H/T to Andy Underhile on the
sacrament impugned and oppugned by Anabaptists, Pentecostals, and the vast
array of American evangelicals. Andy
brings us a reminder from Professor John’s Murray, the old Scots divine from
Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, in its better days.
Why We Baptize Infants,
by John Murray
Baptism is one of
the two ordinances of the New Testament that we call sacraments. Baptism is
administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Baptism “in the name of” means “into union
with” or “into the discipleship of.” Baptism
in the one name of the triune God means baptism into subjection and devotion to
the one living and true God. It means that the mark of the triune God is placed
upon the recipients of it. The placing of the mark of God upon us in baptism
does not, however, mean that it is the authentication or seal of an ownership
on the part of God or of discipleship on our part that is naturally and
natively a fact. It is true that there is a natural ownership on the part of
God and an inalienable devotion that we as His creatures owe to Him. But
baptism is not the mark of an ownership that is natively and properly God’s nor
of the devotion on our part that we naturally owe to Him. It is the mark of an
ownership that is constituted, and of a devotion that is created, by redemptive
action and relation. In other words, it is the mark of the Covenant of Grace.
In it, and bearing it, we profess to renounce every other lordship but that of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost in all the manifold relations
that we come to sustain to each Person in the terms of the Covenant of Grace.
More specifically,
baptism signifies washing or purification, washing from the defilement or
pollution of sin by regeneration of the Holy Spirit, and washing from the guilt
of sin by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Manifestly, it is only
in and through Christ and His work that these blessings can be enjoyed. Union
with Christ, therefore, is the bond that unites us to the participation of
these blessings. Our Shorter Catechism gives a rather succinct and
comprehensive definition when it says that “Baptism is a Sacrament, wherein the
washing with water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, doth signify and seal our engrafting into Christ, and partaking of the
benefits of the covenant of grace, and our engagement to be the Lord’s.” We
believe that Scripture warrants the dispensing of this ordinance of baptism to
infants. Just as infants were circumcised under the Old Testament – and
circumcision meant fundamentally the same thing as baptism, namely, the removal
of the filth of sin and the imputation of the righteousness which is by faith –
so children who stand in a similar covenant relation with God should be
baptized under the New Testament. What, we may ask, does this precisely mean?
It means that children, even newly-born infants, stand in need of cleansing
from sin both in its defilement and in its guilt. Children do not become sinful
after they grow up or in the process of growing up. They are sinful from the
very outset. They are conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity. They go
astray from the very womb. No one who is truly convinced of sin remembers when
he became sinful. He knows that it was not by some deliberate decision or act
on his part that he became sinful. He knows that he was always sinful. Truly he
recognizes that that innate and inherent sinfulness has been aggravated, and
has repeatedly come to expression, in his voluntary acts of sin. But it was
sinfulness already inherent that was aggravated, and came to expression, in his
voluntary acts of sin. Furthermore, no one who is truly observant of the growth
and development of others from infancy to adulthood remembers any point when
sin first began to take possession of their heart and interest and purpose. The
disposition is always with us, and is at the present time particularly
prevalent, to minimize the seriousness of this fact. There is the tendency to
think and act in terms of the innocency of little children. The consequences of
such an attitude are disastrous to all true nurture and instruction. For to
eliminate from our attitude and conduct so basic and far-reaching a fact as the
innate pollution of fallen human nature is to eliminate a fact without which
nurture and direction must lead on to a perversion and falsehood manifoldly
more desperate than that with which it began. Infant baptism is a perpetual
reminder that infants need what baptism represents and there can be no escape
from, or amelioration of, that awful fact.
But baptism is
after all a sacrament of grace. And therefore it means more than the fact of
need. It means that by the grace of God infants may enjoy precisely and fully
what baptism represents. They may be regenerated by the Spirit and justified in
the blood of Christ. They may be united to Christ in all the perfection of His
mediatorial offices and in all the efficacy of His finished work. We should
pause to consider the preciousness of these truths. Truly we shall have no
appreciation of their preciousness unless we are persuaded of that awful fact
to which we have already made reference, namely, that of original sin. But if
we sincerely face the fact of the dismal pollution of human nature in its
present state, no human words can adequately express the joy we experience in
the contemplation of that which baptism means for infants. We may briefly
reflect on the preciousness of these truths for two considerations. First,
children may and often do die at a very early age. If they should die without
regeneration and justification, they would be lost just as surely as others
dying in an unregenerate state are finally lost. The baptism of children, then,
means that the grace of God takes hold of children at a very early age, even
from the very womb. That is to say, in other words, we must not exclude the
operations of God’s efficacious and saving grace from the sphere or realm of
earliest infanthood. It is to this truth our Lord gave His most insistent and
emphatic testimony when He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,
and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.”
We would not, of
course, be misunderstood when we assert this principle. We do not say that the
operations of God’s saving grace are present in the heart of every infant. The
fact is only too apparent that multitudes grow up to years of discretion and
intelligence and show that the saving grace of God did not take hold of their
hearts and minds in the days of their infancy. Neither are we taking the
position necessarily that all who die in infancy are the recipients of the
saving grace of God. For ourselves we must leave that question in the realm to
which it belongs, namely, the unrevealed counsel of God. But it is nevertheless
true – and that is the point we are now interested in stressing – that the
grace of God is operative in the realm of the infant heart and mind. “Out of
the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.” What a blessed
thought and hope and confidence is extended to believing parents when in baptism
they commit their children to the regenerating and sanctifying grace of the
Holy Spirit and to the purging efficacy of the blood of Christ, so that, if
perchance the Lord is pleased to remove them in infancy, they – believing
parents – can plead and rest upon the promises of the Covenant of Grace on
their behalf. It can surely be said of them that they have no need to mourn as
those that have no hope. But secondly we should appreciate the preciousness of
these truths for the reason that children do not need to grow up to the years
of discretion and intelligence before they become the Lord’s. Just as children
are sinful before they come to the years of discretion and understanding, so by
the sovereign grace of God they do not need to grow up before they become
partakers of saving grace. They may grow up not only in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord, but also in His favor and sanctifying grace. They may
in their tenderest years be introduced into the family and household of the
heavenly father. When believing parents present their children for baptism they
are confessing that their children are innately sinful, they are confessing
their need of regeneration and justification, but they are also pleading on the
behalf of their children the regenerating and justifying grace of God. In
reliance upon the promise that “the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to
everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s
children; to such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his
commandments to do them,” they are entertaining the encouragement and the hope
that “those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the
courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be
fat and flourishing; to shew that the Lord is upright; he is my rock and there
is no unrighteousness in him.” Baptism is the ordinance that initiates into the
fellowship of the visible church. The visible church is a divine institution.
It is the house and family of God. It is a divine sanctuary where God’s glory
is made known. It is the channel along which normally the current of God’s
saving grace flows. What a privilege it is for parents by divine authority in
the reception of the ordinance of baptism to introduce their children into this
blessed fellowship.
If infant baptism
has the divine warrant, then what dishonor is offered to Christ and what
irretrievable damage is done to the church and to the souls of children by
refusing to introduce children into this glorious fellowship. No argument from
apparent expediency, no seeming evangelistic fervor will counteract that
dishonor to our Lord and that damage done to the souls of men. In concluding
this brief study of the meaning and privilege of infant baptism, there are two
warnings that must be given. The first is that against the doctrine of
baptismal regeneration. We must not look upon baptism as having some
semi-magical effect. Baptism derives all its efficacy from the sovereign grace
of the Holy Spirit. We do well to remind ourselves of the words of our Shorter
Catechism, “The Sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any
virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing
of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.”
We must never take for granted that the infant who is baptized is by that mere
fact assured of eternal life. Baptism is certainly a means of grace which God
has, in accordance with His appointment, abundantly honored and blessed
throughout the whole history of the Christian church. But we must ever preserve
the true evangelicalism of our Christian faith that, in the last analysis, we
are not saved by any external rite or ordinance, but by the sovereign grace of
God that works mysteriously, directly and efficaciously in the heart and soul
of each individual whom He has appointed to salvation. The second is that
infant baptism does not relieve parents or guardians, as the case may be, of
that solemn responsibility to instruct, warn, exhort, direct and protect the
infant members of the Christian church committed to their care. We must repeat
again the text we have already quoted, “The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto
children’s children, to such as keep his covenant and to those that remember
his commandments to do them.” The encouragement derived from a divine promise
must never be divorced from the discharge of the obligations involved. It is
only in the atmosphere of obligation discharged, in a word, in the atmosphere
of obedience to divine commandments, that faith in the divine promise can live
and grow. Faith divorced from obedience is mockery and presumption.
Originally published in The Presbyterian Guardian, Vol. 5,
1938.
