Typological Glories of Infant Baptism

The question of baptism and its recipients is truly a matter of grace and not of works. It was my Calvinism that led me to the font. I knew–though it took me a while to act on it–that grace was more than a mere soteriological category. Grace was everything and in every act of God for us. The question of an infant’s ability never crossed my mind as a barrier to accepting covenant baptism. The question of God’s grace was the key that unlocked the baptismal font.

Baptism is a heavenly Pentecost. The Spirit is poured, not we who pour ourselves. Everything is of grace; Gratia sunt omnia. God identifies us as His own from the beginning as He did with the creation, and then He christens us with His spirit. Baptism is the divine hovering. Baptism is gracious because, through it, God re-enacts the creation of the world. In baptism, we are a new creation.

God has copyrighted the world. He labels, gifts, and graces. Man does not have that capacity; man does not create in and of himself; therefore, man cannot change his own identity. We are imitators, but yet only capable of imitating because God graces us with His artistic gifts. We imitate God as we are graced into his imitative presence in the waters of baptism.

In the beginning, the world is first identified by the Triune God (Gen. 1), and then it is called to praise that God (Ps. 19). We are first identity-less (dark and void), and then God fills us with His Spirit (light and life). Baptism is all of grace. We were void and empty. God looked at us (Ezk. 16) and washed us, and clothed us with fine clothing (Ps. 45). We are Trinitarianly clothed.

Baptism is one fulfillment of the third commandment. Wherever the child goes, there he carries the Name of his God. And because God is his God, he should not take his name in vain. He takes his identity in his baptismal garments, which cover his whole body of actions, thoughts, and words.

Infant baptism is of grace because it is the re-enacting of creation. Creation begins in darkness– as in a womb– and is washed. It is like our God destroying nations with fire and creating new ones with a few drops of water.