Andrew Hall
Puritan Board Freshman
I'm currently a credobaptist seeking to better understand paedobaptism. One big issue that led me away from paedobaptism is how Paul says things of the baptized that cannot be said of unbelievers:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him by baptism into death ... " (Rom. 6:3,4)
"In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal. 3:26, 27)
"In him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Col. 2:11, 12)
Paul seems to say that all who were baptized participate in vital, saving union with Christ--not just a prospective union. While of course some outwardly baptized with water will prove not to be baptized with the Spirit (we cannot see the heart and only look outwardly), this led me to see that Paul views baptism and saving faith as equivalents, whose membership are one-for-one. He doesn't make room for those who are water-baptized outwardly but don't participate in the inward reality. The only way I could explain this was that baptism assumes faith for its validity; only believers (or at least outward professors) were baptized in the NT, thus invalidating the baptism of infants or children who hadn't yet made a confession of faith. How could Paul say of an unregenerate child is buried with Christ and raised with him, clothed with Christ, etc.?
As I've tried thinking through this stuff, the only way I can make sense of these passages is that paedobaptists must mean Spirit-baptism is in view here, of which water baptism is the sign. In the language of WCF 27:2, Paul is using language of the sign (water baptism) to actually mean the thing signified (Spirit union with Christ). But that in no way appears evident in the text, and I question whether these churches to whom Paul wrote would have grasped that sacramental language. Is this a matter of the sign being used to refer to the substance, or is there some other means of sacramental efficacy at work here by which water baptism actually effects vital union with Christ?
Thanks for any clarification on how these texts work from a paedobaptist perspective! (And FYI, I plan to make a similar post in the credo-baptism answers forum about how Baptists account for the fact that baptism appears to enact union with Christ, while avoiding the necessity of baptism for salvation or falling into some kind of sacerdotalism.)
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him by baptism into death ... " (Rom. 6:3,4)
"In Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal. 3:26, 27)
"In him you also were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead." (Col. 2:11, 12)
Paul seems to say that all who were baptized participate in vital, saving union with Christ--not just a prospective union. While of course some outwardly baptized with water will prove not to be baptized with the Spirit (we cannot see the heart and only look outwardly), this led me to see that Paul views baptism and saving faith as equivalents, whose membership are one-for-one. He doesn't make room for those who are water-baptized outwardly but don't participate in the inward reality. The only way I could explain this was that baptism assumes faith for its validity; only believers (or at least outward professors) were baptized in the NT, thus invalidating the baptism of infants or children who hadn't yet made a confession of faith. How could Paul say of an unregenerate child is buried with Christ and raised with him, clothed with Christ, etc.?
As I've tried thinking through this stuff, the only way I can make sense of these passages is that paedobaptists must mean Spirit-baptism is in view here, of which water baptism is the sign. In the language of WCF 27:2, Paul is using language of the sign (water baptism) to actually mean the thing signified (Spirit union with Christ). But that in no way appears evident in the text, and I question whether these churches to whom Paul wrote would have grasped that sacramental language. Is this a matter of the sign being used to refer to the substance, or is there some other means of sacramental efficacy at work here by which water baptism actually effects vital union with Christ?
Thanks for any clarification on how these texts work from a paedobaptist perspective! (And FYI, I plan to make a similar post in the credo-baptism answers forum about how Baptists account for the fact that baptism appears to enact union with Christ, while avoiding the necessity of baptism for salvation or falling into some kind of sacerdotalism.)