Why We Gladly Place the Sign of Christ on Our Children
There are few moments more tender in the life of a church than when a small child is brought to the font. Though such a thing has made many a Baptists angry or confused, the beauty of it all has also won a number of people over. The water is poured in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The parents vow to raise their child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The congregation rejoices with them and vows to help them do the same. And God speaks—through Word and sacrament—His Covenant promise.
But whether you find it beautiful or confusing, the practice likely raises questions. Why baptize someone who cannot yet profess faith? Isn’t baptism supposed to be a public declaration of personal belief? Doesn’t the New Covenant consist only of the regenerate?
These are fair questions. And they deserve careful biblical answers.
What follows is an explanation and defense of what’s called Covenant Baptism—not merely as a theological position, but as a vision of God’s faithfulness to families, His Covenant dealings through history, and His appointed means of grace.
God Is a Covenant-Keeping God
The doctrine of Covenant Baptism begins, not with infants, but with God.
The Lord declares: “I will not violate my Covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips” (Psalm 89:34). God does not change the fundamental way He relates to His people. He binds Himself to them by promise. He calls Himself “the faithful God who keeps Covenant and steadfast love to a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9). James reminds us that with Him there is “no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). Indeed, the salvation of God’s people is dependent upon God not changing. As Malachi 3:6 says, “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.” But that salvation is accomplished and applied in and through Covenant.
From the beginning, God has dealt with His people Covenantally—and in those Covenant dealings the children were always included.
When the Lord established His Covenant with Abraham, He said “I will establish my Covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting Covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you” (Genesis 17:7). The sign of that Covenant—circumcision—was placed upon infant boys at eight days old. It was not a testimony of their mature faith. It was a sign of God’s promise and claim.
To be sure, as Romans 4:11 says, circumcision, like baptism, is a sign and seal of the righteousness that God’s people have by faith. And though Abraham had that faith before he was circumcised, God commanded him to circumcise all the males of his household whether they already had that faith or not. And this is in part because the promise of righteousness by faith was still to be sealed upon them because God promised Abraham that He would be his God and the God of his household. Abraham had a duty to nurture his household in that reality; but it was their reality nonetheless. And notice that God says this is an everlasting reality… for it is an everlasting Covenant.
Given that God told Abraham that this gracious Covenant is an everlasting Covenant, it’s not surprising that when the New Covenant dawns at Pentecost, Peter does not narrow the promise. But what’s amazing, and part of what’s new about the New Covenant is that he expands it: “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off” (Acts 2:39).
The only new feature in that verse is the inclusion of the nations. The structure—believers and their children—remains unchanged. And that structure began even before Abraham, when God promised mercy and grace in, on, and through the offspring of Eve (Genesis 3:15).
Baptism Is Not Our Testimony. It Is God’s.
Much confusion arises because many Christians have been taught to think of baptism primarily as our declaration. Many have been taught that baptism is merely a public declaration of faith. So baptism for them starts with the question: Does this person have faith?
Covenant Baptism begins with a different question: What is God doing?
Scripture speaks in remarkably strong language: “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death” (Romans 6:3). We were “Buried with him in baptism” (Colossians 2:12). Therefore, “Baptism… now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21). This is similar to the Covenant language of marriage in Matthew 19:6, where Jesus tells us, “So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Like a wedding, the New Testament does not treat baptism as a bare symbol, but as a unifying act of God. In a wedding the husband and wife are united to one another in the Covenant of marriage. God joins them together. In baptism we are formally united to Christ in the Covenant of Grace. So baptism is a means of grace—an appointed instrument through which God marks, incorporates, and binds people to Christ Covenantally.
Baptism brings someone into the visible Covenant community—the church. So in that sense it makes them a Christian. It unites them to the body of Christ. It brings them into the church, which is the realm of salvation. It seals God’s promises to them. It places them within the sphere of Word, sacrament, discipline, and nurture. It places the Triune Name of God upon their head, marking them out as not their own, but as belonging to God, and thus to the family of God.
But it is not magic. It does not save in and of itself. It must be received and lived out by faith.
Faith is the God-ordained means of receiving what baptism signifies. As John Calvin put it: “From this sacrament, then, we obtain only as much as we receive in faith.”
In and through baptism we are taken out of the old Adamic order and brought Covenantally into Christ and His new creation. This is a real gift of grace—a genuine transfer of realm and relationship. But this gift must be walked in by persevering faith. Grace is objectively given in the Covenant; faith is the God-ordained means by which we inherit what the Covenant promises.
The Mode of Baptism: Why We Pour
Once we understand what baptism is, the question of how it is administered naturally follows.
Christ commanded that disciples be baptized (Matthew 28:19). But Scripture gives us more than a bare command; it gives us a theology of water—especially Covenantal water.
Baptism as Heavenly Water
In the Bible water is often tied to creation and new creation. At creation, the Spirit hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2), and God separated the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:7). In the Flood, judgment fell as rain poured down from heaven (Genesis 7:11–12). And after the flood Noah and his family were to be and advance a new creation. In Exodus, as Moses and Israel pass through the Red Sea, they do so for a new start, or a new creation as it were.
Not only do we see water tied to creation throughout Scripture, we also see that the most decisive waters come from above.
When the prophets speak of the New Covenant, they use the language of pouring and sprinkling: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean” (Ezekiel 36:25). “I will pour water on the thirsty land… I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring” (Isaiah 44:3). And as Isaiah prophesies of Jesus: “So shall he sprinkle many nations” (Isaiah 52:15).
Notice the direction. The water—and the cleansing—comes down. It is poured out or sprinkled from above.
This imagery climaxes at Pentecost when the Spirit is “poured out” (Acts 2:17, 33). And Peter immediately connects that outpouring to baptism and to the promise for believers and their children (Acts 2:38–39).
If baptism signifies union with Christ and participation in the gift of the Spirit, then pouring beautifully portrays what God is doing. The water descends from above, just as grace descends from above.
Baptism is not fundamentally our act of going up. It is God’s act of coming down, anointing us, indwelling us, and empowering us to be the new creation He says we are in Christ.
Jesus’ Baptism: Anointing and Identification
This theology becomes even clearer when we consider our Lord’s own baptism.
John’s baptism was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). It was a Covenant-renewal call to Israel. John was summoning the nation to confess its sins and prepare for the coming Kingdom.
Jesus had no sins to repent of. So why was He baptized?
First, He was identifying with His people. He stepped into the waters as the faithful Israelite, the true Son, standing where Israel had failed. He said it was necessary “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). He was publicly taking His place among the Covenant people He came to redeem.
Second, He was being anointed for His mediatorial work.
In the Old Testament, priests began their official service at age thirty (Numbers 4:3). Kings were set apart by the pouring out of oil upon their heads (1 Samuel 16:13). Prophets were anointed and commissioned by the Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 61:1).
At thirty years of age (Luke 3:23), Jesus was baptized. The Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. The Father declared, “This is my beloved Son.” In that moment, He was publicly revealed and anointed as our Prophet, Priest, and King.
And notice again the direction: the Spirit descends. Heaven opens. The anointing comes down.
The oil poured upon kings in the Old Testament prefigured this greater reality—the Spirit poured out upon the Messiah. Christian baptism participates in that same pattern. We are baptized into the Anointed One and share in His anointing.
We often assume that Jesus went down under the water because it seems as though He stepped into the river to be baptized, but the Bible doesn’t say that He actually was immersed. He could have been ankle deep in the water. We may never know. What we do know is that the Spirit came down on Him from above. Thus pouring most clearly reflects what happened at Jesus’ baptism: the Spirit coming down from heaven upon the Covenant Head.
Old Testament Sprinkling and Covenant Cleansing
The Old Testament background reinforces this.
When the Covenant was confirmed at Sinai, Moses sprinkled the people with blood (Exodus 24:8). When priests were ordained, blood was sprinkled (Exodus 29:21). When someone was cleansed, water was sprinkled (Numbers 8:7; 19:18–19).
Hebrews gathers this up when it speaks of hearts “sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:22). And when Hebrews speaks of the ritual washings of the old Covenant, which typically happened through sprinkling and pouring, in the original Greek the author actually calls them baptisms (Hebrews 6:2; 9:10).
Sprinkling was the ordinary mode of Covenantal cleansing.
And Ezekiel 36 explicitly promises, “I will sprinkle clean water on you.” That promise belongs to the New Covenant era—the era inaugurated by Christ and marked by baptism.
What About Immersion?
I was taught in a baptist seminary that the word for baptism in the Greek literally means to immerse in water, therefore baptism must be done in that way. But we have just seen that isn’t the case because Hebrews clearly uses the word to refer to the ritual washings that were done through sprinkling and pouring. But just because it doesn’t strictly mean immersion doesn’t mean that baptism by immersion is wrong.
Romans 6:3–4 speaks of being “buried with him in baptism.” That language is often cited in support of immersion. But we should remember that Jesus was not buried in the ground in the ordinary sense. He was placed in a tomb. Burial imagery does not require submersion beneath the earth; it signifies being handed over to death and then raised in victory.
And when we consider the great redemptive “baptisms” of the Old Testament, an important pattern emerges.
Peter explicitly connects the Flood to baptism (1 Peter 3:20–21). But who was immersed in the Flood? The world. The wicked were submerged under the waters of judgment. Noah and his family were not immersed, but merely sprinkled by the falling rain. They were lifted up above the waters of judgment in the ark even as the sanctifying rain poured down upon them from heaven.
Similarly, Paul says Israel was “baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:2). But who was submerged in the sea? The Egyptians. Pharaoh and his hosts were engulfed beneath the waters in judgment. Israel passed through on dry ground, but Psalm 77:17 reminds us that the clouds did pour out water upon them as they passed through. Once again, the Covenant people are associated with heavenly water descending, while their enemies are drowned beneath it.
In both great Old Testament baptisms submersion is associated with judgment, the Covenant people are preserved under heavenly covering, and the water comes down from above.
This does not make immersion illegitimate. But it does relativize the assumption that submersion is the primary or most Covenantally fitting image.
There are examples in Scripture that resemble immersion. Naaman the Syrian went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan for cleansing (2 Kings 5:14). That event has clear baptismal overtones—water, cleansing, faith, healing. It strongly suggests that immersion can be a fitting sign of purification and renewal. For that reason, immersion is permissible. It portrays real aspects of union with Christ in His death and resurrection.
But when we gather all the biblical imagery together—the Flood, the Red Sea, priestly sprinklings, prophetic promises, royal anointings, Jesus’ baptism, and Pentecostal outpouring—the dominant Covenantal pattern is not God’s people being plunged beneath the waters, but water descending from heaven as cleansing, consecrating, Spirit-anointing grace.
Those who are immersed in Scripture’s great water-judgments come under wrath. Those upon whom the water falls from above are marked out for mercy.
And that is what baptism proclaims. Not our descent into judgment, but Christ bearing judgment for us—and the Spirit now descending upon us from above.
Why The Reformed Prefer Pouring
The Reformed Church therefore prefers pouring (or sprinkling) not out of convenience, but out of biblical theology.
The waters of baptism represent the Spirit poured out from heaven, the Servant who sprinkles many nations (Isaiah 52:15), the cleansing promised in Ezekiel 36, the priestly sprinkling of Covenant consecration, and the royal anointing that marks out the Messiah and now His people who are a Kingdom of priests.
In baptism, God acts. Grace descends. The Spirit is poured out. The Name of the Triune God is placed upon the person from above.
Pouring most clearly portrays that movement.
Immersion may vividly display union with Christ in death and resurrection, and for that reason it is a lawful Christian practice. But pouring most clearly reflects the heavenly, Covenantal, and anointing-shaped character of baptism as it unfolds across Scripture.
The water falls. The Spirit descends. The Covenant promises are signed and sealed. And God claims His people. So no matter how young or how old, no matter how big or how small, pouring water upon the head of the individual is the most biblical means of baptism.
Why Baptize Infants?
Now that we’ve discussed the mode of baptism let’s get back to who should be baptized. If baptism is the New Covenant sign, and if the Covenant still includes believers and their children, then the question becomes: why would we exclude them?
As I quoted earlier, circumcision was “a sign and seal of the righteousness that [Abraham] had by faith” (Romans 4:11). Yet infants received it. Not because they had articulated faith, but because God had promised to be their God.
The New Testament explicitly connects circumcision and baptism: “In him also you were circumcised… having been buried with him in baptism” (Colossians 2:11–12).
If infants were included before Christ, why would they be excluded after Christ—when grace has expanded rather than contracted?
Salvation has always been by God’s sovereign grace. And in the New Covenant that grace is expanding out to every tribe, tongue, nation, and generation. But it is still a gift of God’s sovereign grace. And this is why B. B. Warfield could say: “Every time we baptize an infant we bear witness that salvation is from God, that we cannot do any good thing to secure it, that we receive it from His hands as a sheer gift of His grace, and that we all enter the Kingdom of heaven therefore as little children, who do not do, but are done for.”
Infant baptism is not a denial of grace. It is a proclamation of grace.
What Is a Covenant Child?
Scripture calls the children of at least one believing parent “holy” (1 Corinthians 7:14). That does not mean they are automatically glorified. It means they are set apart—Covenantally consecrated. They are insiders. They have been set apart by God for God.
The apostle Paul addresses children directly in his letters: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1).
He does not tell them to wait until they are converted to be “in the Lord.” He assumes they belong to Christ’s visible body. And he commands their parents to raise them up and nurture them in that reality—in the Covenant culture of Christ (Ephesians 6:4).
A Covenant child is baptized into the church, raised as a Christian from infancy, and taught to believe, repent, and obey. The Covenant child, like every Christian, is called to embrace and live out his or her baptism.
Because our children are in the Covenant we do not evangelize our children as pagans. We disciple them as heirs of the promise.
Does This Mean All Baptized Children Are Saved?
No. The Covenant has always included blessing and curse.
The author of Hebrews warns baptized Covenant members not to fall away. Paul reminds us that all Israel passed through the sea and were baptized—yet many fell in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:1–5). And he tells the church in Rome that they must persevere or they will be cut off—as in cut off from God’s grace in Christ and brought under God’s wrathlike unbelieving Israel (Romans 11:22). Jesus speaks of branches “in me” that are cut off (John 15:2).
Covenant membership is real. Apostasy is also real (see Hebrews 3, 6, and 10).
Baptism brings genuine Covenant privilege—and therefore genuine Covenant accountability.
Baptism is not an empty symbol. It brings someone into a genuine Covenant relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Within that relationship there is real grace and real responsibility—blessing for those who walk by faith, and Covenant judgment for those who turn away.
Covenant Baptism does not deny perseverance. It simply recognizes that perseverance is the path by which Covenant promises are fully inherited and enjoyed.
What About Personal Conversion?
Every Christian must personally believe. Faith is not inherited genetically. It must be living, obedient, persevering loyalty to Christ. But Scripture allows for the possibility, and even the probability that faith may grow organically within Covenant nurture.
David could say: “You made me trust you at my mother’s breasts” (Psalm 22:9). John the Baptist leaped in the womb.
Not every testimony must be dramatic. Some are steady and Covenantal. In fact, in biblical and church history most are.
If you ask the average child raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, “When did you get saved?” most will answer, “I don’t remember a time when I didn’t trust Christ.”
That is not nominalism. That is generational faithfulness. And it is the norm.
The Beauty of Covenant Identity
Covenant Baptism gives children identity from their earliest days. They do not need to wonder, “Am I an outsider?” They are taught, “You belong to Christ. Now live like it.”
We teach them to remember their baptism. To confess their sins. To cling to Christ. To persevere.
The Covenant is not a guarantee apart from faith. But neither is it an empty formality. It is God’s appointed structure for raising disciples.
A Word to Our Baptist Brothers
I am not denying the necessity of personal faith, the reality of regeneration, or the importance of conversion. I am simply saying that baptism is first God’s Covenant sign—not primarily our testimony. I am saying that salvation is not merely an individual moment but a Covenantal life. I am saying that God saves families. As Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
What About Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8?
One of the most common Baptist objections to Covenant Baptism comes from Jeremiah 31:31–34, quoted at length in Hebrews 8. The prophet declares: “They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.”
The argument usually runs like this: If everyone in the New Covenant truly knows the Lord, then only the regenerate can be members of the New Covenant. Therefore, infants—who cannot yet profess faith—must not belong to it.
That sounds compelling at first glance. But it rests on assumptions that do not hold up under closer biblical examination.
“From the Least to the Greatest”
First, in Jeremiah’s own context, the phrase “from the least of them to the greatest” does not mean every single individual without exception.
Jeremiah uses that exact phrase elsewhere: “From the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain” (Jeremiah 6:13). That does not mean there was not a single righteous person left in Judah. It is Covenantal language describing the general character of the people.
Likewise in Jeremiah 31, the promise is not that there will never be Covenant breakers, nor that every Covenant member will infallibly persevere. As we have seen, the New Testament itself warns New Covenant members against falling away (Hebrews 6; 10). If Hebrews 8 meant “no apostasy is possible,” the rest of Hebrews would collapse. Rather, Jeremiah is describing the character and scope of the New Covenant in contrast to the Old: it will not be confined to a small remnant within a largely hardened nation. The knowledge of the Lord will be widespread, pervasive, dominant—from least to greatest.
The promise is about Covenant maturity and expansion, not about eliminating Covenant membership categories.
What Does It Mean to “Know the Lord”?
Second, we must ask: what does “know me” mean in Jeremiah and Hebrews?
In the Old Covenant, access to God was mediated through the priesthood and the ceremonial system. The average Israelite did not enter the Most Holy Place. Only the high priest entered, and only once a year on the Day of Atonement.
In that sense, only the priesthood “knew” God in a near and intimate way—through sacrificial mediation and temple access.
The author of Hebrews makes this very point. Under the Old Covenant, “the way into the holy places is not yet opened” (Hebrews 9:8). But now, through Christ: “We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus” (Hebrews 10:19).
“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16).
To “know the Lord” in Hebrews 8 is priestly language. It is access language.
Under the Old Covenant, the people knew God rightly through the Ceremonial Law and through the mediation of priests. They approached Him through sacrifices, washings, and temple rituals. But now Jesus is our great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is our Priest-King, seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to intercede for us. He is the final sacrifice to which all the ceremonial system pointed.
And because of Him, all New Covenant members share in priestly access. We are a royal priesthood in Christ. The veil is torn. The throne is open. We know God not through shadows, but through the Substance.
The Law Written on the Heart
And Jeremiah strengthens the point even further by promising that God will write His Law on the heart. But we must pay close attention to what the text actually says—and what it does not say.
It does not say God will give a new law. It says He will write His Law on their hearts. The same Law. The Law given through Moses. The moral will of God does not change. God is not replacing His standards; He is internalizing them. The problem under the Old Covenant was never the Law itself. The problem was the sinful heart of man.
Jeremiah’s promise, therefore, is not Covenant discontinuity in substance, but Covenant renewal in administration. The Law that once stood over the people externally—written on tablets of stone—would now be written internally upon hearts of flesh.
This is Covenant continuity, not Covenant replacement.
David already delighted in that Law (Psalm 1; 119). The remnant in Israel already loved the Lord from within. God had always circumcised hearts (Deuteronomy 30:6). What is new is not inward obedience in principle. What is new is the scale, clarity, fullness, and Covenant maturity brought by Christ.
And we must also notice the Covenant formula Jeremiah uses: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” That is not new language. That is Abrahamic language.
It echoes Genesis 17:7, where God promised Abraham, “to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” Jeremiah is not announcing a brand-new kind of Covenant unrelated to the past. He is deliberately invoking the foundational promise made to Abraham. The New Covenant is the flowering of that ancient promise, not its cancellation.
Jeremiah is, in many ways, correlating the New Covenant with the Old—showing that what God pledged to Abraham is now coming to its climactic fulfillment. The Covenant formula remains. The Law remains in substance. The promise remains in structure. What changes is the epoch: Christ has come. The shadows give way to the Substance.
But as we have seen, this ties back to the Old priesthood and the Ceremonial Law as well. Now in Christ, even that Ceremonial Law has been fulfilled and internalized. The reality to which it pointed has come. The Substance has replaced the shadow. We no longer approach through bulls and goats, but through the blood of the Son. The Law is written on our hearts in its fulfilled, Christ-centered form.
So the promise of Jeremiah 31 of knowing God and having His Law written on our hearts is not a promise that every Covenant member will be automatically regenerate in the decretal sense. It is that the Covenant itself will be transformed—expanded to the nations, characterized by direct priestly access in Christ, and marked by a deeper, fuller administration of grace. We no longer need to go to the temple of God in Jerusalem, for now, in Christ, by the Spirit, we are the temple of God. Therefore, since the Covenant is not restricted to one nation, the knowledge of the Lord can and will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11:9). His people—every tribe, tongue, nation, and generation—will all know Him, from the least to the greatest. And His dealings with them will echo what has gone before, but in an even more gracious and expansive way.
The Meaning of “New”
We should also pause over the word translated “new” in “New Covenant.”
The Hebrew term can carry the sense of renewed or restored. It does not necessarily mean brand-new in substance, as though God were discarding everything that came before. Rather, it often conveys something refreshed, strengthened, or brought to fuller expression.
And this is precisely how God has always worked in history.
When God establishes His Covenant with Noah in Genesis 9, He repeats the same creational language given to Adam in Genesis 1. The mandate to be fruitful and multiply is reaffirmed. Dominion language remains. The structure of creation order continues. But it is renewed after judgment and strengthened with further clarification. Even the word translated “establish” in Genesis 9 carries the sense of confirming or upholding what was already in place.
God is not inventing a different Covenant in Genesis 9. He is renewing and strengthening His Covenant purposes.
That pattern continues.
With Abraham, the promise narrows to a particular family and seed—but the eventual goal of that is blessing for the nations (Genesis 12:3). With Moses, the Covenant is formalized into a national administration with ceremonial laws that tutor Israel toward Christ. With David, the promise focuses on a royal Son whose throne will endure forever. Each stage clarifies. Each stage matures. Each stage strengthens and advances what came before.
It is not many unrelated Covenants. It is ultimately one Covenant unfolding.
Or as Paul says in Ephesians 2, there are “the Covenants of promise.” Many administrations. One Promise. One gracious purpose. One stream of redemptive mercy flowing through history.
Behind it all stands the eternal Covenantal love within the Triune Godhead—the love of the Father for the Son in the fellowship of the Spirit. Creation itself flows from that communion. Redemption flows from that same Covenant love. And history unfolds Covenantally because God Himself is Covenantal in His very being.
There is one Covenant of Grace, administered in different ways across time: in Adam, in Noah, in Abraham, in Moses, in David—and now brought to fullness in Christ.
What Jeremiah announces is not abandonment, but renewal. Not replacement, but maturation. The Covenant reaches its climax. The shadows give way to Substance. The Law is internalized. The nations are gathered. The Spirit is poured out.
The Covenant is new in glory, new in power, new in clarity—but not new in substance.
It is the same gracious promise, renewed and brought to fullness in Christ.
Under the Old Covenant, even the faithful still related to God through the ceremonial system—through sacrifices, priestly mediation, dietary laws, and temple ordinances. The shadows governed their approach.
Now in Christ, the Ceremonial Law is fulfilled. The reality to which it pointed has come. We no longer approach through bulls and goats, but through the blood of the Son. The Law is written on our hearts in its fulfilled, Christ-centered form.
Pastor Randy Booth says it well when he says, “Given the unchangeable character of God, there can be no question about the principle of continuity in his revelation (the Bible). Continuity and unity should be presumed over discontinuity. Who, but God alone, may presume to change what God has said? When it comes to Scripture, only God is permitted to say what is in fact new about the new covenant.”
The Covenant formula remains. The Law remains. The promise remains. What changes is that the Messiah has come. And if Jeremiah is describing Covenant renewal and maturation rather than Covenant replacement, then the basic Covenant architecture does not disappear. The promise remains what it has always been: God claims believers and their children, and He calls them all to grow up into the reality of that promise by faith.
New Covenant, Real Warnings
Hebrews itself makes clear that New Covenant membership does not eliminate Covenant responsibility.
Those addressed in Hebrews are warned not to fall away. They are sanctified by Christ’s blood (Hebrews 10:29) and yet capable of trampling that blood underfoot. The Covenant is real. The blessings are real. The accountability is real.
Which means Jeremiah 31 cannot mean “no Covenant member will ever apostatize.” It means the Covenant age has reached its fulfillment in Christ.
And in that fulfilled Covenant, the promise still runs as it always has: “The promise is for you and for your children.”
The New Covenant is better—not because children are excluded, but because Christ has come. Not because Covenant structure is abolished, but because priestly access is opened to all in Him.
And so we gladly bring our children to the One who has torn the veil, poured out His Spirit, and written His fulfilled Law upon the hearts of His people.
From Circumcision to Baptism: The Fulfillment in Christ
If you’re like me you might still have a lingering question in your mind: if circumcision was the Old Covenant sign given specifically to males, why is baptism administered to both males and females? The answer lies in the person and work of Christ—and in the way the Old Covenant already anticipated this expansion.
Covenant Marking in the Old Covenant
As we have seen, under the Old Covenant, circumcision marked males as Covenant members. It was a bloody sign placed upon the organ of generation, making clear that man in and of himself only produces sin. But it also pointed forward to the promised Seed that would come by God’s mercy and grace, not man’s will or work—the offspring through whom blessing would come (Genesis 17:7–11; 3:15).
But females were not outside the Covenant.
Though they did not receive circumcision, they were Covenant members by virtue of belonging to the Covenant household. They participated in the Passover (Exodus 12), were bound by the Covenant at Sinai (Exodus 24), and were addressed by the Law.
And importantly, they were marked off through ritual washings.
The Old Testament speaks repeatedly of ceremonial washings for purification (Leviticus 15; Numbers 19). The Greek Old Testament uses the language of baptisms for these washings. And as we’ve seen, so does Hebrews. Hebrews 9:10 for instance refers to these Old Covenant rites as “various washings” (literally, baptisms).
These washings applied to men and women alike, and even infants (Leviticus 12; 15). They were Covenantal cleansings—temporary, repeated, anticipatory.
So even under the Old Covenant, the people of God were familiar with Covenant marking not only through circumcision, but through water—through baptisms. This is why the New Testament simply assumes everyone knows what baptism is when it starts talking about John the Baptist and the like. It doesn’t stop to explain what a baptism is because God’s people already understood what baptism is.
Why Circumcision Gave Way to Baptism
Circumcision was always forward-looking. It pointed to the need for the cutting off of sin (Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6). It pointed to the promised Seed who would be cut off for His people (Isaiah 53:8). It was a bloody sign anticipating a bloody Savior.
But when Christ came, He was circumcised (Luke 2:21) as the obedient Son of Abraham. And ultimately, He was “cut off out of the land of the living” at the cross. In His crucifixion, the reality to which circumcision pointed was fulfilled.
The shadow gave way to the Substance.
Because the final shedding of blood has occurred, the Covenant sign is no longer bloody. The once-for-all sacrifice has been offered. We no longer mark the Covenant with a cutting, but with cleansing.
This is precisely what Paul teaches in Colossians 2:11–12: “In him also you were circumcised… having been buried with him in baptism.”
Circumcision finds its fulfillment in baptism because Christ fulfills circumcision. The sign shifts from blood to water, from male-only to male-and-female, and from ethnic boundary marker to international Covenant sign.
In Christ, there is neither male nor female (Galatians 3:28) with respect to Covenant status. The promise has expanded to the nations. The bloody sign tied to the male line has given way to a watery sign applied to all who belong to Christ—sons and daughters alike. And because we are baptized into Christ, who is our perfect baptized Prophet, Priest, and King, we only need to be baptized once.
Baptism as the Mature Covenant Sign
Baptism gathers up both strands of Old Covenant marking: the Covenant identity sign (circumcision), and the cleansing washings (the various “baptisms” of the Ceremonial Law).
It is a sign of union with the crucified and risen Messiah. It is a sign of cleansing. It is a sign of Spirit-anointing. It is a sign applied to all who belong to the Covenant community—male and female, young and old.
Under the Old Covenant, the sign was restricted and anticipatory. Under the New Covenant, the sign is expansive and fulfilled.
Because Christ has come, because the Seed has been cut off and raised, because the blood has been shed once for all, the Covenant sign is now water—cleansing, descending, life-giving water. And it is placed not merely on one half of the Covenant community, but on the whole household of faith. And it no longer needs repeating.
Final Encouragement
When a child is baptized, heaven is not silent. God speaks. He places His Name on that child. He binds that child to His Covenant promises. He brings that child into the fellowship of the church. And then He calls that child—through Word and sacrament, through discipline and nurture—to believe, repent, and persevere.
Covenant Baptism rests not on sentiment, but on this promise: “The promise is for you and for your children.” The God who made that promise has not changed. Therefore we can trust Him to keep it.
In Christ’s service and yours,
Nick Esch