I am new to Christ Community Church and I am curious as to why we baptize infants?

There probably has never been a question asked more of the pastors and elders at Christ Community Church than this one.  Many of us in the CCC family were raised in churches that embraced baptism differently than we do.  Some churches regularly baptized infants and children while others baptized believers upon their public profession of faith - or at the “prescribed” time for that person.  I personally was baptized as an infant, but I have had numerous friends who were baptized when they were older. It has been such a “hot” topic for discussion within many evangelical circles, yet one that many are not willing to address “head-on.”  Let me see if I can give a brief overview of how we view this sacrament.

Baptism is covenantal.  We see the Sacrament of Baptism is to the New Covenant community (the Visible Church) what circumcision was to the Old Covenant community.  The Old Testament emphasizes a physical circumcision and a spiritual circumcision, a circumcision of the heart.  The New Testament speaks of a physical baptism, a Sacrament, and a spiritual baptism, the union of the believer with Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.  The spiritual baptism occurs when one places his or her faith in Jesus Christ and is converted. 

Are children a part of the New Covenant?  Absolutely!  God is the one who set up the family structure.  He honors what He established.  Just as He told Abraham to bring all the males within his household and have them circumcised, in the New Covenant with a greater outpouring of grace (male and female) of believers receive the sign of the Covenant.  Paul instructs a believing spouse to remain married to an unbeliever if the unbeliever is willing to stay in the marriage, and then says to the believing parent, “or your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.” (1 Corinthians 7:14)  Because of one believing parent the children are called “holy.”  Certainly this does not mean they are believers.  This means they are under the sanctifying influence of the believing parent and are part of the New Covenant community. 

The New Testament does not specifically instruct us to baptize children.  It also does not instruct us to withhold baptism from them!  All of the Apostles were Jews.  They knew God’s instructions regarding children and the Old Covenant.  Without specific instructions to change this in the New Covenant, why would they do so?  We are still under the fulfillment of God’s Covenant with Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3)

From the perspective of why CCC encourages baptism of children we believe part of baptism is identifying with the visible church.  It is a way to encourage the church to welcome, support, and assist in the training of the child by the covenant community.  As a family of believers we are committed to ensuring our covenant children are nurtured in a way that they may become strong in the faith and see the love, care and instruction provided to them by those in our church family.

I would encourage you to read a great overview of baptism by Francis Schaeffer found on our website (click here to read.)  Furthermore, any pastor or elder would be more than happy to visit with you to answer any question you might have about baptism. 

I hope this makes infant baptism a little more clear.

Grace and peace.

JMG