Baptism: Study

Sinclair Ferguson on Infant Baptism

From His Lectures on the Westminster Confession (iTunes lecture 14)

“In various compositions the divines employed five grounds for the baptism of the children of believers.”

“In various compositions the divines employed five grounds for the baptism of the children of believers.”

1. The covenant which is made in Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant made with Abraham.

It is an everlasting covenant.

Therefore, the principles of that covenant are everlasting.

Thus, “you, and your seed,” so common in the OT covenants is not an appendage to that covenant, but of the “very essence” of that covenant.

2. In , baptism is specifically said to take the place of circumcision.

And as a sign of the same covenant in which circumcision was a sign, baptism is similarly to be administered to the infants of believers.

3. The “to you, and your seed” is confirmed in the initial proclamation of the new covenant in .

4. In , Paul’s appeal to the continuation of a mixed-marriage is on the grounds of the holiness of children.

The divines regard that as a covenantal holiness.

God’s covenantal action is what constitutes them as holy.

“And if so, the children are entitled to the sign of that covenantal action, namely the sign of baptism.”

5. From is the appeal to the principle that the infants of parents who bring those infants to Christ belong to the kingdom of God.