Have you ever wondered ...
... whether you should baptize
your infant child
or be rebaptized as an adult?

 

Remember the story of Philip being sent to a eunuch on his way home to Ethiopia (Acts 8:27-39). This royal official from Ethiopia was reading an important chapter of the bible, Isaiah 53. He asks Philip to explain to him what it means. The surprising thing now is not that Philip explains it to him; he in fact takes this scripture passage as a starting point to “preach the gospel of Jesus” (v. 35). After all, Is. 53 is not about the prophet Isaiah, as the eunuch guessed (v. 34). This chapter is about Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and Savior of Israel (see 1 Peter 2:21-24).

 

What is truly surprising is that the eunuch, when he sees water, desires to be baptized (v. 36)! Hasn’t Philip spoken to him “only” the gospel of Jesus? Why would the Ethiopian desire to be baptized based on this gospel? He would do so, if baptism is part of the very gospel of Jesus. When Philip spoke to the man about Jesus, he of course mentioned baptism. After all, Jesus himself told his disciples to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them and teaching them everything he had commanded the apostles (Matt. 28:19-20).

 

He would do so also for another reason that is more in line with the GOSPEL of Jesus. The reason why hearing the gospel of Jesus makes the man want to be baptized is that baptism is all about this gospel of Jesus. We could even say: baptism is the gospel of Jesus in a special form. Having heard the gospel in Philip’s sermon – and having come to faith in Christ by this gospel (v. 37) – the Ethiopian now also desires to have the gospel applied to him in the special form of baptism (see also Mark 16:16).

 

 

Some might object here: “No, that’s not how it was! True, the man heard the gospel, but then it was the Holy Spirit who worked faith in him directly. And as a believer, he then also desired to be baptized to show his faith in Jesus.”

 

To respond to this objection, we need to take a look at how the Holy Spirit works faith in a person’s heart. First, let us affirm that it is indeed the Holy Spirit who has to work faith in our heart. For by nature we’re dead in our sins and trespasses (Eph. 2:1, 4). That means we don’t have the power to jump out of our graves here on earth to have fellowship with God in heaven by faith in the gospel. God has to grasp us and give us new life. Giving dead people new life – that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

 

Yet how does he do that? Does he zap us directly? No. The apostle Peter reminds us that we have been born anew “through the living and abiding word of God,” which is “the gospel that was preached” to us (1 Peter 1:23, 25). The gospel is preached, and the dead are raised forever through this very gospel (see John 5:25; 6:63, 68). So it is also the gospel that keeps us alive spiritually into eternity as it is the “pure spiritual milk” that lets us “taste that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3, see also John 6:35-51).

 

So, indeed, the gospel works! It works eternal life and sustains eternal life in those who hear it. The Holy Spirit, we could say, uses the gospel as his tool to work this life in those dead in trespasses and sins.

 

 

When we think of Ephesians 5, we typically think of Paul speaking about the duties of husbands and wives. That’s true. It is a great wedding / marriage text. But in this chapter, Paul also has a true gem on baptism to offer. So, after exhorting the wives to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ, Paul calls on the husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the church, his bride? By giving himself for her in order to “sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish” (vv. 26-27). Christ died to sanctify the church – and he has already cleansed the church “by the washing of water with the Word.” This water mingled with the Word is baptism. In other words, Christ uses “ordinary” water baptism to cleanse his church from all her sins so that she would be without any blemish before him (see also Acts 2:38; Mark 1:4-5). This also means that through the pastor administering baptism, Christ himself is at work to bestow this cleansing.

 

Due to the purifying effect of baptism Paul teaches here, we won’t go wrong to assume that the “Word” Paul is speaking about is precisely the gospel of Jesus – the very gospel Philip proclaimed to the eunuch; the very gospel Peter taught to bring sinners from death to life! And being dead in trespasses and sins, we’re brought to life by having our sins forgiven or by being cleansed from them, as Paul put it in Eph. 5. Baptism thus works like the gospel because baptism contains the gospel in its waters – or simply because baptism is the gospel in a very special, visible, form. In other words, it is the Spirit who uses water-word baptism to bring us from death to life (John 3:5-6; Col. 2:11-14). Simpler yet, baptism saves (1 Peter 3:21) because God saves and justifies us by baptism (Tit. 3:3-7; 1 Cor. 6:11). And this kind of gospel redundancy bears testimony to God's superabundant grace and mercy (Rom. 5:20-21) and offers a firm safety net for poor sinners.

 

 

Why do some hear the gospel and believe it while others don’t? Why are some baptized and believe it and show their faith by living Christian lives while others don’t? In other words: how does faith in the gospel happen? What makes a person believe that Jesus gave himself for him, cleansing him through baptism?

 

Some think that this kind of belief is brought about by a conscious decision of a person after considering all the relevant facts: the looming doom for sinners without Christ, the promise of salvation in Christ. After what we’ve heard, however, we should wonder: Can a person who is dead decide to come alive? To put it in a different way, with a different expression Scripture uses to describe the unconverted: Can enemies of God who, by themselves, cannot be anything but God’s enemies (Rom. 8:5-9), decide to be his friends? They cannot. They must reject the gospel into eternity, if left to their own “decisions.” The gospel of a crucified God does not make sense to them (1 Cor. 2:14).

 

And yet, as seen, it is this foolish gospel itself (including baptism) that God uses to bring them to their senses, to true wisdom (1 Cor. 1:21)! Saving faith is thus not a human persuasion that is ultimately shifting as all human persuasions are because it rests on persuasive words of humans. Faith is divinely certain because it is itself a product of the power of the Holy Spirit in the gospel (1 Cor. 2:1-5, see 1:17-18, 22-25).

 

Therefore, faith is created by the gospel. Faith receives the gift of eternal life the gospel gives. The gospel gives what Christ earned for all people. Why is it, then, that not all who hear and are baptized have faith? God working in and through the gospel (word and baptism) can be resisted. Their sin – in fact, the devil working in them (Eph. 2:2) – prevents them from seeing the light of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:3-7).

 

 

As we’ve just seen, saving faith is not the product of a rational decision of an adult person. It is a gift of God through the gospel (including baptism). So the question here really is: Can God give such faith to infants?

 

Based on Scripture, the answer is a resounding Yes! God can do it, and he has done it, as several passages in Scripture clearly indicate. There is, first of all, the text Luke 18:15-17 about people bringing children to Jesus. What is remarkable about this text is that the word for “little children” in v. 15 specifically means “infant.” So people were bringing tiny babies to Jesus. And Jesus rebukes his disciples for hindering them and teaches that all who would enter the kingdom have to become like little children. Here the tiny child, not the rational adult, is the gold standard in God’s kingdom. That Christians are constantly called “children” of God (see only 1 John!) is thus no surprise. Now, how “are” little children? Jesus doesn’t say here. Yet we know they are totally on the receiving end. They can’t do anything. They rely on their parents for everything. They listen to their parents. So God wants us to be in relationship to him: receiving his gifts, trusting his gospel, obeying his commandments.

 

What is implicit here, is made implicit elsewhere (Matt. 18:1-6): Jesus again uses a child as an example for his disciples. This time, it is the child’s humility Jesus extols. Then comes the sentence that is decisive for our question: Jesus admonishes not to lead one of such little children “who believe in me” into sin (v. 6). Here the Lord said it: little children believe in Jesus! Since they too are by nature dead in their trespasses (Ps. 51:5), their faith too is not some innocent natural affection for Jesus; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit – a gift given through the gospel (including baptism).

 

 

Ok, so children can have faith, and some even have faith. But do they need it in the same way adults need it, namely, to be saved? Some say that children prior to reaching a certain “age of accountability” may be sinful and sin in thoughts, words, and deeds, but their sin will not be held against them by God because they did not know any better and thus did not sin deliberately. In other words, they are held guiltless and are thus saved, regardless of their faith, because they could not help sinning.

 

A couple of questions arise: First, if “they couldn’t help it” is a sufficient reason for not needing faith in the gospel to be saved anyway, what are we to make of the adults who are in bondage to sin and therefore cannot “help it” either? In other words, isn’t then man’s sinful condition – his being dead in trespasses and sins; his ignorance about God’s things – the very thing that makes Christ’s death and faith in the gospel unnecessary? The bible shows that the opposite is true: because man, from the time of his conception (Ps. 51:5-7), is incapable of saving himself, Christ had to come, die, and save through baptism (see Jonah 3:4; 4:11; Rom. 1:20; 2:14-15).

 

Second, there is the difficulty of establishing the actual age of accountability: when does a person become accountable for their actions? Since there are no clear biblical texts, one is left to uncertain speculation. Yet should a person’s salvation rest on our guesswork? Clearly not. In fact, even children are held accountable for their deeds (see only Deut. 21:18-21; 2 Kings 2:23-24), even though they “cannot help it.” In fact, we should be careful not to apply secular concepts of accountability that may make sense in the political and judicial realms to God and his kingdom. Along this line, entering the Promised Land and entering the kingdom of heaven are two different things (compare Deut. 1:39 (Num. 14:28-32!) with John 3:5-6).

 

Finally, what about being saved by faith in Christ alone? In John 3:18 Jesus says: “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” No mention is made of any age. There is only faith in Christ and salvation or no faith in Christ and damnation. Along this line, it is not surprising that (male) infants were circumcised early on, at eight days of age (Gen. 17:12).

 

 

Let’s correct that to read: nowhere in the bible is an individual infant baptized. That’s true, while the original assertion is not. What does this mean? It simply means this: Time and again do we read of entire households and families being baptized by the apostles after being instructed in the faith (Acts 16:15, 31-33; 1 Cor. 1:16). But households and families include children, those of the masters and, if present, those of any slaves working there. In other words, what we see here in the earliest history of the church after Pentecost is nothing but the realization of what Peter said right after his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:38-39): “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.” The promise of the Holy Spirit is for everyone, young and old. Since the Spirit comes through baptism after repentance, baptism has to be for all, young and old, adults and children. Consider also that baptism is compared to circumcision (Col. 2:11-14) and that circumcision is ordinarily performed on male infants at the age of eight days (Gen. 17:12). Just as the latter saved (Gen. 17:7), so does the former.

 

The accounts in Acts bear out what Peter promised, but Peter’s promise really isn’t his. He is simply proclaiming publicly what Jesus had commanded his disciples before his ascension into heaven (Matt. 28:19-20): “Go and make disciples of all nations by baptizing them …” “All nations” definitely includes the young and the old, just as “household” includes the young and the old. The promised Spirit is for them all because they all need the Spirit to be brought to eternal life from their being dead in trespasses and sins. This Spirit comes through the gospel of baptism.

 

 

If the apostles had not baptized infants, we would expect to find significant debate in the church if somebody tired to start baptizing infants. This debate, however, has never happened. In fact, everybody speaking to the issue of infant baptism between the 2^nd and 4^th centuries affirms the practice as a common Christian practice inherited from the apostles and necessary due to original sin infecting also little babies.

 

 

So, should you baptize your infant? Should you be rebaptized? To the first question a resounding Yes. After all we’ve seen from the Scriptures and also the history of the Christian church, there can be no doubt that God wants to bring infants to the new life of faith and forgiveness through baptism. We must not frustrate Christ’s desire to do so. – To the second question a resounding No. In and through (infant) baptism God has acted decisively in your life. He has brought Christ’s eternal life to you. As you believe this, you have all the treasures baptism offers: forgiveness, life, and salvation (Mark 16:16). Baptism is the gospel.

 

To learn more about (infant) baptism, you may read the very accessible yet thorough short book by A. Andrew Das, Baptized Into God’s Family (Northwestern Publ., 1991) or a slightly modernized writing by Martin Luther, Did My Baptism Count? (Lutheran Press, 2006).