We should baptize infants because...⤒🔗

1. God has brought us into a covenant of grace and although not all members of this covenant will persevere (i.e., they are not elect), they enjoy special privileges of belonging to the covenant people of God. This was true of Israel (the church in the Old Testament), and the New Testament simply applies this to the New Testament church (Hebrews, esp. 4:1-11 and 6:4-12; Dt. 4:20 and 28:9 with 1 Pet. 2:9,10; Gal. 6:16; Hos. 2:23 and Is. 10:22 with Rom. 9:24-28).

2. Even though bringing some­one under the protection of God's covenantal faithful­ness does not guarantee that every member possesses true, persevering faith (Heb. 4:1-11), that does not mean that it is unimportant as to whether a per­son is in Christ and his covenant of grace.

3. Children were included in the covenant of grace in the Old Testament, through the sacrament of circumcision, and in the New Covenant (called the "better covenant"), God has not changed in his good intentions toward our children (Ac. 2:38, 35) and circumcision has been replaced with baptism (Col. 2:11). Therefore, our children must be brought into the covenant of grace and united to Christ through baptism as the people of God in former times were brought into the covenant through circumcision.

4. The children of unbelievers are unholy, but the children of believers are set apart unto God. This is a distinction not only of the Old Testament (see the Passover, Ex.12:1; also the dis­tinction between the "house of the wicked" and the "house of the righteous," especially in the Psalms), but is continued in the New Testament as well (1 Con 10:2). How are they marked or distinguished from unbelievers? By the sign and seal of the covenant.

5. Household baptisms in the New Testament are common (see esp. Acts 16:15, 33;1 Cor. 1:16). When the jailer asked how to be saved, Paul replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household." We are told that this same night "he and his family were baptized" (Ac. 16:31-33).

6. There is an unbroken record in church history of the prac­tice of infant baptism. Although tradition is of a sec­ondary value, it is especially important here for this reason: We know for a fact that the earnest Christians after the death of the apostles were practicing infant baptism, with the com­mand of those who were trained by the apostles themselves. Where was the debate, assuming these immediate successors to the disciples were departing from the apostolic practice?

7. Baptism is the work of God, not man. It is not a sign of the believer's commitment to God (which would, therefore, require prior faith and repen­tance), but the sign and seal of God's promise to save all who do not reject their baptism by refus­ing to trust in Christ. For the nature of baptism, see Mark 16:16, Acts. 22:16; Rom. 6:3; Tit. 3:5. The reason these references are to those who have first believed is that the first converts, obviously, were adults when they believed, but they evidently bap­tized their children. The same was true of Abraham, who believed before he was circum­cised, but then had his children circumcised as infants.