“Infant baptism does not appear on the pages of the Bible” is one of the regular claims I hear from my Baptist friends. I think the claim is common given that many Christians look to the New Testament to shape their understanding of baptism. After all, John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, and Jesus commissioned the church to baptize the nations (Matt. 28:18–19). But does this New Testament–only approach to understanding baptism hold water? Whenever I teach on any doctrine, I encourage my students to look at the unfolding history of redemption and trace the doctrinal line from Genesis to Revelation to ensure they get a full-orbed picture. In this case, the Apostle Paul’s inerrant and infallible commentary on the Old Testament shows us that Scripture does indeed reveal infant baptism. Paul’s explanation of the Red Sea crossing gives us a typological picture of baptism, even the baptism of infants. But this typological portrait is not pointing forward to the sacrament of baptism. Rather, both the Red Sea crossing and the sacrament of baptism point to the baptism of the Spirit that Christ performed when he ascended to the Father’s right hand. A clear view of the Red Sea baptism thus better equips us to appreciate Christ’s baptism of the church and the significance of baptism, especially infant baptism.

Paul on the Red Sea Baptism

God miraculously delivered Israel by parting the waters of the Red Sea. When all the people made it across, God then collapsed the walls of water upon Pharaoh and his army in judgment (Ex. 14). Miracle of miracles, God saved Israel through the waters of the Red Sea, but the first clue that something more transpired comes from the Song of Moses: “You breathed out your Spirit; the sea covered them” (Ex. 15:10, translation mine). God breathed out his ruach, or his pneuma in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. The Spirit’s presence is something that church father Ambrose of Milan (ca. 339–397) observed; he concluded that “holy baptism was prefigured in that passage of the Hebrews, wherein the Egyptian perished, but the Hebrew escaped” (De Mysteriis, III, NPNF 2/10:318). Ambrose draws a solid conclusion supported by both the prophet Isaiah and the Apostle Paul. The prophet Isaiah looked back upon the Red Sea crossing and asked his contemporaries: “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them his Holy Spirit” (Isa. 63:11)? How does Paul explain the Red Sea crossing?

Paul writes: “Our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:1b–2). When Paul writes that “all were baptized,” he reminds the reader that the whole nation passed through the waters, including adults and “little ones” (Ex. 10:24; cf., e.g., Num. 14:3, 31). The whole nation was baptized “into Moses,” which means that they were “baptized into the discipleship of Moses” and “into the participation of the privileges which the Mosaic economy entailed” (Murray, Romans, 214). That Israel was “baptized into Moses” might suggest that this baptism was temporal rather than spiritual, as Moses did not save Israel unto eternal life in the same way that “baptism into Christ Jesus” sacramentally proclaims saving union with Christ (Rom. 6:1–4; Westminster Confession of Faith 28:1). Yet, Paul explains that God baptized Israel into Moses “in the cloud and in the sea.” Paul’s mention of the sea makes sense, as we know the waters of the Red Sea were present, however ironic this baptism was: Israel remained dry while Pharaoh and his army got wet. But what does Paul mean when he says that God baptized Israel into the cloud?

The cloud by day and pillar of fire by night were visible signs that pointed to the presence of the Holy Spirit (Ex. 13:21–22; 14:19). The Old Testament associates the cloud with God’s very presence (Ex. 14:24; Num. 12:5; 14:14; Deut. 31:15; Neh. 9:12; Ps. 99:7), but Moses, Isaiah, and Paul all connect the cloud at the Red Sea specifically with the Spirit’s presence. Thus, God baptized Israel, including their “little ones” into “Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Cor. 10:2). God baptized infants into the Spirit when Israel crossed the Red Sea, and as Paul goes on to explain, “Now these things happened to them as a type, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor. 10:11, translation mine). That Paul designates the Red Sea crossing, among other events, as a type, or foreshadow, means that this event anticipates a still greater fulfillment at the end of the ages.

Christ’s Baptism of the Spirit

There is a complex of events to which the Red Sea crossing points. First, we should take a step back and look at the large-scale portrait God painted in the miraculous crossing. Israel was God’s firstborn son who went through the waters and received the Spirit (Ex. 4:22; 15:10; Isa. 63:11; 1 Cor. 10:1–2). We find an antitypical counterpart to this event when God’s only begotten Son went down into the waters of the Jordan, emerged, and then the Father poured out the Holy Spirit upon him (Matt. 3:13–17; Mark 1:9–11; Luke 3:21–22). The Father anointed his Son to equip him to carry out his gospel ministry (cf. Isa. 11:1–5; 42:1; 61:1–3; Luke 4:19–21). When Jesus spoke of his impending crucifixion, he went to a mountain where he was transfigured as he discussed, not merely his “departure” (ESV) but literally his “exodus” with Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28–36, esp. v. 31, translation mine). That Luke invokes the term exodus to characterize Christ’s ministry takes us back to the Old Testament complex of miraculous events surrounding Israel’s redemption and especially their Red Sea crossing.

On the heels of Christ’s own exodus—his crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension—he baptized the church at Pentecost with the Holy Spirit. Remember that John said that he only baptized with water but that Jesus would baptize with “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt. 3:11; Luke 3:16). This baptism occurred at Pentecost as the Apostle Peter explains: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing” (Acts 2:33). Like the wind that blew the waters back and the Spirit’s presence in the cloud at the Red Sea crossing and the pillar of fire that led Israel at night, so at Pentecost “there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind . . . and divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:2, 3). Christ baptized the church at Pentecost, and thus Peter exclaimed: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Notably, Peter’s statement did not stop with adults who were able to make a profession of faith. Tiny feet were carried by parents, and small children also walked upon the dry bed of the Red Sea as they were baptized into the cloud. Thus, Peter proclaimed: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself” (Acts 2:39). God delivered whole households through the Red Sea baptism, and so God continues to save entire households in the New Testament (Ex. 12:3; Acts 10:2; 11:14; 16:15, 31, 34; 18:8; 1 Cor. 1:16). Moreover, when Joseph went to bury his father, his whole household went with him along with the households of his father and brothers, yet, “Only their children . . . were left in the land of Goshen” (Gen. 50:8). Here Moses brackets out the children when he mentions the household participation in the burial of Joseph’s father, Jacob, yet no such exclusions occur in the New Testament household baptisms. In short, the baptism of infants at the Red Sea crossing shows the church that we should baptize infant members of Christian households.

The Significance of Baptism

When we look at baptism through the lens of Paul’s explanation of the Red Sea crossing, we see that infants should receive the sacrament of baptism. Given that they are the children of professing Christian parents, they have right to the sign of the covenant. They have right to the sacrament of baptism, which proclaims through preached and visible Word that Christ has come and has baptized the whole covenant community in the Holy Spirit as he leads us on our final exodus. In our present context, Christians characterize baptism as an individual rite of admission unto salvation, whereas Reformed and Presbyterian churches have historically defined baptism as the admission of individuals and households into the visible covenant community, the church. In the words of the Westminster Confession: “The visible church . . . consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their children: and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation” (25:2). But there are two important points that we should observe regarding baptism: It is a testimony of God’s sovereignty and of the need for faith in Christ.

First, there are many Christians who define baptism as their testimony of their saving faith and their commitment unto Christ. There is some truth to this, as even the Westminster Confession states that baptism is a sign of the believer “giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life” (WCF 28:1). However, baptism is more than a sign of our surrender and dedication to Christ. As a sacrament, a holy sign and seal of God’s covenant promises in Christ, baptism is a visible word that heralds the gospel to our senses of sight and touch. What the preached Word is to the ear, the sacraments are to the other senses. Word and sacrament work in concert to herald the gospel. When we think of the sacraments, we should ask two questions: (1) what am I saying by the sacrament? And (2), more importantly, what is God saying through the sacrament? The second question invites further thought and meditation.

In this case, the sacrament of baptism proclaims that Christ has lived, suffered, died, arisen, and ascended to the Father’s right hand and baptized the church in the Spirit (Acts 2:33). But we see two powerful truths among many others in baptism. God saves adults through a profession of faith. Baptism also proclaims, however, that God reaches out to us when we are incapable of reaching out to him, and he marks us as his own by placing his covenant sign of baptism upon the children of believers. The Red Sea crossing powerfully illustrates this point. God saved the whole nation of Israel through the Red Sea baptism, but who ultimately reached the Promised Land and entered it? The infants and children of Israel, not the adults. The adults heard and received the message of the gospel but did not believe, so God barred them from entering the Promised Land (Heb. 4:6). He gave the Promised Land to the children and infants who were baptized in the Red Sea. Infant baptism, therefore, mightily teaches us about God’s sovereignty in salvation. He chooses us; we do not choose him.

Second, we must not think that infant baptism is the only form of the sacrament that we practice. Presbyterian and Reformed churches also practice believer’s baptism. That is, when an adult convert makes a profession of faith, a church admits him into membership into the visible church. That adults require a profession of faith for baptism sacramentally preaches that only faith in Jesus Christ saves a person. Paired together, infant baptism and believer’s baptism remind us both of God’s sovereignty in salvation and the need for salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The waters of baptism alone do not save. Rather, when the church administers an infant’s baptism, it does so with the eager hope and anticipation that the infant will grow up in the bosom of the church, receive instruction, be discipled, and eventually make a profession of faith in Christ. As Israel ratified the covenant at Sinai and the elders ascended the mountain and ate unharmed in the presence of God (Ex. 24:9–10), so only those who profess faith in Christ can come to the Lord’s Supper to ratify the covenant and eat unharmed in the sacramental presence of Christ. Only the person who can “examine himself” and discern Christ’s body in the sacrament can consume the bread and drink the cup of the new covenant in Christ’s blood (1 Cor. 11:27–32). As such, the Lord’s Supper is an anticipation of the final judgment where only those who have received the gift of faith through Christ’s baptism of the Spirit will escape God’s wrath.

When we read about the Red Sea crossing, remember that it is a type, or foreshadow, of Christ’s baptism of the church. As adult and infant alike were baptized into the cloud, so now Christ has baptized the church to save whole households, and thus we baptize infants and children to proclaim this glorious truth.

The author, an OP minister, was moderator of the Ninetieth (2024) General Assembly and is professor of systematic and historical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. New Horizons, January 2025.