But first, the Gospel
The gospel shapes everything we do as God’s people. Paul wrote: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel” (2 Tim 2:8). Jesus is our king who rules over us. He was raised from the dead after dying as a sacrifice for our sins. He has brought forgiveness of sins and peace with God.
But how does baptism fit with salvation?
Baptism means an experience involving water. The Greek word baptidzo literally means ‘to immerse or dunk’, but this doesn’t necessarily tie us down to baptism only by full immersion. The reason for this is that throughout the NT the word baptidzo is used symbolically. One example is that Jesus spoke about undergoing a ‘baptism’ at the cross when he died (Luke 12:50).
What is important is not the means of baptism (immersion or sprinkling) but what we are celebrating and communicating when we baptise people.
What are we celebrating and communicating when we baptise people?
First, we are wanting to communicate that the gospel is a gospel of grace. Baptism doesn’t save us itself, only Christ can do that. However, the ceremony is a powerful reminder of God’s work for us and in us.
If you like, baptism is like a wedding ring. It is given to me by my marriage partner to sign and seal me as belonging to one another. You take the ring off and you are still married, but when wearing the wedding ring it is an outward sign of an inward reality.
So what is the inward reality we are celebrating and communicating through baptism?
There are a number of spiritual realities that the New Testament ties to baptism.
Here are a few:
we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection (Rom 6:3-4),
we have received the Holy Spirit and join the church (1 Cor 12:13), &
we are saved from judgment (1 Pet 3:21)
All of these things are true of a believer without the presence of baptism but baptism is a wonderful celebration & sign of these spiritual realities.
Second, baptism expresses the response of a convert. It expresses his or her decision to identify with Christ and his people. 1 Peter 3:21 expresses this idea when it speaks of baptism as a pledge to God. When a person gets baptised they are saying something. They are making a pledge to God to trust him, identify with Christ and his people. In this sense, baptism is simply an external tangible expression of an inner attitude of faith in Christ.
This explains why the apostles could seem to make baptism a condition of forgiveness. So when Peter says ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins’ (Acts 2:38) we understand that he didn’t mean that the act of baptism is necessary to receive salvation.
So what does he mean? We take it that because baptism is so closely associated with a pledge of faith in God that it can be used interchangeably. We would say a person needs to repent and put their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. Peter says the same thing by saying ‘repent and be baptised’. Baptism was and is an external tangible expression of the inner attitude of faith toward God.
So there are two sides to baptism. One is an expression of our human response to God. The other is an expression of God’s grace to us - “I am now marked as one who is united to Christ and is a member of God’s community.”
Infant baptism
So what about baptising children?
The Bible is not explicit on whether baptism should be for adults only or whether it can be for babies or teenagers or anywhere in between. On the one hand, some of the passages about baptism connect it closely with repentance and belief, qualities that are more evident in adults. On the other hand, some emphasise only the work of God (e.g. Col 2:11-14).
In addition, the book of Acts describes several instances of whole households being baptised, which could very well have included children of all ages (Acts 10; Acts 16:15, 33; 18:8). This lack of explicit direction in the Bible gives us freedom to baptise both adults and kids, as long as we uphold gospel and biblical truths as we do so.
Thinking about infant baptism?
A good question to ask before considering infant baptism for your children is: will we be raising our children as little believers (who will, God-willingly confirm their faith) or little non-believers (who need to be converted)?
If your answer is to raise them as believers, then it is helpful to understand infant baptism as a relational pledge. Every parent has a relationship with their child and in baptism you make a pledge on behalf of your kid that they will follow Jesus just like you.
But is this legitimate?
First, God gives us authority over our kids. We make all sorts of decisions on behalf of our kids. For example, you decided where your children will go to primary school. Maybe once they hit high school they are involved in the decision making process but very rarely would this be the case for primary school. You made that decision for them because they are your children.
Second, God gives you this authority in order for you to raise them to know and love Jesus. God says. In Ephesians. 6:4 (see also Josh 24:15; Gen 17:12), Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. So in baptising our children, we as parents are making a choice about what our children are going to believe and bring them up accordingly.
When we are baptising our children we are committing to a few things:
A decision for your child that they are going to trust Jesus and grow up knowing Jesus as their Lord, just like Jesus is your Lord.
We are making a commitment to doing this. We teach them the gospel, how to pray to God as their Father, we teach them that the Bible is God’s Word, we instruct them on what it says, remind them that they are one of God’s children, and show them how to live this out in life.
We are committing to pray for our kids. We want to pray that our decision will become their decision. We pray that they will never know a time when they weren’t Christian, that they will grow up to take on your pledge for themselves and follow Jesus as a mature godly believer. Or if they leave Jesus, you pray that they will return.
What about infant dedication?
There are many legitimate reasons for us not to baptise our children. For example, many families who were converted out of a Catholic background (where baptism is clearly a work for salvation) choose not to baptise their kids as infants because they do not want their unconverted family to misunderstand what is going on. Others simply disagree theologically with infant baptism and would prefer to get their kids to wait till later in life to get baptised.
Some of these families will opt for 'dedication' instead. In dedication, parents make essentially the same commitments and promises for their children. The hope and prayers of parents who choose this path are that their children will be baptized when they themselves decide to follow Jesus and embrace their upbringing in the Lord.
Summary
At Hunter Bible Church we allow people to make decisions for themselves on this issue. Even within the staff team there are people who have chosen to baptise their kids and others who have waited for their kids to make a decision for themselves to follow Jesus before they get baptised. We consider this to be an issue of freedom as long as we err away from making baptism a necessary experience that secures or contributes to salvation.