Why We're Having Mr. A Baptized

Sunday, June 26 will be a very special day, Lord-willing.  We are having Aidan baptized into God's covenant family.  Many people have asked us why we're having him baptized as an infant (well, OK, as an 11.5 month old).  Brian and I both grew up in Evangelical Free Churches and were baptized as adults (believers).  So why are we now paedo baptist?

We believe:

1. Children of believers are part of the Church

"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." 

-Genesis 17:7

In the New Testament, Peter supports Genesis 17 by saying, "For the promise is to you and to your children...." -Acts 2:39

Paul also assumes that children of believers are part of the church in his letter to the church in Corinth. "For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy."  -1 Corinthians 7:14  Holy means to be "set apart".  Children of believers are, therefore, "set apart" for God.

2. Children of believers were circumcised in the Old Testament.

"This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. For the generations to come, every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised...."  -Genesis 17:10-12

3. In the New Testament, baptism corresponds to circumcision.

In the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 19), Jesus told his disciples to go out and baptize believers, not circumcise them.

Also, in Deuteronomy, circumcision symbolized regeneration.  "The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.  -Deuteronomy 30:6  This is also found in Jeremiah 4:4 where believers are told to circumcise their hearts - a sign of conversion.

Paul says it in the New Testament: "For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh." -Philippians 3:3  We are the circumcision!

Colossians 2:11-12 links baptism and circumcision.  "In [Christ] you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead."  Baptism is a believer's circumcision.

But why infant baptism?  Because, in the Old Testament, God commanded that infants be circumcised on the eighth day.  Infants!

I am so excited for Sunday.  Not just because Mr. Aidan will be wearing a darling, white outfit with cuffed shorts and sleeves, but because of what it symbolizes:  God has promised to work faith in his life.  Psalm 22: 9 "You made me trust in you even at my mother's breast."  I pray daily that the LORD regenerates Aidan's heart, and that He would use his baptism to remind him of His promises and grow him in holiness each day of his life.  Baptism symbolizes what God promises to do in the life of Aidan.  This is not about dedicating him to the LORD and promising to bring him up in the LORD (that's a given!), but it's about what GOD, the author and perfecter of our faith, is promising to do in Aidan's life.  And what a great and wonderful promise it is!  Bring out the tissues Sunday - I'll be crying tears of joy!

[Baptists have many objections, but I'm not going to address those in this blog post.  If you are interested in further study of this subject, I'd recommend Danny Hyde's, pastor of Oceanside United Reformed Church and graduate of Westminster Seminary California, book Jesus Loves the Little Children: Why We Baptize Children.]