Who Receives the Promise? (Acts 2:39)

When we examine baptism, we normally think that one professes Christ, and then that person is baptized.  This would make the sign a sign of faith.  We can assume that when Peter calls Israel to repent and he says, “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). We can claim that those who are far off are those who eventually come to faith as the Gospel spreads out.  The ones who are far off are those who will hear the gospel, receive Christ, and then be baptized.

It is true that we can take this view of Baptism if we only look at Acts 2:39.  We could say just from Acts that this is a problem for those who receive the Gospel.  However, what happens when we start expanding the sign to be a sign of the covenant community?  What if we see the sign as more than just a sign of my new life? What if we consider some of the pregnant promises that Peter calls to our attention from the Old Testament?

When we ask these questions, we see that the sign is not a sign of my faith, but a sign that is given to the community.  It is given to the house of Israel or the house of the wrestling ones.  God gives this sign to his people to testify to the truthfulness of his promise.  He promised to overcome death, Christ entered history to overcome death, Christ is seated on the right hand of the Father, and therefore we see that this sign given to the household of faith, the church, is the sign that testifies that God’s people overcome in Christ.

We can see this because Peter cites the Old Testament throughout his Pentecost sermon, communicating that Christ is the confirmation/fulfillment of the Old Testament promises.  The very promise of the gospel given to Abraham, signified in circumcision, is the sign of Christ’s work.  He is the one who is cut off.  Baptism is the sign that looks back to Christ’s victory as circumcision looks ahead to the coming seed of the woman.  Baptism is a sign that testifies that Christ has been consumed in the death waters, but death could not hold him.  Baptism testifies that Christ and His covenant people have moved from death to life in Christ’s historic work.

This is why children are exhorted to obey their parents.  This is why Paul even appeals to the fifth commandment in his household codes.  The intention of the covenant community continues.  God works in the context of the church and the Christian household, even if only one parent professes faith; otherwise, your children would be unclean. (1 Corinthians 7:14).

So, we baptize infants because our God is a consistent God who works in the context of a community.  It is a sign that testifies that the Spirit is at work in the pilgrim people on this earth.  it testifies to a new family comprised of Jew and Gentile.  It is a sign that testifies that God’s people have moved from death to life in Christ Jesus.  It is a sign that ultimately calls us to look to our savior and his victorious work of securing our victory over death.