7-28-13 Sermon "Why Baptize Infants"

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WHY BAPTIZE INFANTS?  Deuteronomy 10:12-22                        07-28-13 Sermon

¹² And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

¹⁴ To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵ Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. ¹⁶ Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸ He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹ And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. ²⁰ Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. ²¹ He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. ²² Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

Today we are going to be doing baptisms in a creek for some adults and children so I thought I would speak today on the subject of baptism. And I would like to begin by speaking about infant baptism, which is probably the most common kind of baptism that we do as United Methodists. 

When we ask ourselves the question, Why Baptize Infants?, the real underlying question is:  How does a person become a member of the family of God?  It is not enough to start from the proof texts in Scripture on baptism and attempt to derive a doctrine from them.  You cannot simply turn to a concordance and look at all the verses on baptism and expect to find the full biblical teaching on baptism.

What we need to do is to investigate the more basic matter of how a person becomes part of the people of God.  Or, under the Old Covenant, in Old Testament times, how did people come into the family of God’s people?  And for this we go back into the Old Testament to the book of Genesis.  In Genesis 17, we read that the Lord appeared to Abram and told him again of His covenant and that there would be two signs of the covenant.  One would be that Abram’s name would be changed from Abram to Abraham, for he would become the father of many nations.  The purpose of the covenant was that God was taking out of the world a people to be his very own.  God made a holy people unto himself.  He would be their God and they would be his people.  This covenant is repeated throughout the Old Testament and actually continues right to the present.

It is God that initiated the covenant.  Abraham merely responds to the call of God.  But although God initiated the covenant, it was something to be kept by Abraham.  We need to know what is meant by keeping the covenant.  We read in Genesis 17 this is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you, every male among you shall be circumcised.  This shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.  In verse 10 circumcision is stated to be the covenant.  In verse 11 it is spoken of as being the sign of the covenant.  The connection between circumcision and God taking these people to be his own is a very intimate one.  And so important is this sign that without it a man was not to be numbered among the people of God. 

The covenant sign of circumcision was a sign that God had chosen these children.  Circumcision did not mean anything about the children themselves.  That is, it didn’t tell you anything about them other than the fact that they had been chosen by God and that they had received the sign of the covenant.  In verse 14, we read that any uncircumcised male shall be cut off from his people, he has broken the covenant.  So intimate is the connection between circumcision as the sign of the covenant, and the covenant itself that to refuse the sign was to cut off oneself from the people of God and to break the covenant.

So, how was a person admitted to the people of God in the Old Covenant, during Old Testament times?  They were admitted by receiving the sign of the covenant.  From the moment a child was circumcised, throughout the entire course of the child’s life, he was marked as an inheritor of all of the blessings of the covenant. 

Now, I think it should be obvious to us that the mere fact that a child was circumcised at the age of 8 days is no guarantee at all that this child would grow up to know or love or sere the Lord.  But the point is that the child was considered a child of God from the very moment that he received the sign of circumcision. 

Though there was this external sign there was also an internal aspect to belonging to God and in Deuteronomy chapter 10 we read about that.  We might ask ourselves, What is it that God wants of his people here?  And in verse 12 we read, fear him, love him, serve him and obey him.  Now again, a child receiving circumcision at 8 days had no guarantee whatever that he would grow up to do any of these things.  In verse 16 we read, circumcise your hearts and be no longer stubborn.  The word circumcise there is obviously used in a spiritual sense. We have both physical circumcision and spiritual circumcision.  There is a circumcision of the body and there is a circumcision of the heart.  And, in fact, John Wesley preached a sermon titled: Circumcision of the Heart.

Now Paul puts this all together in a very beautiful way in Romans 2:28.  He writes:  for he is not a real Jew which is one outwardly, nor is true circumcision something that is external and physical.  He is a Jew who is one inwardly and real circumcision is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal.  Being a real Jew in the sight of God is a matter of an inward spiritual condition.  It is not a matter of just having received the external sign.

You may be wondering, Well, what about the women?  That’s a good question.  Under the Old Covenant, the wives and daughters were included in the covenant through their husbands and fathers.  Like it or not, God dealt with them through the men back then.  One of the differences between the old and new covenants is right at this point.  Jesus broke down the distinctions between men and women so that we all now stand before God as individuals.  So Paul wrote there is now no Greek or Jew, male or female, slave or free, we are all one in Christ Jesus. 

Who, then, is a real Jew?  Not one who’s circumcision is merely external and physical, but one whose circumcision is spiritual and of the heart.

Now, here is where church history comes into play.  You will remember that the first Christians were almost all Jews.  They already understood the principle of belonging to God.  They already had an idea of being called out to be God’s people in a special way.  They already knew about the covenant. 

How, then, were they to conceive of becoming Christians?  If you change the word Jew to Christian in the Romans 2 passage, and if you change the word circumcision to baptism you have the exact understanding of the early church in reference to the matter of baptism.  That Romans passage would then read: 

For he is not a real Christian who is one outwardly, nor is true baptism something external and physical.  He is a Christian who is one inwardly and real baptism is a matter of the heart, spiritual and not literal. 

So, becoming a child of God under the old covenant had an outward aspect and an inward aspect, and it is still the same today.  Baptism for Christians is like circumcision to the Jews under the old covenant.  It is an outward sign of our belonging to God, and from the moment that the child is baptized he is considered a member of the People of God, just as from the moment that the child was circumcised he was considered a member of the people of God in the Old Covenant.

To be baptized and to be circumcised is to become an inheritor of the covenant promises.  But here is a very important point--whether or not you actually enter into that inheritance depends not on circumcision or baptism but upon personal faith.  It was ever so even among the Hebrews.  It was not merely that they were circumcised that guaranteed the whole thing.  That was merely a sign that God had chosen them.  But they had to respond to God in faith, trust and obedience, choosing him. 

So the New Testament says that Abraham was saved through faith.  He was not saved through circumcision.  The same thing must be said of Christians.  Baptism is not a saving sacrament, if by that you mean that after the child has been baptized, that is all there is to it.  It does not guarantee that the child will go to heaven when he grows up.  There is no place in the New Testament where that is taught.  All the way through the New Testament people become children of God in fact through faith and trusting in Jesus Christ.  They are not saved by having water put upon them. 

What does it mean then to baptize a child?  It means the same thing that circumcision did.  God has chosen this child as his own.  And the child becomes heir to all the promises of God.  But whether or not he will ever receive those promises depends upon his coming to faith and being restored or inwardly cleansed and washed by the Holy Spirit. 

Under the old covenant it was the responsibility of both the community of faith and the parents to bring that child to the place where he understood what his circumcision meant so that at some point in his life he could stand up and say, I accept these responsibilities and privileges for myself.  In the Old Covenant that was at the Bar Mitzvah.

Under the new covenant it is precisely the same thing.  God has selected us as his own.  And it is the responsibility of the believing community, the church, and the parents, to bring that child up under the ministry and guidance of the church, whereby the child will accept for himself the gift of salvation, where the child will accept Jesus Christ into his life, and begin to live his life under the Lordship of Jesus.

Now you need to know that this view of baptism that I have given you was universally held in the Christian church for its first 1600 years, everywhere.  The question of the baptism of infants was not even an issue in the church because children had always been a part of the covenant.  The idea that children were not part of the covenant was unthinkable to the Jew and the vast majority of the first believers in the Christian church were Jews. 

However, in the 16^th century, there were a group of people in Europe who began to look around themselves and say--This entire continent has been baptized and where do we see true saving faith?  These people correctly understood that to be a child of God in fact rather than in name only was to come to believing faith in Jesus Christ.  They clearly understood that.  It is not enough to be baptized as an infant.  There have probably been countless thousands and maybe millions of people who have been baptized as infants and who have been led to believe that that’s all there is to it.  And they have never come to personal faith in Jesus Christ. 

So these people in Europe said, Wouldn’t it be better if we didn’t baptize them as infants?  Why don’t we wait until they grow up?  Bring them to personal faith in Christ and then baptize them.  Now, please understand very clearly that the suggestion they were making was not based on scripture or on the 1600 years of the history of the church up to that point.  If you go back and read what they wrote at the time they did not say Well, that’s the way it was done in the early church because it clearly was not what was done in the early church.  They also did not argue that this is what the Bible says.  They did not.  It was purely an argument from expediency.  Their thinking was Wouldn’t you have more true believers in the church if you brought them to faith first and then baptized them? So, this view came to be called believer’s baptism. 

Now more modern proponents of the believer’s baptism view will say, Show me a single case where there is an infant baptism in the New Testament.   Well, there are two responses to that.  First of all, we need to remember that the New Testament is recording a missionary situation, where the gospel is first preached in a place.  And, of course, when the gospel is first preached in a place it is preached largely to adults, and adults come to faith first and then they are baptized.  And that same thing is done today.  When adults who have never been baptized come to faith, they are baptized.  That is still the practice of all the Christian churches, including ours. 

The question of baptizing infants doesn’t even arise until you get to the second generation after the New Testament where the church is faced with children raised in Christian homes and under the influence and guidance of the church.  And that is just where that question arose in church history.  Christian believers who had children began to ask, Now that we are Christians, how do we regard our children?  Are they pagans, and outside the family of God until they grow up and come to faith?  And the church said, Absolutely not!  Children have always been a part of the covenant right from the very beginning.  Jesus himself said, Let the children come to me, do not hinder them for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  If the kingdom of God belongs to such children then why should they be refused the sign of membership in that kingdom?

We need also to recognize that there are a few instances of baptism in the New Testament that very well may have involved the baptism of infants or young children.  When Lydia believed, Acts 16:15 tells us that she and the members of her household were baptized.  When the Philippian jailer believed, in Act 16:33 we read that he and all his family were baptized.  And we are told by Paul in 1 Corinthains 1:16 that he baptized the household of Stephanus.  Why should we assume that there were no children in these whole households?  It is certainly possible that these family baptisms included infants or young children. 

As we witnessed the baptism of infants we need to be reminded of our role in that baptism as a church.  Parents promise before God and the congregation to live a life of faith before their children so they are introduced to Jesus Christ naturally.  And we as a congregation promise to raise our children under the ministry and guidance of the church, which means regular worship, Sunday school and bible study attendance.  We as a congregation promise to provide an atmosphere of faith and dedication to Christ so these little ones entrusted to our care will grow up wanting to know our Savior.

When I was a pastor in Philadelphia I would regularly get calls from people in the community, not connected with our church, who would say, I need to have my baby done!  That always made me rather uncomfortable because it sounded so much like taking your cat or dog to the Vet to have them “done.”

Some people, especially if they have Roman Catholic influences in their family history, wonder if an unbaptized baby dies will it go to hell or limbo or some other place like that.  So they would want to have their baby “done”, spiritually “fixed”, you might say, so if the baby died, the baby would go to heaven. 

And we say, No, we believe that if an unbaptized infant dies they go to be with Jesus in heaven.  We do not believe that God would send anyone to hell who could not understand the nature of sin.  We do not believe that there is any rush to get a baby baptized in order to guarantee them a place in heaven. 

We do NOT believe that baptism makes the infant a Christian.  Baptism is a sign that they are part of the FAMILY of God, but the infant who is baptized must come to a time in his/her life when he/she accepts for himself/herself the gift of salvation and CHOOSES to follow Jesus as their own Lord and Savior.  This is clearly stated in the baptism service where parents promise to nurture this child in Christ’s Holy Church that by their teaching and example they may be guided to accept God’s grace for themselves, to profess their faith openly, and to lead a Christian life.  The infant baptism is done on the basis of the parents’ faith and promise, and on the promises of a congregation, but it is only fulfilled when the child comes to faith themselves.  Infant baptism is a decision that parents make for a child.  Becoming a Christian is not a decision that anyone can make for someone else.  You can only decide on that yourself.  That is why in the United Methodist church we have two membership rolls—we have baptized members and we have professing members.

Baptism is not just a one day service, but the beginning of a life long commitment.  It is a statement about how parents intend to raise a child.  And it is a statement by the members of a church about what they will do for those parents and that child.

I return to the question that is the title of this morning’s message—why baptize infants?  Indeed, as parents, why baptize infants if you are not going to raise them in Christ’s holy church and live before them a Christian life?  Indeed, as a church, why baptize infants, if we will not live according to the example of Christ, if we will not surround them with a community of love and forgiveness, and if we will not pour our hearts out in prayer for each other?  Why baptize infants?

On the other hand, we baptize infants because we recognize that, like Horton says in Horton Hears a Who, “a person’s a person no matter how small.”  And an infant may be small right now, but he/she is of infinite value in God’s sight.  Jesus died for that infant.  God has great plans for that infant’s life that were formed while that infant was still in his mother’s womb.  And we baptize infants because we want to say, God we want to see you fulfill ALL those great plans for this child, and we want to help this child along the path, and we want to be a part of those great plans you have for this child. 

Now today after the service we will be doing a creek baptism for some adults and older children who have never been baptized.  And on such occasions the request often comes up—I was baptized as an infant and of course I have no recollection of that.  I would like to be re-baptized in a creek as an adult. 

Well, in the United Methodist church we don’t do that.  And, in fact, United Methodist pastors are specifically forbidden to do that.  And here’s why.  If you were baptized as a child, some parents and sometimes some godparents or sponsors, as well as a whole church congregation all made promises before God about how you would be raised and about the Christian environment that would be provided for you to grow to the point where you would commit your life to following Jesus Christ.   God heard those promises that were made and the fact that you are where you are today, spiritually, is testimony to the fact that, over the years since your baptism, God has moved in your life to bring you to faith in Christ and to enable you to grow as his disciple.  As United Methodists we believe that when we ask God to bless and move in a person’s life at their baptism he hears and responds to that prayer.  To re-baptize you would be to say that those promises made long ago didn’t matter, that they had no effect on your life, and that God did not honor those promises or move in your life since then. 

In the Old Testament as an adult came to a time of renewed faith in God, they did not ask to be re-circumcised, even if that were physically possible.  But they did something else.  In our scripture of the morning it talked about people circumcising their hearts.  And in Jeremiah 9:26 the prophet complains that that the whole nation of Israel is not circumcised in their hearts.  So, even back then, it was appropriate at a time of renewed faith to remember their circumcision and reaffirm their covenant with God, to say, Yes, I am glad I am part of the family of God.  I thank God for what he has done in my life.  I thank God for his faithfulness to me.  I recommit my life to following him more faithfully here on out—or like our scripture this morning says:  to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees.

So, as United Methodists, we don’t re-baptize people, but we do offer a time for reaffirming our faith, and renewing the covenant declared at our baptism.  We give opportunity to acknowledge what God is doing for us and to reaffirm our commitment to his holy church.  So as part of our baptism service this morning, we will also offer those of you who have been baptized, to come forward and have us make the sign of the cross on your forehead with water, as a time of re-commitment and thankfulness to God for what he has done in your life.