re baptism requires faith in article may athos rutgers edu aaronc athena mit edu aaron bryce cardenas writes colossians in him you were also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature not with a circumcision done by christ having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of god who raised him from the dead in baptism we are raised to a new life in christ romans through a personal faith in the power of god our parent s faith cannot do this do infants have faith let s look at what the bible has to say about it i don t think the issue of whether infants have faith is relevant or not certainly they can as the example of john in utero proves i find the translation of col above odd in terms of the circumcision of christ which the kjv and rsv put in terms of christ s cricumcision which we in union with him participate in putting off the body of sins of the flesh also perhaps cor is dividing the act of burial with him in baptism which can be independant of faith from the experience of rising with christ by faith who says both are by faith this interpretation has the advantage of explaining those who are faithlessly baptized for whom their baptisim is not benefit but serves to put them into the kingdom nonetheless like the israelites all of them children included who were baptized in the cloud and in the sea it was of no advantage because they did not add to their baptism faith and obedience baptism does not impart faith nor is it done strictly speaking on the basis of the faith of the parent but because of the covcenant promise of god it imparts grace the grace of the kingdom which can be a punishement in disguise if there is later apostacy romans but not all the israelites accepted the good news for isaiah says lord who has believed our message consequently faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of christ so then we receive god s gift of faith to us as we hear the message of the gospel faith is a possible response to hearing god s word preached kids are not yet spiritually intellectually or emotionally mature enough to respond to god s word hence they cannot have faith and therefore cannot be raised in baptism to a new life do you teach a child to pray the lord s prayer do you expect them to not steal they can have faith appropriate to their condition and in the new covenant we shall no longer say know the lord for they shall all know him from the least unto the greatest heb if you read all of ezekiel you will see that god doesn t hold us guilty for anyone else s sins so we can have no original guilt from adam but also according to ezekiel god will not hold innocent anyone on the basis of anyone elses innocense thus jesus could not be our federal head any more than adam if that s what ezekiel is talking about shall you make ezekiel contradict the second commandemnt as well ezekiel rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committted and get a new heart and a new spirit why will you die o house of israel for i take no pleasure in the death of anyone declares the sovereign lord repent and live the way to please god is to repent and get a new heart and spirit kids cannot do this acts says that when we repent and are baptized we will then receive a new spirit the holy spirit then we shall live ezekiel indicates that this new heart will be given by god in the context of the sprinkling of water in baptism it is the action of god puting them into his new order and not a question of personal faith as such romans therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin and in this way death came to all men because all sinned sin and death entered the world when the first man sinned death came to each man because each man sinned note that it s good to read through all of romans some of the verses are easier to misunderstand than others but if we read them in context we will see that they are all saying basically the same thing let s look at one such but the death that came to all because of sin is not just their personal death but the dead state originbal sin we are in a covenant of death because adam our federal head gave over his dominion to the devil and death psalm surely i was sinful at birth sinful from the time my mother conceived me this whole psalm is a wonderful example of how we should humble ourselves before god in repentance for sinning david himself was a man after god s own heart and wrote the psalm after committing adultry with bathsheba and murdering her husband all that david is saying here is that he can t remember a time when he wasn t sinful he is humbling himself before god by confessing his sinfulness his saying that he was sinful at birth is a hyperbole the bible being inspired by god isn t limited to a literal interpetation but also uses figures of speech as did jesus john for another example of hyperbole see luke while this psalm is figurative in it s language it is not hyperbolic and the one does not necessarily imply the other there is not other hyperbolic language in this psalm what v is likely refering to is what is symbolized by the ot cleanliness laws which make intercourse and childbrith both acts which caus uncleannes and seperation from god the whole psalm is in the language of ot ritual hyssop cleansing burnt offering etc david s sin with bathsheba included this element as he did not ritually cleanse himself when he should have but what was symbolized by the ot ritual was the truth that sin was passed generationally that s why the organ of generation had to be cut that s why brith was unclean uncleanness was death and all babies were born dead and needed to be washed to newness of life which we have in baptism today paul duggan
