Covenant signs in the Old & New Testaments
Baptism in the Reformed tradition ...........
Math 28:19 “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
We believe that while Christ gave the above command about 2,000 years ago, to understand the true significance of baptism one needs to go back to the time of Abraham - our "ancestor in the faith". God made a covenant with Abraham. God chose Abraham to belong to Him and that his descendants would be God's own people. In this covenant God gave certain promises and made it clear that He expected the descendants of Abraham to be faithful to Him in obedience to His law. (See Gen. 17:1,2,7,9-14,23-27)
Genesis 17: The Covenant of Circumcision
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 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. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”
9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.
Summary of covenant: I will be your God and in return I expect from you and your descendants to walk before me faithfully and blameless.
As an outward sign of belonging to God's covenant people, Israelite male babies were to be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. This ritual was a sign of initial entry amongst the Covenant people of God. Later, God indicated that the outward sign of the covenant of His grace would be changed when, through the prophet Ezekiel He declared:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ez. 36:25-28)
1. God works ‘covenantally’ – that is by making covenants.
A covenant is a pact, agreement, or a contract between two or more parties. There are 300 verses that have the word covenant in them.
2. God's covenants have covenant signs.
• The covenant with Adam had the covenant sign of the tree.: "And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die,’" (Gen. 2:16-17).
• The covenant with Noah had the sign of the rainbow, (Gen. 9:9-17).
• The Covenant with Abraham had the sign of circumcision: "And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,” (Gen. 12:7).
• There are more covenants and covenant signs.
3. The Abrahamic Covenant very specifically included infants and the sign of that covenant was circumcision.
• Male babies were included in the Abrahamic covenant via the sign of circumcision.
• Females were included in the covenant via federal headship, the doctrine that the male head of the family represents his descendents. (Heb. 7:7-10 is a good example of this: 7 And without doubt the lesser is blessed by the greater. 8 In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die; but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living. 9 One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, 10 because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor.)
• "The federal headship view considers Adam, the first man, as the representative of the human race that generated from him. As the representative of all humans, Adam’s act of sin was considered by God to be the act of all people and his penalty of death was judicially made the penalty of everybody." In Reformed theology this is known as ‘original sin’.
4. The ‘everlasting’ Abrahamic Covenant is mentioned in Gal. 3:8. It is still in effect today. It is essentially identical to the ’new covenant’:
"And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations shall be blessed in you.”
• Since the covenant is that in Abraham all the nations shall be blessed and that is called the gospel by Paul, then the Abrahamic covenant is still in effect.
• To say the Abrahamic covenant is not in effect any more today, is to contradict what Paul said when he called it the gospel. God's covenant promise was to bless all nations in Abraham. This is a reference to the coming Messiah in whom we have redemption.
5. God's covenant is no longer restricted to the Jewish people by literally becoming a blessing to all nations.
• Baptism was instituted by Christ and that makes it binding to all following
• In the New Testament, we learn that God's covenant was no longer restricted to the Jewish people. With the sign of circumcision changed to water baptism, it was given to the Christian Church so that believers and their children in all nations might be assured that they belong to God and that they have the right to be ‘citizens’ of his ‘new nation’ by means of his everlasting covenant of grace. This is borne out by the following Bible passage: Repent and be baptised, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:38,39) (My emphasis)
6. Infants were included in the Abrahamic Covenant which is still in effect.
• Whether or not infants understood what was occurring in their participation of the covenant sign is immaterial since it was God who ordered that the infants be included in the Abrahamic covenant. The value is in God’s command and not in human preferences – God says to the baby: ‘You are mine.’
• Since the Abrahamic covenant is still in effect -- by being equated with the gospel - infants should still be included in that same covenant.
7. Where is the biblical admonition to exclude infants from the same Abrahamic covenant that is still in effect?
• There is no command at all to exclude infants from the same covenant that is still in effect.
8. In the New Testament God gave us a new sign of the covenant – that of baptism.
• Since the normal biblical pattern is to include infants in the Abrahamic covenant, doesn't it make sense to continue to include babies in the same way and in that same everlasting covenant? Yes. The new covenant sign is now baptism which is why Paul equates baptism and circumcision. He says in Col. 2:11-12 "and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”
9. Regeneration does not depend on human desire, understanding, will, or ability.
• It is clear from Rom. 9 that the regeneration work of God can be traced through the human patriarchs and the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God. Through Christ the ‘new Israel’, which is the church, are descendants of Abraham - we are all “Abraham’s children”. God is still just and He still has mercy on whom He chooses to have compassion (Rom. 9:14). The regeneration work of God does not depend on human desire, effort, understanding, or mental ability but on God’s mercy (Rom. 9:15). God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy – even the children of Christian parents who are covenant children.
• The legal foundation for baptism is therefore the covenant and not faith. When someone comes to faith he becomes part of the ‘new Israel’, which is the church. Baptism is the sign of this as circumcision was the sign, and still is, the sign of becoming a Jew. Those adults, who must make a confession of faith first, is due to the fact that they found themselves outside God’s covenant. Those already inside the covenant do not need to make that confession. New adult believers first had to learn the requirements of admission into the covenant. But their baptism is still a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace and the promises made by God to all his covenant people - which includes the forgiveness of sins. One can however forfeit the privileges of the covenant by leaving the church.
The Reformed position is therefore:
Baptism is intended for covenant people – i.e. for believers and their children. Adult baptism must be preceded (and Reformed Christians insist on this) by a profession of faith. The truthfulness of such a profession of faith is ultimately a matter between God and that person. Adult baptism presupposes regeneration, faith, conversion, and justification – salvation through faith alone in Christ alone. Baptism is not a human desire but a command in the case of those outside the covenant. The regeneration work of God does not depend on human desire, effort, understanding, or mental ability but on God’s mercy (Rom. 9:15). Through baptism the new ‘citizen’ are incorporated into the promises of God’s covenant and the promises associated with the covenant which includes the forgiveness of sins and purification. The covenant with Abraham was essentially a spiritual covenant. Those who are a citizen already need not ‘apply’ for citizenship again – but they can renounce it.
By appointment of God infants have always shared in the benefits of His covenant. The Abrahamic covenant has been spiritualized in the New Testament and thus carried over into the New Testament. The New Testament people of God is not the Jewish nation any more but a new nation’ – the church. Circumcision is by Divine authority substituted by baptism as the initiatory sign and seal of the covenant. Col 2:11-12 clearly links the two.
Children born to Christians (believing parents) are heirs to God’s promises through the covenant. This includes the promise of regeneration by becoming new creatures when that person come to faith and are ‘born again.’ Baptism is a sign of spiritual cleansing and purification and points to the purification which can only be achieved through Christ. (Acts 2:38: Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” & Titus: 3:5 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”.
The signs, efficacy, and promises of baptism are not limited to the time of its administration but continue through life. The New Testament therefore emphasise the meaning of baptism and the method.
Immersion cannot be seen as the only proper way cleansing of which baptism is a sign. The word baptizo has more meanings than only that of immersion such as ‘to wash’, ‘to bathe’, and ‘purify by washing.” The Bible also recommends other ways of cleansing: Numbers 8:7:”To purify them, do this: Sprinkle the water of cleansing on them; then have them shave their whole bodies and wash their clothes. And so they will purify themselves.”
Objections. Infant baptism is often questioned by questions like:
Why are there no accounts of infants being baptized in the New Testament?
• Actually, there are.
a. Acts 16:15, "and when she and her household had been baptized,"
b. Acts 16:31, "he was baptized, he and all his household."
The objection to this is that the term ‘household’ does not necessary include infants.
• If this is so, one is forced to accept that there were no infants in any the households that were being baptized in Israel. One should however keep in mind that covenant Jews were commanded to have children (Gen. 2-3). Such a scenario is highly unlikely.
• One should also incorporate the wider covenant context and thinking of all the Jews at that time regarding infants and God's covenant? Children were included in God's covenant system – that was the explicit command of God in the Old Testament. Why would one now believe that the Jew, who became a Christian, would suddenly conclude something to the effect of: - “Now that the promised Messiah has come and God's covenant of promise in Abraham has been realized, we now exclude our children from God's covenant and promises"
• This would in fact contradict what Peter says in Acts 2:38-39, "And Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children..."
• Peter clearly includes children in that fulfilled promise of God ... and baptism is part of the subject.
• There is no command in the New Testament to exclude infants from the Abrahamic Covenant which is still in effect. Gal. 3:8: “8 Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you.” If there is no specific command to restrict the covenant to adult believers only then we do not have the right to do it.
Why do we not circumcise babies anymore?
• Because the covenant sign is now baptism - Col. 2:11-12. "and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; 12 having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead."
• The federal head principle comes into play again. Since the blood of Christ was shed, the blood-sign-of-circumcision has been fulfilled in the Federal Head known as Christ. This means that Christ represented all of us on the cross. The blood of Christ replaced the blood-shed of circumcision in the Old Testament. The new covenant sign is now baptism according to Col. 2:11-12.
• Baptism is a sign (symbol, picture) because it points to spiritual realities by means of physical elements (water). The Jews boasted about their circumcision, without realizing that the “true circumcision” is a matter of the heart and performed by the Spirit (Deuteronomy 10:16: Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.” and Romans 2:29: No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.)
A further objection is that in Acts we only see people get baptized who have first believed.
• This is true only if you assume that of all the households in Israel that were baptized, none included infants. This is a subjective assumption that is without substance especially since we know that good Jews were to obey God's command to multiply and replenish the earth and to honour the demands of the covenant.
• One should also keep in mind that the context in Acts is mass conversions to a ‘new’ religion. One would logically expect that the great majority of accounts of baptism, in that scenario, would be of baptisms as a consequence of coming to faith in Jesus, our Christ. But the church has matured. Children are born to covenant believers. A mature church does not imply that God's covenant system of including infants should be negated or cancelled.
• We should keep in mind that many epistles were written to correct error. None of the epistles include a restriction of infants’ baptism. The early church clearly carried forward their belief in the promises of God which included in the covenant of God. The Abrahamic covenant is equated with the gospel – why would the suddenly exclude their children?
The Abrahamic covenant was no guarantee of salvation. Baptism does not save either. Infants are not saved by the act of baptism.
• Infants in the Abrahamic covenant in Old Testament times were not guaranteed salvation anymore than infants baptized into the same covenant today are promised salvation.
• Baptism is not the cause of salvation because people are saved without, or before, water baptism.
• It is the error of the Roman Catholic Church and some churches that teaches that baptism is absolutely essential to salvation i.e. that baptism is the sacrament of regeneration and of initiation into the church.
• Rom. 9: 30-33 clearly states that the righteousness of the Gentiles is righteousness by faith. Even a Jew can forfeit his ‘citizenship’ by losing faith “because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.” Membership of a church, infant baptism, or believer’s baptism is of little value if one forfeit ‘citizenship’ by losing faith. Salvation does not depend on human desire or effort but on God’s mercy.
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