promise

Promises are only as good as the one who makes the promise. A politician’s promise is worth about as much as a Zimbabwean $1,000,000,000,000 bill (perhaps an insult to Zimbabwe’s currency). You should be rightly incredulous if you get an email promising they’ll wire you a share of a Thai prince’s inheritance, if you provide your bank account number.

The word of promise is reliable or suspect all depending on the nature of the Promiser. Baptism is a promise, but Who is promising in this sign of baptism? The One who is promising salvation by grace through faith to this child is the King of Israel. His nature is not fickle; His character doesn’t ebb & flow; His purpose doesn’t change with fads; His will isn’t determined by public opinion polls. As Solomon once prayed, “there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant (1 Kng. 8:56).”

He spoke light into being, and it was. He promised a Seed to Eve, and after many years, He was born in Bethlehem. He promised that He’d die & rise again, and He arose triumphant. Christ the Promiser now promises to these parents & their child, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out (Jn. 6:37).”

So welcome covenant child to Jesus Christ…

A common misunderstanding about baptism is thinking it’s a big sign pointing towards the amount of faith in the one being baptized. But since we can’t read men’s hearts, we’ll never know what degree of faith is present when someone is baptized.

This apparent problem has led some to ask what we should do if someone is baptized but doesn’t mean it, or, from another angle, if a child is baptized in infancy can they really mean it? The reply of Scripture is that regardless of whether the one baptized means it or not, God does (Gal. 3:27, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rom. 6:3, 11). When we’re baptized, God reckons us as His own, He promises all the blessings of union with Christ, and He warns against unbelief.

Baptism isn’t an opportunity to showboat how great our faith is. It’s a sign of how great God’s promise is. A baptized person may not be old enough to grasp it yet, they may go through a season of doubting that promise, or old age may cause the mental recall of their baptism to fade. But God does not forget His promise. In short, when we baptize someone, we aren’t highlighting whether they mean it or not. We’re proclaiming that God means it. We’re simply commanded to trust Him when He says He means it (Mk. 16:16).

The Promiser of Baptism

God Means It