A Short Defense of Believer's Baptism: Why I Love Presbies, But Can't Be One
As a Baptist with Calvinistic leanings (Okay, so I am more than just leaning. I have fallen and I can't get up!), I have much in common with my Presbyterian and other Reformed brethren. We agree on things much more than we disagree, but we do disagree on exactly who ought to be baptised. I thought it might be fun to write just a bit of an explanation for why I think baptism is for believers only, using Hebrews 8:7-13 as the foundation of my piece. What I'm going to do is work my way through the passage verse by verse, quoting the verse first, and then commenting on it. So here we go.
There was a problem with the first covenant, so God has cut a second and better one in Christ. The problem with the first covenant, as we will see in the next verse, is not really with the covenant itself, but with the covenant people fulfilling their side of the covenant:
The people as a group had agreed to do what what was commanded of them under the first covenant (Exodus 24:3-7), but they didnt' (actually, they couldn't) keep their promise. By and large, they were an unfaithful bunch. They didn't continue in the covenant, but went their own way. This is the problem that God is solving by effecting a new covenant, and here's His solution to that problem:
God solves the unfaithful people problem by making an inward change in the people within the covenant. God's commands are not just an external document to them, they are somehow marked within them. Their hearts and minds are changed, so that they know what they need to do, and they desire to do it. While circumcision was the mark of God's people under the old covenant, the mark of His people under the new covenant is a mark upon the heart and in the mind. Circumcision in the old is replaced in the new by circumcision of the heart. The result is this:
Every person under the new covenant knows the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest. This individual intimate knowledge comes as a result of the changed heart and mind that is the mark of the new covenant. Everyone under the new covenant is forgiven by God.
The old covenant is gone, and we are now under the new one in which God's people are marked by a changed heart.
I would sum up the argument I'm making this way: God's people under the old covenant were marked by circumcision. Circumcision is the sign of the old covenant. God's people under the new covenant are marked by circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the heart is the sign of the new covenant. Baptism doesn't replace circumcision; circumcision of the heart does. Baptism is an outward indication of the inward change (the circumcision of the heart) that marks God's people.
Under the old covenant, then, it was physical birth that formed the people of God, and circumcision shortly after that physical birth was the identifying sign. Under the new covenant, it's spiritual rebirth that forms God's people, and baptism shortly after that spiritual rebirth is the identifying sign.
For if that first {covenant} had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, "BEHOLD, DAYS ARE COMING, SAYS THE LORD, WHEN I WILL EFFECT A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WITH THE HOUSE OF JUDAH..." (Hebrews 8:7,8 NASB)
There was a problem with the first covenant, so God has cut a second and better one in Christ. The problem with the first covenant, as we will see in the next verse, is not really with the covenant itself, but with the covenant people fulfilling their side of the covenant:
NOT LIKE THE COVENANT WHICH I MADE WITH THEIR FATHERS ON THE DAY WHEN I TOOK THEM BY THE HAND TO LEAD THEM OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT; FOR THEY DID NOT CONTINUE IN MY COVENANT, AND I DID NOT CARE FOR THEM, SAYS THE LORD. (v. 9, NASB)
The people as a group had agreed to do what what was commanded of them under the first covenant (Exodus 24:3-7), but they didnt' (actually, they couldn't) keep their promise. By and large, they were an unfaithful bunch. They didn't continue in the covenant, but went their own way. This is the problem that God is solving by effecting a new covenant, and here's His solution to that problem:
FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. (v. 10 NASB)
God solves the unfaithful people problem by making an inward change in the people within the covenant. God's commands are not just an external document to them, they are somehow marked within them. Their hearts and minds are changed, so that they know what they need to do, and they desire to do it. While circumcision was the mark of God's people under the old covenant, the mark of His people under the new covenant is a mark upon the heart and in the mind. Circumcision in the old is replaced in the new by circumcision of the heart. The result is this:
AND THEY SHALL NOT TEACH EVERYONE HIS FELLOW CITIZEN, AND EVERYONE HIS BROTHER, SAYING, 'KNOW THE LORD,' FOR ALL WILL KNOW ME, FROM THE LEAST TO THE GREATEST OF THEM. FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE. (vs. 11, 12)
Every person under the new covenant knows the Lord, from the least of them to the greatest. This individual intimate knowledge comes as a result of the changed heart and mind that is the mark of the new covenant. Everyone under the new covenant is forgiven by God.
When He said, "A new {covenant,}" He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. (v. 13 NASB)
The old covenant is gone, and we are now under the new one in which God's people are marked by a changed heart.
I would sum up the argument I'm making this way: God's people under the old covenant were marked by circumcision. Circumcision is the sign of the old covenant. God's people under the new covenant are marked by circumcision of the heart. Circumcision of the heart is the sign of the new covenant. Baptism doesn't replace circumcision; circumcision of the heart does. Baptism is an outward indication of the inward change (the circumcision of the heart) that marks God's people.
Under the old covenant, then, it was physical birth that formed the people of God, and circumcision shortly after that physical birth was the identifying sign. Under the new covenant, it's spiritual rebirth that forms God's people, and baptism shortly after that spiritual rebirth is the identifying sign.
posted by Rebecca Stark at 4/19/2004 10:22:00 AM
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