God’s people ought to delight in God’s gift of baptism for covenant children. John Murray wrote in Christian Baptism that “the ordinance of infant baptism is intended to encourage and confirm faith in the covenant faithfulness of God. Baptism is the sign and pledge and seal that God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him and His righteousness unto children’s children” (89).

Delighting in God’s Gift of Baptism for Covenant Children

Baptism is a delight for God’s people precisely because it is a sign and seal of the most glorious spiritual realities and, as Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, “the promise is for you and your children” (Acts 2:39). J. Gresham Machen in The Christian View of Man wrote:

In baptism, God receives the child into His covenant family. By baptism, God assures us that our children, like ourselves, are included in the covenant of grace. Thus, baptism becomes an anchor of assurance, binding our children to Christ and His church.

If we are to delight properly in God’s gift of baptism for our covenant children, we must never lose sight of the glorious truths signified and sealed in baptism (see Westminster Larger Catechism Q. 165) and ever put them before our children as they grow up in the covenant.

First, baptism is a picture and pledge of union with Christ. All the other blessings and benefits of the covenant flow to us through this rich vein. The one for whom this promise is realized will declare with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” (see Gal. 2:20; Eph. 1:4).

Second, baptism is a picture and pledge of the forgiveness of our sins. As the old hymn says, “What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Not all the blood of bulls and goats can take away my sin, but “where there is forgiveness of [our sins and lawless deeds], there is no longer any offering for sin” (Heb. 10:18). “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Eph. 1:7).

Third, baptism is a picture and pledge of regeneration, or the giving of the new heart. Our children have no hope apart from the gracious gift described in Ephesians 2 as simply, he “made us alive.” In John 3, Jesus taught Nicodemus of his great need to be “born of water and the Spirit” (v. 5), echoing Ezekiel 36:25–27. The one who receives the new heart believes the gospel and worships the triune God now and forever.

Fourth, baptism is a picture and pledge of our adoption into God’s family. He “predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself.” The one adopted cries with the Apostle John, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1 NKJV). J. I. Packer in his modern classic Knowing God wrote, “Adoption [to be loved and cared for by God the Father] is the highest privilege that the gospel offers” (206).

Fifth, baptism is a picture and pledge of our resurrection to everlasting life. “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:5). Our baptism points us to the eschatological climax of redemptive history and causes us to long for that day.

Praying for God’s Covenant Children

What an incredible privilege we possess—to pray for God’s precious covenant children!

Given the scope of what baptism signifies and seals, together with the baptized entering into an “open and professed engagement to be wholly and only the Lord’s” (WLC Q. 165), we have a powerful way to pray: “Gracious Father, please work by your Spirit such that our covenant children would be what you have marked them off from the world to be. In your sovereign mercy, savingly unite them to Christ, grant them a new heart, forgive all their sins, robe them with Christ’s justifying righteousness, confirm them as true sons and daughters of the King, make them “wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1), and bring them safely to their eternal inheritance in heaven. Father, please cause them, by faith, to lay hold of all you’ve pictured and pledged in their baptism.

We also have numerous Scripture passages to inform our prayers for God’s precious little ones. In Isaiah 44, the Lord declares,

Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, “I am the LORD’S,” another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, “The LORD’S,” and name himself by the name of Israel. (2–5, emphasis added)

Considering such an encouraging text, let us cry in prayer: “Our covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, we bless your name for the promises of your covenant. We confess that we and our children are worthy of your everlasting judgment but rejoice that you blot out the transgressions of your people. We further confess that we are prone to fear for the souls of our children. Our faith is weak, but you are strong. O Lord, pour out your Spirit and all the blessings of your covenant on our children according to your Word of promise. You formed them from the womb, O Lord; please help them! Cause them to spring up and name the name of Christ and bless the name of the triune God into which they were baptized.”

“And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD. “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.” (Isa. 59:20–21, emphasis added)

From this text we might plead, “Holy Father, may your Spirit and your Word never depart from us, from our children, or from our children’s children, now and forevermore. May it be according to your gracious and faithful word, to the praise of your glorious grace.”

Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul. (Jer. 32:37–41, emphasis added)

We continue to learn to pray through the promises of Jeremiah: “O Lord, our children are prone to wander and would forsake the covenant in an instant if not for your grace. Thank you for your promise to be God to us and to our children after us. Please never turn away from doing good to them and cause them to grow in godly fear of you all their days. Even as you rejoice over them, cause them to lay hold of all the good that you have promised in their baptism, that they may never turn away from you.”

My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Ezek. 37:24–27, emphasis added)

Finally, let us hear the word of God from Ezekiel and pray: “Heavenly Father, establish the work of your hands with all our covenant children. Unite them to your servant David’s greater Son, our Lord Jesus. Make them to walk according to the Spirit, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, to call upon their Father who is in heaven. Make their hearts and lives your holy habitation. Dwell with them in covenant grace forever, according to your promise to be their God and to have them as your people.”

The author is pastor of Faith Presbyterian in Silver Point, Tennessee. New Horizons, January 2025.