Symbol and reality⤒🔗

Living in God’s covenant with people on earth is nothing else than living in trust that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour. Since the Reformation in the sixteenth century, Christians have been in accord on this matter. We are saved, not by good works, not by a vague agreement with what church leaders are saying, not by rituals, but by a conscious faith in Jesus Christ as he presents himself on the pages of God’s infallible Word, the Scriptures. In order to know whether I have a relationship of faith with another person here on earth, my first question for him or her should not be “Are you baptized?,” but “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?”

The Reformation ultimately meant a radical break with all formalization of God’s covenant with people. The Heidelberg Catechism makes this clear again and again. Question 60 (Lord’s Day 23) asks, “How are you righteous before God?” The answer is not what the Roman Catholics said — “By baptism at the hand of lawful priests” — but

Only by true faith in Jesus Christ... God imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ... as if I myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me, if only I accept this gift with a believing heart.Question and answer 72 (Lord’s Day 27) underlined this once again in relation to baptism:

Does this outward washing with water [in baptism] itself wash away sins?

No, only the blood of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sins.

The distinction between the water of baptism on the one hand, and the blood of Jesus Christ and the working of the Holy Spirit on the other hand, is crucial here.

In short, without baptism and without celebrating the Lord’s Supper, you can go to heaven, be on your way to the new earth. On the cross, the Lord Jesus said to the unbaptized criminal on the other cross, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1 that he is pleased that he did not baptize anyone in Corinth: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel” (verse 17). Paul would not have said this if baptism were identical with or indispensable for the washing away of sins. When Paul speaks of "the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit" in Titus 3:5, he means the reality of God’s renewing work in man, and not the baptism that symbolizes this reality. The distinction between the symbolic character of baptism and of the Lord’s Supper and the realities which are presented through them remains non-negotiable. There is communion of faith between believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, whether you are baptized or not.

Repentance and baptism←⤒🔗

At his farewell to his disciples the Lord Jesus spoke the well-known words:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.Matthew 28:19-20

“Make disciples of all nations...” How did this work itself out in practice? It meant that the gospel needed to be proclaimed. The apostle Peter did this on the day of Pentecost, after Jesus’ ascension, as we can read in Acts 2. He preached Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. He said, “Repent!” You could not miss it! You needed faith and repentance: that is, a change in your life because you entrust yourself to God through the Messiah, Jesus. But Peter said more that day, the day full of the power of the Holy Spirit who had come down: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins...” (Acts 2:38). Baptism by water belonged with it! That was the consequence of true faith in Christ.

We can also see this clearly in the life of the apostle Paul in Acts 9 and following. After his conversion on the road to Damascus he came to the city where he was ultimately baptized by Ananias (Acts 9:18), as the consequence of his faith in Jesus as the Messiah. After this Paul began his work as apostle-missionary. Paul proclaimed faith in Christ and baptized those who were converted. Acts 16 shows us Paul and Silas in prison in Philippi. When the jailer, terribly frightened, asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved (from God’s coming judgment)?,” Paul and Silas respond, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” The man comes to faith. And consequently, we read in verse 33, “he was baptized at once, he and all his family.” Baptism with water belonged with it: a sign of the new covenant!

Communion←⤒🔗

When people were baptized (we will return later on to the question whether children can be baptized also), they formed a communion. Jesus Christ brought them together, especially on the first day of the week, to praise him and to hear about him. Believers met regularly. You can be saved as an individual, but when Christ saves you, you are inevitably drawn to seek contact, communion of faith, with your spiritual brothers and sisters. We see this clearly described in the book of Acts.

In the early period, we read in Acts 2, there were regular gatherings of the new believers: “...they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). Obviously it was their habit to meet together every Sunday to eat together and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. We get a taste of this in the words "the breaking of bread.” In 1 Corinthians, Paul deals extensively with the meaning of celebrating the Lord’s Supper. Not only in Jerusalem, but also in each place where people had come to faith in Christ, it was their habit to keep the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Paul calls the cup that was used "the cup of thanksgiving" and he calls the bread "a communion with the body of Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:16). Later on Paul quotes Jesus’ own words, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25). It cannot be any clearer. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper was a sign of the new covenant of God’s gift to his people in Jesus Christ!

In short, baptism and the Lord’s Supper were not superfluous in the church of the New Testament, nor are they redundant for our time. God’s covenant is continuing, God’s new covenant in Jesus Christ is fully in force. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper provide a strong witness of this.

Baptism: sign of the covenant for believers and their children←⤒🔗

In Colossians, Paul writes about the deep significance of baptism: “In him [Jesus Christ] also you were circumcised ... by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism” (Colossians 2:11-12). Baptism was for Paul the sign of the reality of the washing away of our sins through the blood of Christ. Again, it is not the reality itself, but it is a symbol of it. It is very striking here how Paul connects the sign of God’s covenant in the Old Testament, circumcision, to baptism in the period of the New Testament. Just as circumcision was the sign of God in the Old Testament that you belonged to him, and that you were heir to God’s promises, so for Paul baptism was the sign that you belonged to Christ. You did not have life in yourself, but in him!

In Colossians, Paul is speaking of believers. Believers in Christ have a new identity. They are in Christ. As he died and rose from the dead, so did they die with Christ and were raised with him. The baptism by water is a beautiful sign of this: the sign of God’s covenant with us as believers in the Lord Jesus.

But there is more going on. When the analogy between circumcision and baptism is fully parallel, then Paul means also that baptism is not only for adult believers but also for their children. To Paul, Abraham is the great model of a believer. In the letter to the Galatians Paul writes that "those who are of faith are the sons of Abraham" (Galatians 3:7). This is central. We become righteous through faith alone, just as Abraham was justified by faith alone. But with the gift of the invisible faith, God also gave Abraham a visual sign: circumcision! When Paul writes about circumcision in Colossians 2, this is a reference to God’s covenant with Abraham, where circumcision was the sign: a symbol moreover not only for Abraham, but a sign that needed to be administered to his male children. When someone says "circumcision," he automatically says, "for believers... and their children!" That is how God acts in his covenant with people on earth. And when he acts like this in the Old Testament, would he act any different or less in the New?

It is remarkable that Paul begins his letter to the Colossians with these words: “To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae” (Colossians 1:2). Later on, in chapter 2, Paul says that these same people have been buried with Christ in baptism (2:12). Then, in chapter 3, Paul addresses different groups of people in Colossae: “Wives, submit to your husbands... Husbands, love your wives…,” and then follows, “Children, obey your parents in everything...” (Colossians 3:18-20). Children therefore were also "brothers in Christ" together with their parents, obviously baptized people in the circumcision of Christ. Is this not a representation of a covenantal practice and a covenantal way of speaking in Paul’s days? It seems very likely. Children belong to the covenant community of Jesus Christ, even before they have come to faith themselves, just as the children of Abraham needed to be circumcised before they could have come to faith. God’s continues his sign of love in his covenant: love for believers, their children included!

Is the Lord’s Supper also for children?←⤒🔗

When we see the church as a covenant community of faith, where the signs of God’s covenant need to be administered, we arrive at the question of whether the Lord’s Supper is also meant for children.

It all appears to be very logical. When children are allowed to be baptized, according to the analogy of the circumcision, why can they not participate with eating the bread and drinking the wine at the Lord’s Supper, according to the analogy of the Passover meal?

Yet Paul writes things in 1 Corinthians that in my opinion make such a conclusion rather difficult: “Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup...” (11:28). With the meal, which we call the Lord’s Supper, self-examination needs to occur beforehand. Perhaps children of eight to nine years old can examine themselves, look into their conscience and judge themselves, but it seems impossible to me that children from one to seven years old would be able to accomplish this. Would God be asking this from them? You need to be able to "distinguish the body," says Paul in the same passage. There are many discussions about the thrust of these words. But however you explain it, it appears unlikely to me that Paul here also had an eye for little children. He is writing here to adults who can celebrate God’s covenant meal in an "unworthy" manner, and who could experience the painful consequences of sickness and death (11:30). People who practice idolatry and immorality and on account of this experience God’s punishment (1 Corinthians 10:7-9). It appears to me that we cannot possibly apply this to little children.

In short:  God’s covenant meal of the Lord’s Supper is for people who know with a conscious faith who Jesus Christ is, and what he expects from them: gratitude and obedience!

Summary←⤒🔗

God’s covenant is his dealing with people on earth. His love is the source and the constant radiance of this covenant. Jesus Christ is the Mediator of this covenant; in him there is abundant, overflowing grace (Ephesians 1:8-9). This covenant is also accompanied by the signs of baptism and the Lord’s Supper — signs that strengthen faith, that surround it and stimulate it. Baptism is a sign for the believers and their children. The Lord’s Supper is a sign for believers who are consciously aware of what God asks of them. There are spiritual riches on earth for people who know God through Jesus Christ.