The Giver, The Takers, and the Forsakers
Consider someone who is functionally a vegetable. They can’t even swallow or breath without external assistance. The doctors discover a cure for their ailments and begin administering the medicine through an IV. As the sick man begins to regain his faculties, he is repulsed by the regiment the doctors have prescribed for his healing and removes the IV. He has rejected the objective cure that was given to him and consigned himself to death. An analogous relationship can be seen with baptism. As was established in a previous post ( https://www.tributeblog.me/blog/whats-water-got-to-do-with-it ) baptism communicates a supernatural package of benefits from God to the baptized. This objective gift, however, must be received properly. This cure for our death (union with Christ, initiated at baptism) must be worked out with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13). The dynamic of objective and subjective must not be set at odds. Rather the subjective must be seen as a subordinate response to the objective. God is the initiator, the giver, the creator. The creation is the responder to His initiation. Thus, the baptized person’s subjective response to the objective grace of baptism is made possible only because God has baptized them.
There are various ways we can respond to the gift of baptism, that is not dissimilar from the soils of Jesus’s parable of the sower:
Matthew 13:4-8 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
While this parable is not directly speaking of baptism, it is speaking of receiving the kingdom. We can make some correspondence then to baptism since baptism is entrance into the kingdom. In the case of the birds (Satan) stealing the seeds, this can be seen as those that are kept from the baptismal font because they are in communities that are cut off from Christ. These could also be people that received baptism; then were placed under the tutelage of false teachers and heretics. This satanic teaching prevented them from receiving the potent blessings offered in baptism. This could be someone baptized in The Episcopal Church of the USA. This person would still be baptized in the Triune name; but they are raised to pray to “our mother who art in heaven”, they are raised praising sexual immorality as good, and this robs them of the good seed.
The second group are baptized people that receive the gifts at first with joy. They have genuine growth. For various reasons the growth isn’t fostered, therefore the gift in baptism is degraded. These could be people that truly believed but aren’t tied into the historic faith once delivered. They aren’t introduced to the Creeds of the Church, or their prayer life isn’t fostered well. This leaves them susceptible to questioning the goodness of God, the Trinity, the Incarnation, etc. Since they do not till up the rocky soil of their soul, they allow apathy to choke out their growth.
The third response to baptism is like the second, except this is a rejection due to the cares of the world. The baptized person inherits a great gift, but they see the cost of following Jesus and deem it too expensive. This is akin to our opening analogy: a sick man receives medicine, and once he regains his faculties, he is told what rehabilitation will require. The cost is too high; thus he rejects the treatment. We see this example with the rich young ruler, he is heart broken that he must sell all to follow Jesus. His worldly cares rob him of the eternal blessings found through union with Jesus. I ran into similar resistance in India when I was on a church planting missions trip. New converts were very hesitant to be baptized because they knew it could result in their being cut off from their family and community. To be baptized meant to enter an entirely new reality, to be freed from old alliances and reborn with new loyalties that were contradiction to their Hindu world of old. These are difficult pressures to war against. They have been felt since the first century of the Church.
Hebrews 6:1-6 1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, 2instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And this we will do, if God permits.4It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— 6and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.
Jewish Christians were faced with the contrast of having to leave the old temple behind and, by faith, walk into the new temple of Jesus’s body. This chafed against their very identity as God’s people. They were warned in no uncertain terms in Hebrews, however, that to depart from the faith that had enlightened them would lead to death.
This brings us to the fruitful response. Those that receive baptism with faithfulness, experience exponential growth. Kingdom life flows through their body as they “improve” upon their baptism, by the electing grace of God. As they sink their roots deeper into the rich shoreline of the river of life, they become a blessing to the world. The thing that makes them fruitful however, is not primarily their subjective response, it is the gifts of God that were given to them in baptism. It is the will of Christ working through them. Their lack of resistance is their primary contribution to the fruitfulness.
The subjective responses then, are fundamentally of two types: faith or unbelief. The faithful recipient is fruitful, lively, and blessed. They do not resist the gifts of God. They allow their dams of sin and shame to be washed away by the waters of Baptism, so the Holy Spirit can fill them and produce spiritual fruit. The unbeliever rejects these gifts. They recoil. They allow their flesh to choke out spiritual fruit. They hardened their hearts’ soil to stop the root growth. Having tasted the fruit of Christ they revolt at the exclusive allegiance Jesus requires. They are the branches of John 15. At one time they enjoyed union with Jesus, but they did not abide with Him and are dried up and cut off.
If this is the dynamic between the gift of baptism and the subjective response, who then can respond appropriately? Who does the Bible give as examples of fit vessels for baptism? First and foremost, sinners are valid recipients, because sinners need forgiveness. Sinners are estranged from Christ and need union with Christ. Sinners are condemned and need to be justified. Sinners are under the dead headship of Adam and need a new everlasting Father. Every human is eligible for baptism, because no one is born with those needs met. In Adam all men have fallen (1 Corinthians 15:22). We are born in sin and iniquity (Psalm 51:5). Therefore, we should baptize everyone, right?
Baptism is a holy gift, and we don’t want to profane it by giving it to people that are in open rebellion to God. This is why I don’t stand on overpasses with a hyssop branch baptizing all those who pass by. When someone is baptized, they are to be baptized into the body of Christ, into the Church. As we established, for this to be a fruitful transfer of allegiances they must be faithful receivers. Who does the Bible show to have faith? The first category is the one we can all agree on, repentant adults. In Acts 2 Peter is preaching to these Jews from all over the empire. They hear their need of Jesus and desire the healing of His resurrection. In order to receive new life they must repent (turn from their present life and walk in new life) by being baptized for their forgiveness of sins. Therefore, those that have been walking in rebellion are showing themselves to have stony hearts that are set against God and His gifts. That is why baptism is only given to those that are aware of their death sentence and would like to receive God’s deliverance in baptism. This is how faith is revealed in converts.
Do we have any indication from Scripture then, that infants are capable of having faith that could receive the gifts given in baptism? Jesus certainly seems to think so.
Luke 18:15-17 And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. 16But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
The starting point for faith is to be like an infant. To only be receptive. To be wholly dependent on outside help. This is the chiastic structure of life; the helplessness of an infant is akin to the sick man on death’s door. The kingdom belongs to these, and they are received into the kingdom through baptism. Not because they are sinless, but because the promise of forgiveness belongs to them just as it does their parents.
John the Baptist was able to have enough faith to rejoice at Jesus while they were both still in the womb. David’s faith is fostered while he was a nursing infant. Even Timothy is raised with the faith that belonged to his mother and grandmother.
God works through created means; He works through families. This is why five of the seven baptisms in Acts are household baptisms. When the father comes to faith the family is made new. Ever since the Old Testament the expectation was that children would be raised in the faith. Not converted to it rather brought up in it. Jesus reaffirms this in Matthew’s iteration of the little children coming to Christ;
Matthew 18:1-6 At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? 2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
The warning is to those that would cause the little ones to stumble, not those who don’t convert them. There is a sense in which the little ones are predisposed to trust Jesus. Their wills aren’t hardened by decades of sin and rebellion. Their soil is receptive. How else are children brought to Jesus, and raised in Jesus apart from baptism? If we are to raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, they must be in the Lord first. They must be baptized. They are in a community of faith; they need to be in union with Christ and baptism is the means by which God has promised to accomplish that.
We must come to terms with the paradigm of Jesus. He has made it known that infants are capable of faith. So capable of faith that we must imitate them to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is why all baptisms are infant baptisms. Every baptism is a new birth. It is an adoption ceremony by which an old man becomes a new man. A dying man becomes an everlasting man. This does not mean the gift cannot be profaned, or lost, or disparaged. It certainly can be. But that danger does not go away if only people with language are allowed to be baptized. That danger is present until Christ returns. We can’t see to whom God has promised perseverance. We can only operate by what God’s Word has revealed. If we are to lead our children to Christ, that starts with baptism. From baptism they are raised in the fear and knowledge of God. They improve their baptism through faithful observance of how Christ instructs His body to move. They cannot obey rightly apart from baptismal grace. They cannot participate in the life of Jesus until they are united to Jesus. Our babies are crying out for their heavenly Father, bring them to the font of eternal adoption so they can receive the gifts of God that he promised to your children in Acts 2.