Baptism: All in the Family

Christ is risen! Indeed he is risen! 

And the jail keeper brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.  (Acts 16: 30-34) 

Though the above text from the Acts of the Apostles doesn’t specifically mention infant baptisms, it is commonly assumed that references to the jail keeper and “all his family” as well as “all his household” would include all his children including infants. This suggests infant baptisms were practiced from the time of the Apostles. Everyone was being given sanctification and being welcomed into the new creation established in Christ. And why not, since they were anticipating the imminent appearance of God’s kingdom.  Archbishop Alexander Golitzin writes about St Symeon the New Theologian’s (d. 1022AD) belief about why infant baptism is appropriate: 

God does… work in us when we are not consciously aware of Him. And, of all the ways in which He acts thus, Baptism is the most important: 

“We have been baptized as babies, unaware, as incomplete we also incompletely receive the grace, receiving the remission from the first transgression.” (St Symeon) 

The grace is incomplete here in the sense that it requires completion through actively chosen appropriation, i.e., the way of the virtues. But, for all that, it is still grace, and it is essential. What Adam lost in Eden is regained. This is first of all freedom from slavery to the devil, the power to do good: 

“… we have been born again in holy Baptism and have been released from slavery and become free, so that the enemy cannot take any action against us unless we of our own will obey him…” (St Symeon) 

This is no small thing. Baptism removes the ‘ancestral sin,’ and more. Through it we receive power not only to do good, but ‘to be called sons of God and be clothed upon with Christ.’ Baptism, Simeon continues in Hymn 55, replaces us in paradise, engrafts us into the vine of Christ. 

However, this real power can be lost. The grace and indwelling of the Spirit, to use Simeon’s own image, can ‘leak away’ if there is no effort to put this new freedom to the purpose for which it was given. And that, of course, is what happens inevitably to everyone who lives past infancy. Thus all are in need of repentance and the baptism of tears, tears as sign both of fervent contrition and of the operation of the Spirit. (ON THE MYSTICAL LIFE Vol 3, pp 118-119) 

One does not have to completely understand or even be completely aware of the Holy Spirit working in our lives to experience this grace. The gifts bestowed through baptism are given to the infant as well as the adult, including adoption as God’s children, eternal life, sanctification, and the Holy Spirit. We are baptized into Christ, which unites us to Christ, freeing us from slavery to sin, death, and the devil. Christian baptism gives us so many more blessings than did the baptism of John which was only for the remission of sins (Acts 13:24). Some Christians today think baptism is only for the forgiveness of sins and thus can only be for adults, but that means they think they are still doing John the Forerunner’s baptism rather than the baptism into Christ. To read more about the many gifts given to us at baptism see my posts: Baptized into Christ and The Many Blessings of Baptism