The Divine Distinction between Families

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Genesis 3:15

Our God makes a distinction between the offspring of Eve and those of the serpent. Observe this distinction has no expiration date. For example, it does not say: “I will put enmity between you and the offspring up until the promised offspring comes.” The enmity between Christ, Satan and their respective offspring is perpetual even after Christ’s first advent! This divine distinction consists in our God’s Sovereign choice for them to be recipients of his chosen means of grace which consequently make them possessors of a unique, provisional spiritual status until they become mature enough to either commune with the Church at the Table of our Lord or show themselves to be unbelieving.

Family of Origin is not Arbitrary

The Apostle Paul no doubt confirms the perpetual nature of the divine distinction between our children and those of the world when he calls them holy:

For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
1 Corinthians 7:14

This solidifies what should be self-evident; namely, the children of Christian parents are very different in God’s eyes from the children of Hindu, Muslim, or Jewish parents. The God who numbers the hairs on our head, (Matthew 10:30) discerns our thoughts from a far, (Psalm 139:2) and is acquainted with all of our ways (Psalm 139:3) chooses the family to which a child is born. This choice is of profound consequence and not without meaning and relevance with respect to our God’s plan of salvation.

The Power of God’s Word and of Prayer

When a soul is born into a Christian family, it is subject to the powerful word of Christ. This word is “living and active”. (Hebrews 4:12) It is the effective and chosen means of God to bring to fruition his own eternal decrees in time.

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55:11

Consider how our children will be subject to this divine power, not by chance, but by God’s gracious providence! What’s even more than this, they are prayed for – and God has also promised to hear prayer! (1 John 5:14) Does not God discern from afar – indeed, even from all eternity – that a Christian parent desires nothing more than the salvation of their beloved child? Will he not hear such prayers? Has he not ordained them? And the parents whom the child is commanded to obey, (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1) what are they being taught except to repent and believe the promises of God which have been made and are being made to them continually?

A Different Spiritual Status

Let’s rehearse what has already been proposed:

There is a distinction made between the the children of christians and the children of non-christians that is (a) of divine initiative and origin and (b) perpetual. (Genesis 3:15, 1 Corinthians 7:14)
The Word of God is powerful, living and active, and effective in God’s hands for the accomplishment of his will. (Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 55:11)
God has promised to hear and answer our prayers. (1 John 5:14)
Our children are subject to both the Divine Word of God and the powerful prayers of the saints all their lives, not by chance, but by the Sovereign Hand of God. (Matthew 10:30, Psalm 139:2, Psalm 139:3)

Therefore, in conclusion, our children have a different status in God’s eyes than the children of Hindus or Muslims. In positive terms, they are in special covenant with God. Applying baptism to them then does not change their status before God, it conveys a pre-existing status. With this status comes greater blessings and responsibilities than they would have were they in a different family and inheritors of a different relationship with our God.

Our children’s eternal destiny and spiritual status is concealed to us under the mysterious ways of God’s Spirit. In the same way we never see the wind coming until it ruffles the leaves of a tree or blows upon our face, we only see the work of the Spirit by his effects upon the human soul. Perhaps then it would be wise to withhold from them the ceremonial rite of initiation until we can discern these effects? This may seem wise to us, but it is God’s ways and God’s mind to which we must submit! Yes, He has shown us another way in his Holy Word. God is not meager in grace. We often underestimate his kindness, condescension, love, and grace toward helpless, ill-deserving sinners. The very words of promise from greatest antiquity apply to believers and their children.¹ On this basis, the Holy Word of God, they must be welcomed into the Church. To withhold the status which God is pleased in grace to give to them is to sin against his design, provoke his wrath, and even to sin against our own children.²

The Use of Sacraments in Giving Grace to our Children

In requiring our children to be baptized, God is giving them a unique status from the children of the world. The reason for this should be obvious. Certainly, if it is not obvious to us, it is abundantly so to the world. His promises are given to them before they can understand the smallest of things. His grace is on them from their earliest days. There are some children who come into this world having never been the subject of true, sincere prayer in the blessed Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our’s are no such children! As they come into the world, they are crowned with this amazing grace of being made members of the Church of the Living God.

And yet God teaches them they still have much to learn and many ways to grow by the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. The Apostle Paul sets a fence around the table which effectively excludes both the spiritually and physically immature:

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:29

Giving Baptism to our children but withholding the Lord’s Supper puts the gospel in proper view for our children. God bestows upon them his glorious promises first of all in baptism in order they may say with the Apostle John “it was not that we loved God, but he has loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) Then as members of the Body of Christ they are taught by their elders, Church, and parents into whose Name they’ve been baptized, what their baptism means, to call upon God as their own Father, to die to self, to follow Christ, and to believe in Christ! As the Lord’s Supper is celebrated, they are exhorted to make a confession of faith and only then to come to the table. In other words, they are called to “discern the body.”³ This biblical use of the Sacraments bestows upon our children the provisional status of “Baptized but not yet at the Table”.

This status perfectly suits our children. It reflects a divine knowledge of our design as creatures. God could have made us adults from day one! Instead he made us progress in our physical maturity over time. He deals likewise with our souls. He sanctifies, nourishes, and saves us using His Word in the same way He uses the sun and rain to nourish and grow the trees. We grow spiritually by small steps over weeks, years, and decades. God is intimately involved in the process of our children’s spiritual growth. He is their greatest advocate. None care about our children as deeply as Him. To say otherwise approximates blasphemy of our merciful God!

God Reckons Children Differently than us

While it is the world’s tendency to dismiss children as a nuisance or demean them for their ignorance, in the Church they are not only included as members but held forth as examples to be followed by our dear Lord Himself!⁴ Rather than putting them down for their immaturity and dishonoring them for their ignorance, they are to be imitated in their awareness of their helplessness, need for instruction, and humble frame of life. We can add to this list as well the joy, gladness, intuitive trust, and awe-inspired hearts which are so often seen in a child with loving Christian parents. There are many things indeed children must learn from adults, but our God has not permitted us to forget there are many things which we must learn from them as well! Children are not so unspiritual as we think. They can and do come to Christ. They can be and are regenerated by the Holy Ghost even in the womb!⁵

What a blessed Savior that he should accept, embrace, and adopt us into his own family despite our weakness, helplessness, and sinfulness? Are we not little children before him? Let all the Church of God praise him that he not only admits of us, but even our infants and little children! They have not yet learned his Name — nor their own name! — but yet they are welcomed by God into this world by their parents with great love, and into God’s Church with a much greater love by God himself through the waters of baptism! Our most wise God and Father has chosen to do this for the sake of his strength against this hostile world. Today our children are weak and immature but our God’s purpose is that tomorrow they would be mighty oaks of righteousness, flourishing in the courts of the LORD, and powerfully resisting the malice of Satan in their generation!

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
Psalm 8: 1-2

Genesis 3:15 acknowledges this in both the plural and singular senses. This promise becomes more clear in Genesis 12, 15, and 17 with the Abrahamic covenant. Here the place of believer’s offspring is established more explicitly and clearly in the divine promise to Abraham: “I will be a God to you and to your children after you.” (Genesis 17: 7) It would be more than enough for God to say “I will be a God to you.” That would indeed be amazing grace of which to sing! But God gives more grace. He adds “and to your children after you.” This is the divine warrant for baptizing the infants of believers. It is found in the most ancient promises and practices of the Holy Bible. To think such a practice would be overturned upon the first advent of Christ without riotous controversy and debate is beyond imagination. Instead of seeing this pattern overturned, we see it reinforced in household baptisms and the words of the Apostle Peter at Pentecost where he does not say “for the promise is to you and to all who are far off.” No! He says, to Jewish ears, “for the promise is to you and to your children and to all who are far off.” (Acts 2:39) That paradise itself is described as a place where “God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3) firmly establishes the promise to Abraham was spiritual. It is said of Abraham and his offspring in Hebrews 11:16, “God is not ashamed to be called their God.” Who can deny — in the face of this biblical evidence — God has made spiritual promises to the children of believers which are not made to those who are raised by Muslims, Hindus, or other non-Christians? Let us fear God and acknowledge he extends his promise beyond ourselves to our children of whom we are stewards.
Exodus 4:24 records the story of Moses’ very life being threatened by the LORD. Once his wife circumcises his son, God’s wrath is appeased. Genesis 17:14 also pronounces those who do not circumcise their children are “cut off” and have “broken the covenant.” These stories show God’s jealousy for his people’s worship. The children of believers are distinct, set apart, and holy. (1 Corinthians 7:14) The act of initiating them formally into the community of faith is done in the fear of God to recognize this fact and give thanks, reverence, and praise to God for his extravagant grace. We recognize God uses means to save. And we offer him reverence, thanks, praise, and glory for choosing that our children should be subject to the mighty Word of God and prayers of the saints.
Discerning the body includes at least two things. First, recognizing the Church for what it is — “the body of Christ.” The Church and the world are opposed. The world is exceedingly alluring to our flesh. Many born into the Church leave for the fleeting pleasures of this world. God knows this and requires none should come to the Table who do not discern this opposition and join themselves to Christ despite all the hostility, persecution, and hatred of the world. Second, discerning the significance of the incarnation of the Son of God. At the Table, great spiritual mysteries are held forth. None can comprehend these realities, but we ought to be trained to behold them as for our benefit and salvation from the wrath of God.
The disciples would cast off the little children, but Jesus rebuked them and said “let the little children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (Luke 18:16-17) These words are not to be taken lightly. God highly esteems our children!
When Mary the mother of Christ came to visit Elizabeth, she said: “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:43-44) A baby in the womb is a person. A soul. Modern science has proven this with their amazing insight into the life of a baby in the womb. A soul cannot respond to Christ apart from regeneration and faith. We are dead in sin. How then did John the baptist leap for joy in the presence of Christ? The only answer is that he was born again even before his physical birth! The very analogy of being “born again” falls short in this case. This soul was precious in God’s eyes and he acted in the saving power of regeneration upon it even before he entered this world. Perhaps we may be tempted to see this as a normative precedent because this was John the Baptist, a great prophet. Christ corrects this error — almost as if he anticipated such a response — when he said “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28) Those in the new covenant are even greater than John the Baptist. Who can say to the Sovereign Lord “What have you done?” if indeed he saw fit to regenerate a soul before birth? God is gracious, and the souls of men and women are in his hand even from before their birth. Let us learn to say then with the Psalmist “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases!” (Psalm 115:3)