Word of Salvation – Vol. 41 No. 33 – September 1996

 

Children: A Part Of God’s People

 

Sermon by Rev. W. Wiersma on Lord’s Day 27

 

Dear Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a sad thing that there are people who, in the words of Hebrews 6, have once been enlightened, have tasted the heavenly gifts, have shared in the Holy Spirit, have tasted the goodness of the love of God and the power of the coming age; I say, it is a sad thing that there are people who have enjoyed all these good things, who yet fall away from the faith and give up on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But, for all the questions and problems that this sad statement in Scripture raises, we still hold onto and teach the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.

It is also a sad fact that many children who have received the sign and seal of God’s covenant promise, have grown up to reject the Gospel and have broken their ties with the church.  Nonetheless, many churches, including the Reformed Churches continue to baptise children of believers.

Yes, there are questions and problems, if you like, with the doctrine and practice of infant baptism.  But is that not true of all the teachings of the Bible and the views and practices of all the churches?  Is it not true that our understanding of Scripture is greatly influenced by what we hear and read from sources other than the Bible itself?  Is it not true that every one of us knows only in part?  We must live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ rather than by sight.  We must hang onto the love of God, rather than live only by what we see and experience.

At the same time we must be careful that we don’t take this warning out of context.  And what I mean by that is: we must realise that we live in a world of sight and sound.  We deal with things we hear and see.  For instance, every Sunday we confess that we believe that there is one holy universal church.  The Body of the Lord Jesus Christ is one.  The church is a spiritual and a holy thing.  But what do we see and how do we experience the church?  How do we relate to the church and play our part in it?

We deal with people of flesh and blood – saints who blunder, make mistakes and need to ask for forgiveness.  What I am getting at is this: we must be careful that we don’t draw too many conclusions from practical realities.  We must not argue from the idolatries of the Israelites that they were not the people of God.  Nor must we conclude from the idolatry and defection of children baptised in infancy that they therefore never belonged to the people of God and should never have been baptised.

If we would adopt that argument and take it to its logical conclusion, then the church would never baptise anyone.  For there have been many who have been baptised as ‘believers’ who have later turned their back on the church and on God.  You see, we can only go by what we see and hear.  Only God knows the heart.

So, we must turn to God’s Word, to the Scriptures, to find the answer to the questions which we are called to deal with today: Do the Scriptures, or does God, see children as being part of His people?  How does the Scripture teach us to think of the church?  Is the church simply a collection or association of individuals who have declared their faith in Jesus Christ and have voluntarily submitted themselves to the rite of baptism?

In other words, is the church only made up of people who are capable of making a creditable confession of their faith, as Baptist churches teach?  If so, there is no place in the church for little children – they can’t be part of it and they can’t be made part of it by dedication.  But, is that the way Scripture teaches us to think of the people of God either in the Old Testament or in the New Testament?

The answer is NO!  The Bible nowhere teaches us to think of the church so individualistically, nor so emphatically on the prior faith of the members of God’s holy nation.  Again and again in the Old Testament we find that God deals with nations.  God deals with families for good or ill.

Think of the family of Jacob; and think of the family of Abraham.  We read in Romans 4 that Abraham received circumcision as the sign of righteousness he had by faith.  And God told Abraham to apply that sign to his children as well.  They had part in God’s promise to Abraham and circumcision had spiritual, salvation significance.

Now the problem which has arisen again and again is that people have put their trust in the sign rather than in God himself, who graciously gives the things which the sign points to.  In John 8 we read that the Lord Jesus had an argument with Jews about salvation, that is, about the truth setting them free.  They argued that they didn’t need Jesus because they were already free, they were Abraham’s children; they were circumcised.

But, circumcision is nothing without faith.  Circumcision did not make faith superfluous or unnecessary.  Rather, circumcision, as the sign of God’s covenant promise and covenant relationship with His people, called for faith and the fruit of faith.  So, too, baptism without faith is nothing to build your hope and confidence on.

But, as a sign of God’s gracious covenant promise and relationship with believers and their families, baptism is an incentive to believe in God and trust in His Christ for the gift of salvation.  And that is the way the whole Bible, including the New Testament teaches us to think of the church and the Christian family.

Yes, we read almost exclusively of adult or believer’s baptism in the New Testament which is what we would expect in the initial stage of the Christian church.  But it is interesting, to say the least, that whole households were baptised.  It certainly appears that, like in the Old Testament, the head of the family determined the religious or covenantal identity of the family.

So the whole household of Cornelius, the Roman Centurion, was baptised; and that of Lydia; as well as the whole family of the Philippian jailer.  Which may make you wonder about the statement of the apostle Paul where he says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Well, it is true, as I said earlier, that we are not saved on the basis that we are children of believers as such.  We must not pin our hopes on our earthly family line.  We should rather pin our hopes on the gracious promises of God.  And those promises are given to believers and their children.

In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul writes that the children of believing parents are holy.  In other words they belong to the people of God by virtue of God’s promise and His dealings with his people.  It is for this reason that the children of Christian believers are baptised.  This does not rule out the need for being born again.  This does not mean that they do not need to repent and believe.  It does mean that children have a place in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ – the holy nation.

This does not rule out the need for faith.  Rather it is an incentive to faith and confidence in the grace and mercy of the Lord.  The sacraments, or Christian ordinances if you like, are incentives to focus all our attention on Christ, whom the Father has sent into the world to redeem a people for himself.

And here it is good to remember what Lord’s Day 27 says about the significance of baptism.  It does not work of itself – it is not something magical.  Let us understand that baptism does not save our children.  Only Christ can do that by His blood and Spirit.  So let us focus our attention and the attention of our children on the Saviour Jesus Christ, whom God the Father sent to provide us forgiveness of sin and the Holy Spirit, who gives faith to all whom God has freely chosen to be saved for His glory.

Amen.