Reid's Baptism

Last Sunday, October 5, Reid Wallace was baptized. Our family and dear friends gathered around us for this special event, and we are so thankful for all who were able to come. The ceremony was beautiful and we had brunch at our home afterwards. It was really special to have Mark help with the baptism and pray for Reid and our family.

This is a long post, but I really wanted to write about why we baptize our infants. I realize that there are different beliefs among Christians about baptism, and I wanted to explain our viewpoint from scripture for anyone who wondered why we do this.

Coming from a Southern Baptist church in high school and college, I always believed it was wrong to baptize infants. I thought people either did infant baptisms because they believed it would cleanse the child of their original sin and give him/her a clean slate (which some people do believe) or that it was just a formality, like a baby dedication but with water. After coming into a Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) church in 1999, I learned that neither of my assumptions were true in the reformed faith.

For my friends reading this who are not Christians, we believe the Bible teaches that due to Adam’s disobedience in the garden, all people are born into sin because he represented the whole human race. We sin because we are sinners, we don’t sin and then consequently become sinners. Because of God’s great mercy, he sent Jesus, the “second Adam” (see Romans 5) to pay the price for our sin and redeem all those who put their faith in Him. Jesus did what Adam did not. He lived a sinless life, suffered, and died the painful and shameful death of the cross to satisfy God’s justice. Because Jesus represented His chosen race, those who believe in Him by faith alone can be completely forgiven of our sins and be in relationship with God. That is why on my profile I state that I am a sinner made righteous by the work of Christ. I am righteous in God’s sight, but ONLY by the work of Christ, not by anything I have done.

In the book of Genesis, God makes a covenant with Abram and the Bible says that Abram believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6). The sign of the covenant is circumcision, and Abram is told to apply the sign to every male among him. From that point forward, male babies were to be circumcised on the 8th day of life (Gen 17:12), even though they had not professed faith in God. The outward sign was to set them apart as part of God’s people, the covenant family.

You can follow God’s covenants with His people from Genesis to Revelation, and it really is a beautiful story. God constantly keeps His promises even when His people are unfaithful to Him. Ultimately, Jesus ushers in a new covenant of grace, which is the high point in the story of God and His people. However, it is always by believing God that people are reconciled to God, even before the death and resurrection of Christ.

The way that this relates to infant baptism is that children were always part of the covenant family. The outward sign of circumcision was always applied to infants. In the New Testament, the sign of the covenant is baptism. Since so many of the early Christians were Jews, they would have been accustomed to applying the sign of the covenant to their infants, and we believe that if they were not supposed to do that with baptism, there would be instruction in one of the epistles to not do it, but there is not. Furthermore, Jesus welcomes the little children to come to Him and puts His hands on them and blesses them (Mark 10:14-16). Acts 2:38-39 says, “Peter replied, “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. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

Jeff, Sydney, and I have received that promise and have put our faith in Christ. The faith we have is a gift from Him. As a baby, Reid does not have the capacity to put his faith in Christ, but we believe the promise is for him since he is our child. The baptism is an outward sign, and we look to Christ with hope and expect to see the inward fulfillment of the outward sign when Reid is older. The baptism marked Reid as part of our covenant family, our church community, and is all about God’s promise to His people. Although in the ceremony we did promise to raise Reid (and Sydney & Ethan at their baptisms) in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, the baptism is more about God’s promise to Reid and us, and less about our promises to God. We don’t believe the baptism saves him in the sense that from this point forward he is cleansed of his sinful nature, but we do believe it calls him out for salvation later.

One last thing that I personally love about infant baptism is that it really illustrates how believers have come to Christ, like helpless babies. Faith in Jesus is never something we can muster up, it comes as a free gift from him. We do not have the capacity to work our way to God, His amazing love does the work for us. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

The kids got changed and went out to play as soon as we got home!

Jeff''s mom made amazing desserts!

Precious Baby Reid! His middle name is Wallace, after Jeff's grandfather, Alvin Wallace, who is holding him in the photo, and his mother, Annie Wallace.