Why do we practice child baptism?
The baptism debate is often framed as an either-or: either you baptize children (paedobaptism) or you baptize those who profess faith (credobaptism—either older children or adults). For some of our brothers and sisters in Christ, as in the Baptist tradition, this is a fair rendering of the debate.
For those of us in the Reformed tradition, however, we baptize children of believers and adults who come to faith (if, of course, they were not baptized as a child). Perhaps in your own church you have been witness to both, each a joyful and powerful sign and seal of God’s promises to his people.
The Form for the Baptism of Adults (1978) in the gray Psalter Hymnal highlights our both-and in this way: “On the basis of the covenant the children of believers are to be baptized despite their inability to understand its meaning. Adults, however, should not be baptized until they have felt their sins and confess repentance and faith in Christ.”
One of the persistent questions, then, is why we baptize children of believers. The baptism of those who repent and profess faith in Christ, for many, seems scripturally more evident (see Acts 2:37-39, 8:12, 8:35-37 for just a few examples). Scripture explicitly tells us that adults who repented and believed were baptized; it does not explicitly tell us the same of children of believers (though it is difficult to believe that there were no children in any household that was baptized; see Acts 16:15, 16:33).
So why children? Theologian Herman Bavinck argues, “The validity of infant baptism depends exclusively on how Scripture regards the children of believers and hence wants us to regard them.” And we firmly believe that Scripture regards children of believers as members of the covenant. The Form for the Baptism of Children emphasizes this as the consistent and persistent story of Scripture (Gen. 17:7, Acts 2:39, Mark 10:16, 1 Cor 7:14), reminding us that “since baptism has replaced circumcision, our children should be baptized as heirs of God’s kingdom and of his covenant (Service for Baptism, 1976).”
God’s call to baptize those who cannot yet outwardly respond to the gospel (children of believers) is also powerful testament to the reality that God calls us and has chosen his people from eternity, “by sheer grace, according to the free good pleasure of his will” (Canons of Dort I.7), not on account of what we have done but on account of his goodness. As such, he is the one who draws us, softens our hearts, grants us faith and repentance, and calls us into his kingdom. What a gift of grace!