Rev. Ronald
Hanko
Rev. Hanko is a minister in the
Protestant Reformed Churches in America and has authored a number of books,
including (among others) the following: Doctrine According to
Godliness: A Primer on Reformed Doctrine (2004), The Coming of Zion’s
Redeemer: Commentary on Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi (2015).
He was also the joint author of Saved by Grace: A Study of
the Five Points of Calvinism (1995) and its
accompanying study guide (all of which can be purchased at http://www.cprc.co.uk and http://www.rfpa.org).
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[Previous section: “Family
Baptism”]
Matthew 19:13-15, Mark 10:13-16
and Luke 18:15-17 are parallel passages, though they do not
necessarily all record the very same incident:
Then were there brought unto
him little children, that he should put his hands on them, and pray: and the
disciples rebuked them. But Jesus said,
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is
the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his
hands on them, and departed thence (Matt. 19:13-15).
And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them (Mark 10:13-16).
And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them: but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein (Luke 18:15-17).
These are important passages to every
paedobaptist, but not because they are an example of infants being brought for
baptism. To use the behavior of the
twelve disciples at the time little children were brought to Jesus to “prove”
that the disciples were not accustomed to seeing infants baptized, as some
Baptists do, is as weak as some of the arguments of the paedobaptists that they
ridicule. None of the passages which
record the incident tell us why the disciples rebuked those who brought these
children, or give any indication that this was due to a supposed belief on the
part of the disciples that only adults could be baptized (or saved).
Nor does any paedobaptist that we know of use
these passages (Matt. 19:13-15, Mk. 10:13-16, and Lk. 18:15-17) to prove infant
baptism by way of insisting that these parents brought their children to Jesus
that He might baptize them. Matthew Poole and other Baptists miss the
point entirely. The point is that these
verses prove that Jesus granted salvation to these infant children—the
salvation that baptism symbolizes—and that therefore it is not
incredible to suggest that these same infants might be able to receive the sign
of that salvation. This is an argument,
by the way, that no Baptist we know has addressed or answered—the argument from
reality to sign based on the correspondence between reality and sign.
If the use of Matthew 19:13-15 as evidence for
infant baptism shows “the absence of stronger proof,” as one Baptist suggests,
then, Watson’s argument here shows equally the absence of stronger proof for
his case. He argues fallaciously that
because the Lord did not use this occasion to command His disciples to baptize
infants, or because the disciples did not subsequently baptize these children,
that therefore infants are not to be baptized.
The point of these verses is that if infants can receive the spiritual
reality to which baptism points, then they can also receive the picture
or sign.
Indeed, the fact that these verses prove infant
salvation is only part of the argument from these verses. Even more important is what Jesus says about “receiving”
the kingdom “as a little child.” The
fact that we receive the kingdom and
that we receive it as little children,
both show that this is a matter of God’s sovereign work—apart from, prior to,
and not depending on any response from us.
Of that, baptism is a sign. It is
not, as we have shown, a sign of
faith and repentance, therefore, but of regeneration—something that precedes
both faith and repentance. It is a sign,
in other words, of how we “receive the kingdom”—not of what we do after we receive it (i.e., repent, believe, live
as disciples etc.).
Add that to some of the other things that Jesus
says about children and you have clear proof that children can and do receive
the reality to which water baptism points.
In Matthew 18, Jesus speaks of a little child being humbled (v. 4),
having Christ in him (v. 5), believing in Him (v. 6) and being among the lost
which the Son of man comes to save.
These children are specifically described by Him in the passage as
“little”—literally “tiny” (vv. 6, 10)—indicating that they were not, as the
Baptists contend, children who were of an age to make a credible profession.
Especially what Jesus says about a little child
believing in Him is important. That one
statement destroys every argument for “believer’s baptism” or that admits to
baptism little children who can and do believe!
Again, we quote from Hooper:
The expression “child-like
faith” has entered common parlance as an expression of uncomplicated,
unquestioning trust, yet we find it difficult to accept that a small child
is capable of “child-like faith” toward the Saviour. We make faith so complicated, so adult. The Lord used children to illustrate an
important point for grown-ups, saying “Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein (Luke 18:17; cf. Matt.
19:14 and Mark 10:15), but many Christians show a strange reluctance to accept
the full force of His words. The kingdom
of God includes little children—the Greek word used by Luke means a babe
in arms—and the way by which they enter is the way we all must go: the way of
faith. We must receive the kingdom as a
little child receives it—by simple trust in the Lord Jesus, an absolute
dependence upon Him and confidence in all that He has done for our
salvation. This is the faith that is the
gift of God (cf. Eph. 2:8) and which He dispenses to whomsoever He will,
including little children. Let us never
underestimate the spiritual capacity of a little child in whom the Spirit of
God is at work.[1]
To this, we would add the fact that faith, in its deepest reality, is not the act of believing
and trusting, but union with Christ.
That is why Scripture speaks so often of believing “in” Christ, or “on”
Christ or even “upon” or “into” Him.
That spiritual reality can be given as easily to a little infant of days
as it can to an adult.
You see the consequence, do you not? Baptism, then, even in the case of an adult
believer or professor, is not marking some spiritual activity on his part, but
rather his receiving the kingdom through regeneration. That kingdom, he receives as a little child;
that is, without any preceding activity on his part. His faith and repentance, therefore, are not
the reason for his receiving the kingdom, but the consequence of it, and
baptism marks the way he receives the kingdom, as the sign so clearly
shows. The water does not symbolize
faith or repentance, but the washing away of sins by the blood of Jesus
(justification and the washing of regeneration). To put it differently, baptism does not mark
the spiritual activity that is the result of God’s work, but the sovereign work
of God which begins our spiritual life, a work performed while we are
still like little children, unable to do anything at all even to further
that work. This is a crucial point.
All the well-known Baptist writer, John Gill,
can do with this passage is to say that the passage is not speaking of actual
infants, but of infants metaphorically, that is, of adults who become
like infants. The passage makes it
clear, however, that these were young children of whom Jesus was speaking. Both the fact that they were brought to Jesus
and that He took them in His arms (Mark 10:16) show that the reference to
children is not metaphorical.
[Next section: “Baptism and Entrance into the Kingdom”]
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FOOTNOTES:
1. Hooper, Believers, their
Children, and the Gospel of Sovereign Grace, p. 18.
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