But if the new covenant sign of baptism represents only cleansing and conversion, one significant example throws a wrench into that idea: Jesus’s baptism (Matt. 3:13–17). Under a paedobaptist reading, Jesus gets baptized as one coming from the old covenant (Luke 2:21) into the new. He received baptism not because he needed to be cleansed, nor because he experienced “conversion,” but because as both covenantal cause and covenantal recipient, he ushered in a new covenant with a new covenant sign for both him and his people (Mark 10:39).

“No way will anyone pour water on my kid’s head,” my recently converted dad said to our seminary-trained pastor. Having been raised in the Roman Catholic church, my father was understandably skittish at the thought of baptizing babies, associating the practice with the false doctrine and ceremony of Rome. So our Reformed pastor patiently explained the practice of infant baptism in a way that made sense, and my dad eventually gave permission for his eldest son (me) to be baptized.

Being born into a Presbyterian pew, typical questions about infant baptism started popping in my head as I grew older: “Why do we baptize this way?” “Does an infant’s baptism have any connection with his or her eventual ‘conversion’?” and “Doesn’t this look a little too Roman Catholic-y?”

It took awhile to sort out the complexities involved with baptism, specifically the infant variety. The “click,” the light bulb, and the “Aha!” moment occurred when someone helped me ask the right questions like, “Whom does Scripture include within the new covenant people?” As I tinkered with the idea of a covenant people, the meaning of the covenant sign started to take shape.

Point-counterpoint volleys on baptism can be dizzying, even annoying at times. I hope to clear away some of what causes that fog, and to clarify some of the reasons your neighborhood Presbyterians think it’s a good idea to pour water on unsuspecting babies. (You can read many of these arguments on both sides hosted by The Gospel Coalition in recent years.)

What I Am Not Arguing

First, tuck away all those household arguments for another time. While they might be useful for making a cumulative case for infant baptism, relevant household passages (Acts 16:13–15, 32–34; 1 Cor. 1:16) seem inconclusive on whether infants were crawling around households whose members were collectively baptized.

Second, scrap the “oldest practice wins” case. Historical arguments, like whether evidence for infant baptism in the early church exists, can also lend a hand toward making a comprehensive case. But those historical arguments can seem speculative, except to the already convinced. Some historical evidence (quotes from Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and so on) might gesture in the direction of infant baptism as a practice in the early church, but we lack undeniable, conclusive proof of baby-sprinkling during those initial post-apostolic years.

Arguments Off the Table

If you’re a credobaptist, you may have more in common with your paedobaptist friends than you think. Presbyterians not only believe in credobaptism, they practice it; they just don’t believe in exclusive credobaptim. This means that every instance of adult/believer/credobaptism in Scripture fits within both the paedobaptist view and the credobaptist view. They are celebrated examples of someone who was formerly outside the new covenant, now in the new covenant.

But if the new covenant sign of baptism represents only cleansing and conversion, one significant example throws a wrench into that idea: Jesus’s baptism (Matt. 3:13–17). Under a paedobaptist reading, Jesus gets baptized as one coming from the old covenant (Luke 2:21) into the new. He received baptism not because he needed to be cleansed, nor because he experienced “conversion,” but because as both covenantal cause and covenantal recipient, he ushered in a new covenant with a new covenant sign for both him and his people (Mark 10:39).

Covenant Inclusion

So who now qualifies for receiving the sign of the new covenant? Rather than focusing on any particular instance of baptism, we might uncover more by peering into how Scripture as a whole describes those who are in the new covenant.

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