Paedo-Baptism Answers Seal upon one's Conscience

[RobertPGH1981]

Hello All,

Being an adherent into a Presbyterian Church considering membership I am studying Baptism out extensively. Here are two questions that I am tossing around and wanted to understand your perspective.

two questions:

1.) When I consider Calvin's definition of a Sacrament and pair this with his comments regarding sealing it makes me believe a spiritual event occurs during water baptism. What does he mean my seal?

For God’s sign, communicated to a child as by an impressed seal, confirms the promise given to the pious parent, and declares it to be ratified that the Lord will be God not only to him but to his seed; and that he wills to manifest his goodness and grace not only to him but to his descendants even to the thousandth generation [Ex. 20:6]. (pg. 1332)

2.) does anything spiritual occur during water baptism to the infant?

Thanks,

Rob

 

[greenbaggins]

There is, as it were, an arranged marriage, such that the child is affianced to Christ at baptism. The child is spoken for. "Seal" refers to ancient letter-writing practices of folding a piece of parchment, melting wax and dripping it on the place where the letter is folded, then pressing one's unique seal on it. Baptism is like that seal. Seals did two things in ancient days. They prevented anyone from tampering with the seal without the recipient knowing it (since, even if they did tamper with it and try to reseal it, they couldn't do so with the same seal the sender had); and secondly, it proved the letter was from the sender, and not from anyone else. So also baptism is saying that God is "putting His money where His mouth is." It is God saying that this child belongs to His people, His visible church.

It is often hard for us to believe what God says, due to Satan's temptations ("Did God really say?"), our own sin natures, and the weakness of our faith. Signs and seals both have to do with assurance. The grace of baptism is that God means what He says in the covenant promises. The child could be regenerated before, during, or after baptism. The sign and seal is placed on the child. It is God who baptizes, so yes, a spiritual thing happens, though regeneration never happens without faith being the immediate result, and that event is not tied to the moment of baptism's administration.

Baptism has three elements to it (though some say two, I think there are three): the sign, the thing signified, and the Holy Spirit-given faith which connects the sign to the thing signified. If a person only has the sign, and does not have faith yet, or never has faith, that person is not saved. But when the Holy Spirit regenerates a baptized person's heart (before, during, or after the sign is given), that faith connects the sign to the blood of Christ, which is the thing signified. In this sense, salvation is a part of the larger definition of the sacrament, never forgetting that the sacrament can be defined in terms of the sign given, or in terms of the sign, the thing signified, and the faith connecting the two. In this larger sense, regeneration fits inside the sacrament, though not in such a way that the bare giving of the sign also confers the thing signified. Only when the Holy Spirit gives faith is the sign connected to the thing signified.

Now, the child, by virtue of being born into a covenant family, is already a part of the visible church. Baptism is the formal marker of such inclusion. This is similar to how getting a Ph.D. works. A person is technically a Ph.D. when he or she successfully defends the thesis. However, the graduation ceremony is the public marker of this status.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Thank you, Lane.

I would put it more simply: You have a godly, regenerated couple among a covenant people (it is the same in the NT as it was in the Old, save that in the Old girls / women did not receive the covenant sign, but were included under the headship of the sign-bearing male head of the family) — and they have children, some of which may be elect though possibly not all. For the sake of the elect among them all the children are circumcised / baptized.

For the elect the outward seal — be it circumcision of old or baptism of new—is the sign of an inward reality, that is, regeneration, which may not happen at the time of the sealing (it could be before or it could be after, but for the elect it is certain to happen).

All the children given the seal will be raised up in the care and nurture of the LORD by their godly parents and the larger covenant community, but this Spirit-imbued care will quicken the heart of the elect child unto the living God, even though the Spirit may have already done this while in the womb, or after birth but before baptism.

As Lane put it, “the [child] born into a covenant family [partakes]…of Baptism [as] the formal marker of…inclusion into the visible church”. For the elect among them it is inclusion into the heart and life of the covenant God and His people. For the reprobate it is but an outward inclusion, and not into the elect community or its God.

 

[Jonathco]

I would put it more simply: You have a godly, regenerated couple among a covenant people (it is the same in the NT as it was in the Old, save that in the Old girls / women did not receive the covenant sign, but were included under the headship of the sign-bearing male head of the family) — and they have children, some of which may be elect though possibly not all. For the sake of the elect among them all the children are circumcised / baptized.

For the elect the outward seal — be it circumcision of old or baptism of new—is the sign of an inward reality, that is, regeneration, which may not happen at the time of the sealing (it could be before or it could be after, but for the elect it is certain to happen).

All the children given the seal will be raised up in the care and nurture of the LORD by their godly parents and the larger covenant community, but this Spirit-imbued care will quicken the heart of the elect child unto the living God, even though the Spirit may have already done this while in the womb, or after birth but before baptism.

As Lane put it, “the [child] born into a covenant family [partakes]…of Baptism [as] the formal marker of…inclusion into the visible church”. For the elect among them it is inclusion into the heart and life of the covenant God and His people. For the reprobate it is but an outward inclusion, and not into the elect community or its God.

Steve, the way you worded this response was beneficial and helpful for me to better understand the Presbyterian position. Thank you, brother.

 

[RobertPGH1981]

As Lane put it, “the [child] born into a covenant family [partakes]…of Baptism [as] the formal marker of…inclusion into the visible church”. For the elect among them it is inclusion into the heart and life of the covenant God and His people. For the reprobate it is but an outward inclusion, and not into the elect community or its God.

So in your view physical circumcision / water baptism is the inclusion in the visible Israel/Church. While spiritual circumcision/new birth is the inclusion in the church invisible. Correct? Does the SEAL occur during spiritual rebirth or water baptism? Does anything spiritual at all occur during water baptism?

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Does the SEAL occur during spiritual rebirth or water baptism? Does anything spiritual at all occur during water baptism?

Baptism IS the visible sign&seal. There is a spiritual sealing God the Holy Spirit does, which is him marking his own elect. The "sacramental union" is the connection between what men do in the name of God and what God does himself. There is "slippage" between earthly and heavenly acts, because on earth is imperfection. Though, what the church does is not merely a physical function, but rather is a spiritually meaningful function; but these are not the Spirit's functions, as if the church was a kind of "body" for the Spirit with which he acts out physically.

And, we insist that the acts of men are not dictating to God what he is to do at that or any other time (since HE is the initiator), nor do we allege that He must assuredly be using that temporal moment when men do their acts to confirm his eternal decree. We simply affirm there is a connection between what men do in God's name and according to his authorization, and what he does in heaven and in his own mysterious way in personal relation with his elect subject in the world.

We can say that God, speaking through his minister on earth, is in the baptism (of anyone, including an infant) sealing visibly (because men only do visible things on earth). His seal is, besides 1 or 2 other things, a PROMISE: "I will save to the uttermost all them, including you, who put their trust in Christ alone." The seal is objective. It simply is what it is, because God is who He is, and neither one changes.

The seal belongs to the elect alone. In eternity past, God has already made his promise to his elect. He only makes his promise to them when they appear in history. He declares in history his promise over his elect in their baptism. He doesn't wait to make his promise to them only when he positively regenerates them. Baptism, i.e. the promise is effective only unto faith. The promise, i.e. baptism has to be believed.

The elect believe it. They recognize the seal of God upon them. Do the reprobate acknowledge that seal/promise at all, or in the same way? No, they don't. They only had the visible sign&seal. It is a real seal, even as the objective promise of God is a real one. He has marked this person in the world as one of his, and he has made a true and accurate promise of salvation unto faith. It is not the case that he waits until spiritual rebirth to witness his promise.

Thus, there are spiritual things happening at the time of water baptism. We do not insist that those things must include temporal activation of regeneration, i.e. baptismal regeneration--though God could, if he wanted, use the moment to begin conveying the blessings that will end (be fully realized) in eternal life.

We do not insist that those things must include a kind of "historic moment" in heaven as well as earth, when God formally acknowledges as his child one who was elect from all eternity. Such an earthly statement would not be verifiable in any case for actually elect or reprobate, and in heaven there is no new formality inducted on account of history distinct from the Incarnate Son. So, for example, we don't imagine that the names of the elect are simply added to the Lamb's Book of life in historical order at the time they are justified, but their "names are... written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world," Rev.17:8.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Hello Robert,

You ask, "So in your view physical circumcision / water baptism is the inclusion in the visible Israel/Church"? Yes, though here I prefer to use the language, "For the elect among [the baptized] it is [the mark of] inclusion into the heart and life of the covenant God and His people, although the actual inclusion — regeneration unto faith — may occur before or after the physical sign is given."

You ask, "While spiritual circumcision/new birth is the inclusion in the church invisible. Correct?" Yes. One could also term it, in the believing remnant, or community.

You ask, "Does the SEAL occur during spiritual rebirth or water baptism? Does anything spiritual at all occur during water baptism?" As pastor Bruce indicated above, there are two seals — one the seal of water baptism (or in the old order, circumcision), commanded of men by God to mark children born into the covenant community, despite their parents not knowing who are the elect among them, and who the reprobate — for the sake of the elect all are baptized.

There is also the seal of the Holy Spirit (Rom 6:3,4,5,11; 1 Cor 12:13; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30), whereby He makes the person alive unto God — be they infant or grown — and made a partaker of the divine nature by virtue of the Spirit of Christ indwelling them (2 Pet 1:4), also referred to as the earnest of our inheritance (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:14).

Does anything spiritual at all occur during water baptism? In the case of the elect infants, the command of God to put the outward seal of His eternal covenant upon them is indeed a spiritual event, though as Bruce said, it need not "include [the] temporal activation of regeneration", which He gives at His pleasure.