves have to ask God’s forgiveness.

Then secondly, we have to also admit that as a Christian congregation we are at fault.  We pledge our support to each other’s children as a covenant community but sometimes we show that we hardly seem to care.  No, I am not responsible to bring up your children, or you mine, but together we are responsible, to so conduct our lifestyle and church membership, that the up-and-coming generation can learn from us adults, as to how to love God and our neighbour.  Woe to us, if we cause one of these little ones to stumble.

Thirdly, the covenant children themselves have to turn away from sin and follow Christ.  You cannot hide behind the sins or the mistakes of your parents.  God says to you, “You are mine” and you cannot ever get away from that.  You either respond in faith and decide to follow Christ, or you turn your back to God.

You are faced with a tremendous responsibility.  God is a wonderful God to you, for He has promised to save you from eternal death.  Your baptism tells you that.  It’s no good coming up with all kinds of excuses about whatever wrong things happened in your childhood or as a teenager.

Now is the day of salvation.

Now is the time to give your heart to God.

But this surrendering to God is not so much to be seen as a decision for Christ, in which you are doing God a favour by your act of coming to Him.  Rather, it is the other way round.  God has done you a favour, by including you in His covenant love, along with your believing parents.  Before you were born, God said already, “You are mine”.  Therefore, your act of coming to Christ is not as though God and you have never met before.  When you were baptised as an infant, God then already, gave you a sign to remember Him by, that He loves you, and wants to save you.  That’s God’s electing love, to you.

But you are to respond to His love with faith and obedience.

There is a mystery here we can’t completely understand.  God saying to covenant children, “you are mine” and yet you, having to surrender to God, by saying, “I want to belong to you.”

God is sovereign in His will, yet at no time does His will obliterate our responsibility to confess faith in Him.

Not all covenant children, in the years of growing up, go through a struggle, but some do.  God says to all of you, “You are mine”, but some of you find it hard to accept that.  You want to be your own boss.  Or you want to belong to the world.  Maybe to a person, or a group of people, or to a lifestyle, where God is not accepted, as the one to serve and obey.

It’s like being pulled in opposite directions.

Sometimes we compromise by trying to take on board both directions.  But this is one place where such blending does not work.  It’s either one or the other.

Growing up is a time of indecision and doubt.  We know, for we were also teenagers once.

It is also the time where Christian love in the covenant community is most necessary.  We must love one another, whatever the cost.

Parents must love their children.  The church must love its young people.  And young people must christianly love each other.

At whatever cost.

That does not mean you have to give in to every whim or fancy.  But it means being prepared to go the second mile, to sacrifice, to deny oneself for the sake of the other.

We must love each other, just like God loved us.  God has some unlovable characters in His covenant.

Just look at the history of Israel in the OT.  The books of Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and the prophets tell us how terribly God’s covenant people treated Him.  The gospels tell us that the Jews, including the Pharisees, weren’t much better.  In fact, there is not really a book in the Bible wherein you do not find some ugly side to God’s covenant children.  It’s the reality and tragedy of sin, of course.  But notice, how God loved His own.  He loves the unlovable.  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That’s how God loves us.

And that’s how parents, must love their children.  It’s how in the church, adults must love the youth, and it’s how young people must love one another.

It’s that kind of love that eventually will win a response.  We love God, because He first loved us.  We will love each other, when we don’t give up on each other.  But because such love, whether of God or of us, is so costly – think of Christ on the cross – therefore, to reject it is to commit the most serious crime before the face of God.  Covenant breakers are in big trouble.  But why die in your sins, when God is still saying “turn to me and live!”

AMEN