Hi, this is the Human Proclaim podcast. These are the messages of John Fawnville. little ones to him belong. You might recognize that phrase from the children's hymn, Jesus Loves Me, This I Know. Today, John is answering questions about why there are things like whole house baptism in Scripture and why we baptize children of believers.
Well, baptism is a picture of the gospel and a central teaching here on Him We Proclaim. Let's dive into what Scripture has for us with Part 2 of Little Ones to Him Belong. Why do we baptize infants and why do we baptize small children? Here's why we baptize our children because Abraham is the pattern. The Abrahamic covenant.
To understand the infant household baptism, you have to understand baptism in its covenantal context in the scriptures. These scriptures are a covenantal book. The whole structure of the Bible is a covenant and is held together by various covenants in Scripture. But particularly, to understand infant baptism, you have to understand the Abrahamic covenant. Let me give you an illustration about this.
Understanding the practice of infant or household baptism in the church is analogous to an iceberg. Scientists tell us that 90% of an iceberg's volume and mass is underwater. 10% of the iceberg is above the water, and that's the 10% that everybody sees. This is a perfect analogy to infant baptism in the church because what folks see is they see babies being sprinkled, they see little children or small children being poured upon with water in a worship service. That's the 10%.
But the overwhelming majority have never seen or encountered the 90%. Which is the covenantal context of baptism in Scripture as it relates to the Abrahamic covenant. And they have no idea that the reason they're saying the 10% is because of the 90% below the water.
So what we learned last week from Genesis 17, 7 is that circumcision was administered to believers and to their children. Listen to the Lord's promises to Abraham. He says, I will establish my covenant between me and you. and your descendants, your seed, your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. And here's the promise to be God to you, Abraham, and to your descendants, your offspring, your seed after you.
God has promised to be a God to his people and to his people's children, to believers and their children, from Genesis 17 to Exodus to Jeremiah 31 to the gospel fulfillment of Christ in the Gospels to 2 Corinthians 6, where Paul applies the Abrahamic covenant to the Corinthian church, and then ultimately in the book of Revelation, which you heard, John. John in the new heavens and the new earth, the new creation, in the resurrection. Says again, and he repeats the promise of Abraham that God will be a God to us and to our children. And so, this promise, the Lord's covenant promise to Abraham, is echoed throughout all of redemptive history. The same promise, the same, let me say it like this, the same gospel.
And the same administration of the gospel, the pattern of administrating the promise. continues all throughout redemptive history that never changes.
So when you come, for example, to the Apostle Peter at Pentecost and when he's preaching the gospel, he's preaching the promise. Peter at Pentecost does not announce a change in the Lord's promise. He's preaching the same gospel that was preached to Abraham in Genesis 12. And he also doesn't announce a radical departure from the pattern of administering that promise. Which the Lord had instituted 2,000 years prior in the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 17.
So, what does Peter announce? He announces the same promise, the same gospel, and he announces the same continuation of the covenantal family model. Of administering God's promise, the gospel. Listen to what Peter says. He says, on the day of Pentecost, he says, the promise is for you and your children.
That is the same promise and the same pattern of administering the promise. It hasn't changed. In 2,000 years, it never changed. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, the Gentiles, as was always promised, as you're going to see in the Abrahamic covenant, for all whom the Lord our God will call.
So Abraham is the pattern. The Abrahamic covenant establishes the pattern. Secondly, that's what we looked at last week. Here's the, here's what we're going to build on this week. Jesus.
In the Gospel of Matthew, as you heard this morning, when he institutes baptism, Jesus institutes baptism within the context of the Abrahamic covenant. In Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20, after Jesus had risen victorious from the grave, listen to what he said to his disciples. Particularly verse 19. He says this in verse 18, because you know the Great Commission begins in verse 18, not verse 19. The Great Commission begins with the great announcement of the gospel, the good news, before it goes to the imperatives what we're to do.
So, this is what Jesus says. He says, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, in light of this, go. The visible church's commission go and make disciples, how or to who, of all the nations.
Now listen carefully. Go make disciples of all the nations. How? Baptizing. By means of baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Now look at verse 19. If you have your Bible. Jesus commands his visible church to make disciples look of all the nations. That phrase, all the nations, indicates that baptism is placed within the context of the Abrahamic covenant. It shows us that baptism is placed in the covenantal history of God's people.
Where do we first hear this phrase, all the nations? You have to go back, guess where, to the Abrahamic covenant. Genesis chapter 22, verse 18. Listen to what the Lord promises Abraham. He says, Abraham and your offspring.
Uh the nations. That's where it comes from. He says, in your offspring, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
So from the beginning, God's promise to Abraham contained this universal character. The Abrahamic covenant declares God's grace to all the nations. And it declares it that it will come, listen, through the, quote, offspring of Abraham.
So the question then is, who is the offspring of Abraham? Listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 3, verse 16, and he tells us. As Paul is reading the Abrahamic covenant from Genesis, He refers to God's promise to Abraham in Genesis 22, verse 18. In Galatians 3, verse 16, he tells us who the offspring of Abraham is. Listen.
He says, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, it does not say into offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.
So it's clear from the gospel writers like Matthew and from Paul in the New Testament that they understood that Jesus Christ is the offspring of Abraham, promised to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant. And it is through Jesus, the offspring of Abraham, through whom the blessing of Abraham comes to, look, all the nations to those who believe. This is what Paul writes in Galatians chapter 3, verses 13 to 14. Listen to what he says. He says, Christ Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, The blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
So Jesus is the offspring of Abraham. Jesus is the promise, the promise that was given to Abraham. And he brings the blessing of Abraham.
So what is the blessing of Abraham? Paul tells you in Galatians chapter 3 again. In Galatians 3, verses 8 through 9, Paul says that the blessing of Abraham is justification. It is the heart and center of the gospel. It is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel.
Listen to what Paul says, verse 8. He's quoting Genesis chapter 12, verse 3. And he calls Genesis 12, verse 3, the scripture. That's very powerful. He says, the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, Preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, And you shall look, all the nations.
Be blessed. There's the phrase again. He says, so then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the men of faith.
So, well, hopefully, you're tracking with me, but let me just summarize it for you. And Abraham's offspring, Jesus. All the nations are blessed, shall be blessed. What is that? They shall be justified.
By grace. through faith in Christ alone, just like Abraham. And so we learned last week, and we're learning today that when Paul in Galatians chapter 3, verse 8, when he quotes Genesis chapter 12, verse 3. He calls the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis chapter 12, verse 3, the gospel. beforehand.
It is the gospel and promise. Listen carefully. The Abrahamic covenant is the gospel and promise in the Old Testament. And so Paul makes it clear that salvation under Abraham was by grace alone. Through faith alone, just as it is for us now in the new covenant church.
The only difference between Abraham and us. Is that Abraham understood the truth of the gospel through types and shadows, and now we understand the gospel in the full light of their fulfillment in Christ? But it is the same Jesus, it's the same promise, and it is the same pattern of administering that promise. That's never changed.
So when we go back to Matthew's gospel, what we see is Matthew's gospel concludes his gospel in Matthew 28 in the Great Commission, given to the visible church. He concludes his gospel the same way he began it in chapter 1, verse 1. In chapter 1, verse 1, Matthew opens up his gospel, and I want you to listen to what Matthew says about Jesus. He says in Matthew chapter 1, verse 1, he says, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the Christ. The son of David, the son of Abraham, the offspring, the descendant.
of David, the offspring, the descendant, the son of Abraham. He's writing his gospel to first century unbelieving Jews who did not receive Christ as the Messiah, did not believe that Jesus was the son of David, the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, did not believe that Jesus was the son of Abraham, the offspring, as Paul says, of what God has promised. The offspring of Abraham. But Matthew begins his gospel and saying, This is the good news. Jesus is the offspring of Abraham, through whom all the nations will become disciples by means of baptism.
This is Matthew's gospel. He says it is through the Son of Abraham that all the nations are blessed. And so, what is significant to note in Jesus' commission to his visible church in Matthew 28? Is that God's promise to Abraham and the pattern of administering this promise never changed? The only thing through the Great Commission that has changed are the signs.
The tights and shadows circumcision has now given way to the full reality baptism. But the Lord's promise to Abraham has come, now that it has come to fulfillment in Christ, listen.
Now that it's administered in the new covenant through the visible church's commission, it's no longer circumcision but baptism. And so the Great Commission, what is the Great Commission? The Great Commission, you can say it like this: is the new administration. of the promise to Abraham or the Abrahamic covenant. That's what it is.
The new covenant Is not like something that is so new that it's never existed before. It is new, and that it is the new administration of God's promise to. to Abraham. It is the new administration of the Abrahamic covenant. It's the same promise.
It's the same Jesus, it's the same way of salvation, and it is the same pattern of administering the gospel promise that God has given to his church. And so the visible church's commission to make disciples is now by means of baptism. Go, therefore, in light of my authority. And make disciples by means of baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is initiation into the visible covenant community of God's people, just as circumcision was initiation into the visible covenant community of God's people.
It's just in the new covenant that promise. In that administration has expanded to include women and men. It has expanded, it hasn't changed. And so, what we have in Matthew's gospel from the words of institution for baptism is that, again, Abraham is the pattern. The Abrahamic covenant is the pattern, so it is therefore in obedience to the risen Lord's command that the visible church baptizes believers and their children.
I was reading this week back from some of the early church fathers, and back in the fifth century, about the four in around 440 AD. Oh, Leo the Great. Listen to what he taught. He taught that we, with Abraham, believe in the same God and that. He says, it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
And this is what he said in one of the sermons that he preached in his church. He says, Abraham is the father of all nations, and he has the promised blessing. And the promised blessing is given to the world and his seed. And he says, Nor are they only Israelites whom blood and flesh have begotten. He's referring to John chapter 8.
He says, but the whole body of the adopted enter into possession of the heritage prepared for the children of faith. We with Abraham believe in God and do not waver through unbelief, but know most assuredly that what the Lord promised, he is able to perform.
So all he did was refer to John chapter 8 and Galatians chapter 3. And he said, those who believe Christ are the sons of Abraham, just like what Abraham did. We share the common faith with Abraham. We're all sons, the offspring of Abraham. And so it's important to understand from our Lord's commission in Matthew that God administers his covenant of grace through outward means.
That's why, like when we began the service this morning, I said, Aren't you glad that you can come to a place in the world where there is grace given, where gifts are present from God? You see, because the church is not only a people. But it is also a place. The church is a visible institution that has been commissioned by the risen Christ to dispense the risen Christ's gifts to his people, where ordinarily that is the sphere of salvation.
So can you imagine the impact that you will have by raising up your children and your family in one place over a lifetime of teaching and preaching and sacraments and catechism? Because that is the means, that is the outward means by which God administers his saving grace to save and sanctify his people. And so, this is what Matthew shows us in the Great Commission. What is a chief outward means of how God changes us? It's the preaching of God's word.
His law and gospel. But specifically, it is the proclamation of the gospel, 2 Corinthians 3, verse 8, that Paul describes as the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is through the announcement. It's through the proclamation of the gospel, not only audibly but visibly through the sacraments, by which the Holy Spirit creates faith and gives new life. The Holy Spirit, then, through the creation of faith, He confirms this gift of faith through the sacraments of the church.
This is what we find in the Heidelberg Catechism in question 65 as it summarizes for us the outward administration. Of God's visible church. Listen to what it says. It says, since we're made partakers of Christ and all of his benefits by faith alone, where does this faith come from? Where does faith come from?
It's not something that you can just gender up. It's not something that you can just give yourself. It's not something that you just decide to have. Where does it come from? How do you get faith?
Listen. It's through the outward administration of the covenant of grace. The Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts. By the preaching of the gospel. You see that the Holy Spirit creates faith in our hearts by the preaching of the gospel, and He confirms, He assures our faith, He strengthens our faith by the use of the Holy Sacraments.
That's the outward administration. Of the covenant of grace. That is how God ordinarily works to save and sanctify His people. And so, throughout the whole history of salvation, this covenant of grace has been outwardly administrated first through types and shadows, circumcision. And then finally, in full reality, baptism.
But the pattern of this outward administration of God's promise has never changed. And this brings us to a third point about infant baptism this morning. Here's the third point we're going to look at. Infant baptism is not a child dedication service. Infant baptism is not A child dedication service.
What is baptism? Baptism is a divinely ordained. ordinance of God. Christ says in the Great Commission, in the words of institution, go therefore and make disciples by means of. Baby medications.
It's not what he says. He institutes baptism. Go, therefore, and make disciples by means of. Baptizing. Baptism is an ordinance of God.
That means God has ordained it and He has instituted it. Baptism is the divinely ordained outward means by which he has chosen to administer his promise in the covenant of grace to his people. This is why we don't practice the man-made ceremony of child baby dedications. Mm-hmm. Baby dedications, child dedications are human innovations.
They're human inventions. They're misguided and they're unauthorized by the risen Christ in his church. Because he did not authorize that. He authorized and instituted Baptism and the Lord's Supper. That's it.
There are two sacraments in the church: baptism. And the Lord's Supper. There's not a third, there's not a fourth, there's not five, and there's not seven. Five is the Eastern Orthodox, seven would be the Roman Catholic Church. There are two.
Two sacraments ordained by Christ. Let me talk about this for a minute. My church history professor. Uh Dr. R.
Scott Clark. He gave this great illustration about this issue in the early church. You know what the great controversy was in the second century in the early church that almost Split the church in half forever. Do you know what it was? In the second century.
It was the controversy over when to observe Easter. Can you believe that? The controversy over when to observe Easter almost split the church forever. It was a huge controversy. And he makes this point.
He says: if the early church was willing to split over when to observe Easter. And if the original apostolic practice was believers' baptism, and suddenly in the third century or second century, infant household baptism was introduced, That would have produced a massive schism in the church. You see, because of the early church fathers like Irenaeus back in 170 AD, he says that he was devoted to following the apostolic teaching and practice. These were the orthodox defenders of the church's doctrine and practice in the early church. And so, if people like Irenaeus, If all of a sudden they would have had this human innovation sprung upon the church.
They would have vigorously and publicly opposed such an innovative practice on the church. But what you have in church history is complete and utter silence. Not a word. But the modern invention of baby child dedications is evidence that many Christians believe their children are different from those of unbelieving parents. Paris even of that persuasion believe that there's something different about their children.
And so if they believe that their children are in covenant with them and different from an unbelieving home, why don't they have their children receive the sign and seal that God has ordained and instituted in the words of institution? You see.
So why practice a man-made innovation that has no divine sanction or institution in Christ's church? Baby Child Dedication Services places all the emphasis on the parents' promise to raise their children.
So the whole thing is grounded on the parents' promise.
Now, listen, to be sure, baptism obligates parents to instruct and raise their children in Christian homes. And you'll hear that this morning, as parents this morning make vows to raise their children in the Christian faith. Do you sincerely promise to do all you can to teach these children and to have them taught by this Christian church, this doctrine of salvation? And the answer is: I will, the Lord be in my helper. But what is important to note about is this, is that the responsibility to teach our children the Christian faith is in response to God's love and grace first.
So, in contrast to this man-made right, this man-made innovative practice that is actually very, very recent in the history of the church. And that's another thing. If something is just very, very new and novel in the church, it's probably not true. But this this man-made right. of baby child dedications It places all the emphasis on the parents' promise.
In contrast, baptism Yeah. All the emphasis on God's promise. on his grace and on his calling. Baptism places the emphasis on God's promise, not the parents' promise. Because, how many parents are faithfully day in and day out teaching and catechizing and praying with your children in your home every single day?
How many times have you failed as a parent? to raise your children in the Christian faith. How faithful have you been? To raise up your children, to bring them to God's visible church where they get catechized also in the faith. How faithful have you been to your promises?
How faithful has God been to his promises? Baptism places the emphasis on God's covenant faithfulness, not the parents' vows. Baptism, like circumcision, is an outward sign of God's covenant of grace. Baptism is first and foremost God's sign. It is God's seal of His promise to be a God to us and to our children.
Baptism, infant household baptism, or even adult believers' baptism, is a testimony to the sovereignty of God's grace, in which John says. We love him because he first Yeah. Baptism as a joyful sign of the gospel proclaims to us like a neon sign: I loved you first. Listen to what Michael Horton says about that. He says, Why did God command the circumcision of Israel's infants?
He says that Abraham believed and was justified when he can make a responsible decision, and yet God commanded the patriarch to institute the right, beginning with his own children. Why didn't God simply wait until Abraham's son, Isaac, was old enough to make his own decision? It is because salvation is God-centered, not human-centered. The focus is not on our choosing, but on God's choosing. God comes to us and to our children in love and in grace, and He places His mark of ownership on His covenant people.
Circumcision was not something that a convert did to show that he meant business. Circumcision was something that God did to show that He means business. And so, one author, as he's reflecting on the difference between. covenant household baptism, infant baptism. In baby dedications, he sums up the profound differences very good like this.
He says that dedication services focus attention on the action of parents. Infant baptism focuses our attention and our hearts upon God's action. He says, which we receive through faith alone. The baptism of children teaches us that our children are sinful. And that they, along with the whole congregation, need to trust Christ alone for cleansing from their sins in order to be justified.
He says, but dedication looks back and says, we gave you to the Lord. Baptism looks back and says, the Lord gave himself to you. and the promise of washing away your sins. He says, dedication says, we will raise you up to trust the Lord, but baptism says the Holy Spirit will raise you up from death to life to serve the Lord. The baptism of covenant children is the best dedication service possible because God promises to dedicate Himself.
to our children. And so it is in obedience to the risen Lord's command. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations by means of baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It's in obedience to the Lord's command. That his visible church baptizes both believers.
and their children.
So let's pray. Father, we thank you for the... We thank you for the gift of baptism. We thank you for this joyful sign and seal of the gospel, of this visible gospel. That witnesses to us like a neon sign flashing to us good news, good news, good news, just as this water washes away the dirt and filth from your outward body.
So has the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit washed away the filth of all our sins.
So I pray that through this visible sacrament now, we would witness your loving grace coming to us. Confirming and signifying and sealing your promise of your faithfulness to us to be a God to us and to our children. We pray this in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thanks for listening to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast with John Fawnville.
Him we proclaim as a ministry of John Fondill of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can check out his church at paramountchurch.com. We look forward to next time.
