Baptism: The Promise Is For You & For Your Children
New Covenant Baptism: The Promise Is For You & For Your Children
Preached by Rev. Tom Brown at Covenant Grace Church on the Lord’s Day, June 13th, 2021
The original media for this sermon can be viewed here, and a PDF of the material is available here.
When it comes to the subject of Baptism, we usually think of ourselves as natives who know the territory well. However, the biblical depth of both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper tend to expose our gentile roots. When we peel back the layers of the sacraments they quickly reveal that our limited understanding of our spiritual heritage as God’s covenant people can lead us to a lot of misunderstandings. We like to think of ourselves as ‘natives,’ but perhaps we are better served to humbly recognize that we are, in many ways, ‘strangers’ in need of local guides. My hope today is to explain an overview of the beautiful sacrament of Baptism. In order to do this, we will be exploring quite a large span of the Bible, and taking a sweeping view of the perfect unity God’s saving work throughout redemptive history.
What Is a Sacrament?
Baptism is one of only two holy sacraments instituted by Christ in the New Covenant for the spiritual blessing of His people. Most of us know that baptism involves the application of water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But if we are honest, we would have to quickly admit that even the word “sacrament” itself is really pretty foreign to us. So what does this word mean?
The word sacrament comes from the Latin word, “Sacramentum” which means, “Holy Mystery.” This word has been used historically to translate the Greek word, “mysterion” which means “mystery.” However, in Biblical terms, the word “mystery” does not mean the same thing we might first think of. The word “mystery” in the Bible is tied to the way God has been progressively revealing what He graciously promised in Genesis 3:15. Even after man rebelliously turned away from God and became spiritually dead in his sins, God promised to bring forth a son, born of a woman, who would crush the head of the serpent and deliver Adam’s descendants from the curse of sin. The great mystery, Biblically speaking, is the all-important question: “How will God fulfill His gracious promise and save us from our bondage to sin, misery, and death in Adam?”
God has been unveiling the answer to that question throughout the covenantal unfolding of the Bible, (Eph. 3:7-10). With greater and greater light, God has shown that Jesus Christ is the one and only answer to the great mystery of our salvation. Jesus is the one who has come “to save His people from their sins,” (Matt. 1:21). Any person from any nation at any time in history who has ever received salvation has received it through faith in God’s gracious provision in the Messiah. From Genesis to Revelation, there is only one answer to the mystery, only way of salvation, only one Savior: the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus, the sacraments are called “holy mysteries” because that is precisely what they represent; they visibly proclaim the salvation which God has provided for His people in Christ. The sacraments visibly depict the answer to the question: “How will God fulfill His gracious promise to save us?” In both the Old and New Covenants, God’s ordained sacraments all exist to visibly proclaim the saving work of Christ in the one and only gospel.
God Uses His Sacraments As Both “Signs” & “Seals” For the Blessing of His People
According to Romans 4:11, God refers to the sacraments as “signs” and “seals” of His covenant promises. In order to understand the spiritual blessings that God pours out on us through baptism it is essential for us to learn what these aspects of the sacraments mean.
1. Signs: Sacraments Are Visible Sermons Through Which the Holy Spirit Proclaims Christ & Applies Grace
As “signs," sacraments visibly portray the gospel to our soul. Through the sacraments, the Holy Spirit uses the physical elements proper to each sacrament as object lessons that visibly proclaim the spiritual truths which God has assigned to them. For example, think of the Lord’s Supper where the literal bread is broken and dispersed for the provision of God’s people. Likewise, the wine is poured out and given to all to drink. By God’s holy ordinance, these elements are visibly depicting the saving work of Jesus Christ for His chosen people. As the elements of the sacrament are received, they are visibly signifying the “holy mystery” of God’s gracious salvation for sinners. Although the elements of the sacraments are just ordinary things like bread, wine, and water, the Holy Spirit is pleased to bring true spiritual benefits to God’s people through them. God the Spirit works through the sacraments to effectively minister God’s saving, nourishing, and sustaining graces to His people as they receive them by faith.
2. Seals: Sacraments Are Holy Rites Marking Out the Distinct People of God & God’s Promise To Bless Them
As “seals,” sacraments represent two main things: God’s guarantee of His promises to His people and God’s mark of distinction upon His people. Before we consider each of these, let’s make sure we have the right picture in our minds of what it means when the Bible calls sacraments “seals.” If a king were to send an important letter in ancient times, wax would be used to close the document and a special signet or emblem would be pressed into the wax so that it bore the unique seal of the king. That seal represented the king’s authority as a guarantee of his commitment to the things set forth in the contents of that document and placed his promise behind it. Additionally, the seal simultaneously distinguished the letter as being sent from and belonging to the king himself and not to any other; it showed that the letter was truly his correspondence.
In like manner, sacraments are not only God’s ‘signs’—visible declarations of His gracious promise to provide salvation for His covenant people. They are also God’s ‘seals’—an outward mark of God’s guarantee to be faithful to fulfill all that He has promised to those with whom He has made His covenant: His chosen people. Furthermore, as we will see in our study, the application of the sacraments visibly distinguishes the members of God's covenant people from the rest of the world. Like a signet ring, the covenant sign being applied to God’s people shows that they are set apart as distinctly belonging to the King of kings.
New Covenant Baptism Is Both the Continuation of & Replacement of Old Covenant Circumcision
As circumcision was the covenant sign and seal applied to all members of God’s people in the Old Testament, so baptism is the covenant sign and seal applied to all members of God’s people in the New Testament. In the course of God’s unfolding plan of salvation, God has ordained that baptism should continue the covenant function of circumcision, but replace it as the sign and seal. As we study things further, we will come to see why this is the case. However, the critical relationship between circumcision and baptism means we really can’t fully understand the one without first understanding the other. So, in order to understand the New Covenant sacrament of baptism, we need to start by gaining more understanding of the unique place and purpose of the Old Covenant sacrament of circumcision. We especially want to see how God has chosen to use these “signs” and “seals” of His saving grace within the life of His church throughout the whole of redemptive history.
How and To Whom Was the Covenant Sign of Circumcision First Given?
In Genesis 12-17, God sovereignly chose Abram—an elderly man who was married to a barren elderly woman—and promised to bless them by making Abram the father of a great nation who would be God’s chosen possession. God told Abraham that He would be their God and they would be His people, and God also foretold that through the offspring of Abraham the nations of the world would be blessed.
The “sign” and “seal” of God’s covenant with Abraham was the sacrament of circumcision (Rom. 4:11). God declared that the sacrament of circumcision was to be applied to Abraham (as a believer; Gen. 15:6), and to all his male offspring as infants (not yet able to profess faith; Gen 17:10). This was to be a continual sign and seal of God’s covenant promises to them as His chosen people. We must emphasize that God’s promise was for Abraham and for his children; indeed, the very words of God’s covenant promise are unmistakable on this point. God’s promise to Abraham was this: “I will be a God to you and to your offspring after you,” (Gen. 17:7).
Furthermore, we learn elsewhere that if any male foreigner were to join the church of the Old Testament, he would first have to receive the covenant sign of circumcision as part of his personal profession of faith, as well as he and his children’s confirmation of membership among the covenant people of God, (Ex. 12:48).
Genesis 17:14 teaches that God used the covenant sign and seal of circumcision to distinguish His people—to whom He had promised His covenant blessings—from the rest of the world—to whom He had not. Soberingly, we read that in God’s economy, neglecting the sign, for either adults or children, is equivalent to rejecting the covenant promises freely offered by God.
How and To Whom Was the Covenant Sign of Baptism First Given?
In the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus called His people to build His covenant community by proclaiming the gospel to every part of the world. He told them that when God accomplishes His sovereign will and brings His chosen people into the church, those new members of God’s covenant people are to receive the sign and seal of the New Covenant: the sacrament of baptism. Like circumcision, this distinct sign distinguishes the covenant people of God (i.e. the visible church) from the rest of the world.
When we see the Apostles put Jesus’ teaching into practice for the first time in Acts 2, we see that they understood the application of baptism in the same way as that of circumcision. They understood that baptism is to be applied just as circumcision was to Abraham: to all believers and to their children. Peter teaches this very thing to the Jewish converts. Having been drawn to faith through the preaching of the gospel, they asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “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,” (Acts 2:38-39).
For over 2,000 years (since the time of Abraham) the words Peter used held a certain meaning in the minds of Jewish people. While preaching to an almost entirely Jewish crowd, Peter offers no hint that they should suddenly be understood differently. Just like God’s instructions to Abraham in Genesis, the covenant sign of God’s promise is not only for the believer, but also for the believer’s children as well. And if anyone outside of the church (i.e. a foreigner who is ‘far off’) were to join the church, they too would receive this sign and seal together with their children. This understanding is further demonstrated by the several “household baptisms” which are recorded in Acts in which only the faith of the household head is mentioned, but the covenant sign is applied to all as they are welcomed into the visible community of God’s people.
(For examples, see: 1. Cornelius (Acts 10) 2. Lydia (Acts 16) 3. The Philippian Jailer (Acts 16) 4. Crispus (Acts 18)
Why Did God Use the Particular Sign of Circumcision?
Generally speaking, God used this particular sign to teach us that:
The flesh profits nothing; man cannot provide his own salvation.
In Genesis 15, when God had given His promise to Abraham that he would give him a son, Abraham “believed God;” he trusted the Lord with saving faith and was "counted righteous” through this faith, (Gen. 15:6).
However, in Genesis 16, after years of waiting, Abraham began to doubt. He still did not have a son. After time had passed and God had not yet fulfilled His promise as Abraham thought God would, he began to try to fulfill the covenant out of his own strength; he began to try to obtain the blessing of God by what he could produce for himself.
At his wife’s desperate suggestion, Abraham decided that he would try to produce a child through his servant, Hagar. In disobedience and unbelief, Abraham did produce a child. However, it was a child born of the work of the flesh, not a child born of faith in the promises of God. This child, Ishmael, was man’s attempt to obtain God’s blessing through his own effort and strength, (Gal. 4:22-28).
The Lord used Abraham’s sin to teach a paramount lesson to His people. In fact, it was such an important lesson that God commanded His covenant people to repeatedly apply it to their children, and their children’s children, as a perpetually resounding gong of essential truth. So what was the lesson?
In the biblical account, it is in Genesis 17, directly following Abraham’s sinful pursuits with Hagar, that God gave him the covenant sign of circumcision. We must not miss the fact that God applied the sign and seal of His covenant promises directly to the very bodily organ which Abraham tried to use to produce blessing for himself. God placed His covenant mark on the reproductive organ of every male among His people. God was vividly declaring that the way that Abraham sought to obtain the blessing of God will never prosper. He was once for all telling His people: The flesh profits nothing; man cannot provide his own salvation.
Why Did God Use the Particular Sign of Baptism?
Generally speaking, God uses this particular sign to teach us that:
The Spirit alone brings life; salvation must come from God.
In Acts 2, we see the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the covenant people of God. This was the time when the early church, as promised by Christ, was “baptized in the Holy Spirit.” This scene resonates with biblical fulfillment. After being filled with the Holy Spirit, the Apostles began speaking in the tongues of many nations so that diverse peoples were all hearing the blessed news of God’s grace for sinners in Christ. We can see in this the morning blossom of God’s covenant promise to Abraham, that through his descendants (the covenant people of God), the nations of the world would be blessed. And so the nations continue to be blessed today as the church faithfully proclaims Christ.
In the midst of the excitement, the Apostle Peter spoke up and instructed the people. He told them that what they were seeing was exactly what God had promised long ago through the prophet Joel. In the words of the prophet, a day would come when God would “pour out His Spirit on all flesh…” Among all of the sundry representations of baptism in the Scriptures—each of which is important—God chose to use pouring at this most crucial juncture in the history of His people. He chose to present an image of the richest of all blessings—not being produced by man—but being poured out from heaven upon the sons and daughters of God.
As circumcision had always sacramentally portrayed, man did not produce his own salvation. Man did not earn the blessing of God through works of the flesh. Rather, God Himself came down in Christ, lived the perfect life that sinners have failed to live, died upon the Cross to pay the penalty for the sins of His people, rose from the grave to triumph over death, and ascended to the right hand of the Father on high from which He had come. It is from His royal throne in heaven, where Christ is seated as the Champion of our redemption, that He now pours out the blessing of salvation upon His covenant people. The central biblical image of baptism is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and this image powerfully declares what Jesus plainly taught: The Spirit alone gives life; salvation must come from God.
Why Did the Covenant Sign For the People of God Change?
In Genesis 3:15 God promised to bring forth a son from the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and thereby deliver man from the curse of sin. In theological terms, we call this the “protoevangelium” (first gospel) and the establishment of God’s “Covenant of Grace.” Despite man’s rebellion, God graciously promised to provide salvation for sinful and undeserving men. God’s declaration of this promise led to a sense of expectation among God’s people. As they lived their lives under the weight and curse of sin, they looked forward to the coming “Deliverer,” but they did not yet know who He would be. In Genesis 5:29, we learn that Noah was hoped to be such a deliverer. The Hebrew name “Noah” means “rest” or “comfort,” and the Bible says that when this young man was born he was named Noah because the people hoped that “this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands (i.e. the curse of sin in Adam).”
If we fast forward to Abraham, we see that God’s promise to Abraham of providing him with a blessed child rings with deeper biblical roots than we might have first realized. This “child of promise” seems to be the one whom God had foretold in Genesis 3. However, as we saw above, when God applied the covenant sign of circumcision to Abraham after his sin, he showed Abraham (and all who would come after him) that man cannot produce the salvation of God. Every male born among God’s people was given the same covenant sign from their birth. Generation to generation, that sign continually declared: “You can’t do it!” Imagine the tension of these two realities as a believer in the Old Covenant days. On the one hand, God had promised to bring forth a son from a woman who would deliver God’s people from the curse of sin. On the other hand, God had given a perpetual covenant sign on the male reproductive organ declaring emphatically that sinful man cannot bring forth the son of deliverance that is needed to be saved from the dreadful curse of sin.
Beloved, against this sovereignly painted backdrop, behold the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ! In Christ, God—not man!—has come to save His people from their sins. In Christ, we have a Son who has been born of a woman as promised in Genesis 3:15, but we also have a Son who was not produced by man! Every single aspect of God’s gracious work throughout redemptive history has served the purpose of pointing forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Jn. 5:39; Lk. 24:27). Jesus is the answer to the great “mystery;” Jesus is the focus of the spotlight in every holy sacrament.
What is more, the Lord Jesus Christ came to completely fulfill what was foreshadowed in circumcision—the bloody debt of sin. In the sacrament of circumcision, a very small portion of the sinful flesh of men was put to death as a sign of man’s guilt, as well as a sign of the wrath of God which is man’s due for his sins. At the Cross, Jesus Christ, having taken on the likeness of sinful flesh, stood in the place of sinful man to suffer the wrath of God in his stead. What the small bleeding wound of circumcision symbolically proclaimed to the sinner’s soul, Christ took upon Himself as He gave up his life, being crucified unto death, in order to redeem the guilty sons of Adam from the curse of sin in which they were lost.
Thus, the work to which circumcision symbolically looked forward to has now been accomplished in full. Therefore, the true Seed of the Woman and blessed Son of Abraham, now calls His covenant people, the church, to apply the sacrament of baptism as the sign and seal of God’s Covenant of Grace, (Matt. 28:19). No longer do we use the sacrament of circumcision which cries out for the need of a Saving-Substitute to deliver us, but now we apply the sacrament of baptism which proclaims the finished work of the Saving-Substitute who has come! Now we apply the sacrament of baptism which visibly proclaims the blessings of heaven which are freely poured out upon all who believe. The need of sinners is met! The work of redemption is accomplished! Christ has gained the victory and His blessings are now poured out to all who receive them by faith.
We see this shown forth in Acts 2 through the words of the Apostle Peter, through the several “household baptisms” of the New Testament, and through the teaching of the Apostle Paul when he refers to baptism as “the circumcision of Christ” in Colossians 2. Together, these all declare that there is one covenant people, united under one covenant Lord, set apart unto God by the holy sign and seal of the New Covenant: the sacrament of baptism.
Is the Outward Sign Enough By Itself? How Do We Raise Children In the Covenant?
The physical application of circumcision was ordained by God as a sign of children’s inclusion in the covenant community even before children were able to profess faith. By God’s decree, the spiritual need of the sinner was proclaimed and the promises of God were offered long before the sinner had any real comprehension thereof. We see in this, that it is God’s design for the spiritual truths represented and promised in the sacrament of baptism to be both offered to the child from birth, and continually applied to the child as they grow up within the spiritual life of the covenant community.
The application of the physical covenant sign was never to be viewed as an end, but rather as the beginning of God’s gracious ministry to that child’s soul. Children born to believers are born into the richest blessings a person could ever receive. From their infancy they are regularly hearing the Word of Life proclaimed, being called to repentance and faith Christ, sitting under the wisdom of the whole counsel of God, watching their parents’ private faith, and actively engaging in the covenant life of God’s people. By God’s design, children are to be raised “in the Lord” (Eph. 6:1); they are to be included in and receive all of the ordinary ministries of God for His people. Our covenant children are to be encouraged and fervently called to exercise their own personal faith alongside their parents as the Holy Spirit works to bring God’s elect to faith. Through the faithful use of God’s ordinary means of ministry—and in dependence upon the Holy Spirit—we help our children grow to understand the all-important spiritual truths which we began proclaiming to them through the sacrament of baptism from the very earliest days of their lives.
When God brings a covenant child to personally possess faith in Christ, and thereby to receive the promises held forth to them through the covenant sign of baptism, they are then invited through the Elders of the congregation to begin participating in the Lord’s Supper. Unlike baptism, (which for covenant children is received passively), the Lord’s Supper is an active, personal profession of trust in Christ. This is why children, though included in all other aspects of the covenant community, do not take the Lord’s Supper from birth. The Lord’s Supper is received by decisive participation wherein one exercises their personal faith to take hold of the ‘body’ and ‘blood’ of Christ because they have come to believe.
For covenant children, the sacrament of baptism says: Christ is offered to you and is yours if you do receive Him by faith! God calls this sacrament to be applied to the covenant child from birth and His promise to them therein stands throughout their whole life. However, by participating in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, the covenant child at last says back to God: Christ is mine and by faith I have received Him!
What Are Some of the Central Truths Which God Has Ordained New Covenant Baptism To Signify?
Outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Regeneration)
Verses: Joel 2:28-29; Mark 1:8; John 3:5; Acts 2:17; Titus 3:5-7Cleansing From All Sin
Verses: Acts 22:16; Titus 3:5-7; Hebrews 10:22; I Peter 3:21Union With Christ (In His Perfections & In His Finished Work)
Verses: Romans 6:3-11; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12Union With Christ’s Church (the Covenant People of God)
Verses: Genesis 17:14; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:37-41; I Corinthians 12:13