Baptism


[Note: Much of the content below has been adapted from PCA Pastor Kevin DeYoung, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevin-deyoung/a-brief-defense-of-infant-baptism/]

Children are a gift from the Lord and He has been generous in his giving of children to the families of our church and we are grateful for each one. We love and welcome children at Proclamation and are delighted to have them join us in our gathered worship services. One of the best things I get to do as a pastor is to administer the sacrament of infant baptism to the covenant children at Proclamation. We do so in accordance with what we believe to be the teaching of the Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.

Before each baptism, I take a few minutes to explain why we practice what I have learned to refer to as “covenant baptism” in our church. These explanations vary but often contain at least a portion of what I’ve included below:

It is my great privilege to administer the sacrament of baptism today. This sacrament is commanded by our Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism is a sign and seal of the Covenant of Grace and of our union with Jesus.

We do not believe that baptism saves the child! Baptism points us to Jesus alone as our Savior. The water in baptism represents the blood of Jesus, which alone can cleanse us from the guilt and power of sin. Everyone who is baptized, child or adult, is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

The Covenant baptism of a child beautifully points to the initiative of God's love. He reached out to us, when we could not reach out to Him. It is thus a perfect picture of sovereign, saving grace. 

Theologian B. B. Warfield has said: 

Every time we baptize an infant we bear witness that salvation is from God, that we cannot do any good thing to secure it, that we all enter the Kingdom of heaven therefore as little children, who do not do, but are done for.

If this child we baptize today is to enjoy the reality of what this sign symbolizes, she or he must personally repent and trust in Christ as she or he grows and hears the gospel from her parents, her family, her church. While we do not believe that baptism saves the child or that this child already has the faith that is necessary for salvation, we do believe the Bible teaches that this sign of the Covenant is to be administered to believers and their children.

We see this pattern from the beginning:

In the OT Israelite children were treated as part of the covenant community, and nowhere in the NT do we ever hear Jesus or any of the apostles or anyone else tell us that children of Christians are now to be treated as outside the covenant community that is under Christ's Lordship. The NT does address other changes that were made in the worship of the Church with the coming of Christ, but it never even hints that the relationship of believers' children to the Church community has changed.

We believe this is incredibly significant. Before Jesus came, Israelite children were regarded as "inside" the covenant community and as such they received the sign of the covenant, which at the time was circumcision. Now, after Jesus has come, we see no reason, and we have no instruction from God’s word, to change the way we view the children of believers, to suddenly regard them as "outside" the covenant community and thus to exclude them from the sign of the covenant, which today is baptism. 

Circumcision in the OT and baptism in the NT are both covenant signs: They point to and confirm th gracious promise of God to his people. These signs mark the boundaries of the community that acknowledges Christ's covenant Lordship & authority, the Church. 

This is one reason we baptize children of believers today. Because we believe the Bible teaches that children of believers are to be regarded as part of the covenant community.

We are reminded of the Covenant promises in God’s Word:

Genesis 17:7

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 

Acts 2:38-39

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 

Recommended resources for further study (we have most of these books in our church office and would be happy to lend them to you):


To understand how someone could come to embrace infant baptism, check out the “How I Changed My Mind” articles from: