Quotes from Gregg Strawbridge

After making the covenant with Abraham to bless him and his descendants by grace through faith, God provided a covenant sign both to mark those who were recipients of his promise and to signify his pledge to provide for those who had faith in him. It is important to remember that the sign was given after the covenant was made; it was neither a precondition of the covenant nor a means of conferring it. Faith was and is the sole condition of knowing the blessings of God's covenant.

Because God's promises extended to Abraham's house, he was to devote all that he had to the Lord by use of the covenant sign. This meant that all who were part of Abraham's household in that ancient society were to be devoted to God by circumcision-sons, dependent relatives, and servants (Gen. 17:23; cf. Ex. 12:43-48).

Circumcision was God's way of marking his people with a visible pledge to honor his covenant for those who expressed faith in him.

circumcision was God's pledge to provide all the blessings of his covenant when the condition of faith was met in his people. Our faith does not actuate God's covenant or cause it to be extended to us-he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4)-but our faith does claim (and live out) the covenant blessings that God provides by his grace and pledges with his seal.

The validity of a seal is not dependent upon the time that the conditions of the covenant accompanying it are met. Like the seal of a document, the seal of circumcision could be applied long before recipients of promised and signified blessings met the conditions of the covenant. The seal was simply the visible pledge of God that when the conditions of his covenant were met, the blessings he promised would apply (cf. Rom. 4:11).

when we read the New Testament accounts of baptism, every person identified as having a household present at his or her conversion also had the household baptized.

The frequency of the household baptism accounts demonstrates that it was normal and consistent with the ancient practice of the continuing Abrahamic covenant for heads of households to see that the covenant sign and seal was applied to all in their home. No evidence indicates that children were excluded from these households. Rather, two thousand years of covenant practice, combined with the absence of any command to exclude children, indicate that household baptisms included infants.

This question turns on one point. We must decide whether the children of believers are to be treated the same way as they were in the Old Testament. So, we must determine whether the New Testament teaches a change on the status of believers' children. Is there continuity or discontinuity on the inclusion of believers' children into the new covenant, and thus new covenant signs and rites?

Biblical signs were given corporately to families in the Old Testament. Has that changed? This is a question of continuity. Baptism is similar to other faith rites in the Old Testament. Rituals which involve a symbolic act, such as baptism, are connected to Biblical covenants. Biblical covenants include signs to visibly represent the realities behind the covenant promises.

But if baptism will not make our children Christians, then why should we administer the covenant sign and seal to them? The most important answer is that we baptize because God makes promises to believers and to their children. In baptism we honor God by marking out and acting on the promises that reflect his grace both in blessing parents who act in devotion to God and in blessing the child being devoted to him in covenantal faith.

It is important to remember, however, that baptism is not merely a sign of God's grace-it is also a seal. Baptism does not simply signify what Christ has done, nor does it only demonstrate the parents' devotion. Baptism is also God's own continuing, visible pledge to his church that he will fulfill his covenant promises to those who place their faith in him.

Second, as the words of Gabriel, Mary, and Zacharias indicate, the covenant promise is always made, as Peter says, "unto you, and to your children." Peter included children in Acts 2:39 on account of the content and structure of God's covenant fellowship with his people ever since the days ofAbraham.

When the New Testament tells us that this or that "household" (as many English translations put it) was baptized in connection with Christian faith, what would the first hearers have thought?

Baptism did replace circumcision as a Gentile sign of entrance into the Church, as a matter of fact. Moreover, it is a necessary act for believing Jews in addition to circumcision (Acts 21:21, 1 Cor. 7:18). But, it doesn't exactly replace circumcision for Jews, especially in that transitional era.