Covenant Baptism: Is It the Same Thing as a Baby Dedication?

When Christians who aren’t from a Reformed background try to understand covenant baptism, they often compare it to a baby dedication. There are, of course, obvious similarities, making this a natural comparison, but there are meaningful differences—and the differences go beyond the use of water! Essentially, in a baby dedication, the ceremony focuses on the act of the parents; the parents are dedicating their child to God. They certainly do this in a covenant baptism, too, but this isn’t its primary purpose. In a covenant baptism, the purpose is to signify and seal God’s promises to us. Yes, parents dedicate their children to God, but we must understand this as a response to God’s covenant promises to be God to us and our children (Genesis 17:7, Acts 2:38-39). The primary thing is the action of God. God is making promises to us. God is assuring us of his promises through the waters. God is placing his triune name upon us. As always, it isn’t about you—it’s about God.

The Covenant of Works

"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Genesis 2:16-17

 

"But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. . ." Hosea 6:7

        

        Reformed theology divides the history of humanity into two covenants: a covenant of works with Adam before the Fall and a covenant of grace with Christ after the Fall. B.B. Warfield called these two covenants “the architectonic principle” of Reformed theology. It is the biblical scaffolding of the Reformed doctrine of God’s plan of salvation.

          What is the covenant of works? The covenant of works is God’s promise of life to Adam and his descendants on the condition of perfect obedience. This covenant has been called the covenant of life because it promised life, the covenant of works because its condition was works, the covenant of nature because it was made in the state of original nature, the Adamic covenant because Adam was the representative head, and even the pre-lapsarian covenant because it was the covenant made before the Fall of mankind into sin. Regardless of what we call it, we must affirm that this concept is part of God’s revelation of the unfolding story of human fall and redemption.

          The covenant of works helps us not only to understand God’s relationship with Adam before the Fall but God’s chosen way of revealing his plan of salvation. Our God is a covenant God who has chosen to relate to man by way of a voluntary condescension we call covenant. According to Paul’s line of reasoning in Romans 5:12-21, we cannot understand the covenant of grace in Christ unless we understand the covenant of works in Adam. Adam’s disobedience resulting in death is parallel to Christ’s obedience resulting in life.

          Admittedly, the term “covenant” is not used in Genesis 1-3, and the phrase “covenant of works” is not found in the Bible. Although the phrases are absent, however, the concept is present. We might point out that the terms “Trinity” and “original sin” are not found in the Bible, but these terms refer to biblical concepts. And the concept of a covenant of works is certainly present in God’s pre-Fall relationship with Adam.

          We can see the concept in the following ways. First, we see God laying out the terms of the relationship in Genesis 2. It becomes clear that Adam is not merely in a Creator-creature relationship, but he is also in a Lord-servant relationship. God creates Adam and then places him in the Garden to exercise dominion by working and keeping it. God then places Adam under a period of probation or testing in which he gives to him a command. He may eat of any tree in the Garden, but he shall not eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Secondly, God uses the language of blessing and cursing in his covenant with Adam. If Adam obeys, he will be blessed with life. If he disobeys, he will be cursed with death. The language of blessing and cursing is covenantal language and parallels the language that is used of Israel’s covenant with God.

Thirdly, the presence of covenant signs indicates that there is a covenant in place. There are two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These trees function sacramentally. The tree of life signifies God’s promise to confirm Adam in eternal life if he obeys God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil signifies the test God has placed Adam under. Will Adam obey God or will he declare independence from God and seek to know good and evil in autonomy from him?

Fourthly, Adam appears here not as a private person but as a public person. Adam is not acting merely for the sake of his personal relationship with God. Adam is functioning as the federal head of the entire human race. His actions will have consequences for everyone. So goes Adam, so goes the human race. When God commanded Adam to abstain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he gave the command to Adam as the representative head of the human race. This only makes sense in terms of a covenant arrangement where Adam is the head of the covenant of works and Christ is the head of the covenant of grace.

          We can pick up on concepts where the word is absent. For example, if I say, “It was the bottom of the ninth. The bases were loaded. And the batter stepped up to the plate,” you would know that I was talking about baseball even though I never used the word “baseball.” How did you know? You knew because there were clues that I was talking about baseball, and you picked up on it. In the same way, these realities mentioned above are clues that we are to understand Adam’s pre-Fall relationship with God as a covenant arrangement.

          In addition to the clues indicating a covenant arrangement, we also realize that later biblical passages treat God’s arrangement with Adam in a covenantal way. In Hosea 6:7 God explicitly says that Adam was in covenant with God: “But like Adam they transgressed the covenant. . .” Although some commentators understand “Adam” to refer to mankind in general or as a place designation, it makes the most sense to take it as a reference to Adam the father of the human race. Understood in this way, Hosea 6:7 is making a comparison between disobedient Adam and disobedient Israel. As Adam was in covenant with God and broke the covenant, so Israel was in covenant with God and broke covenant. So Hosea 6:7 assumes that the Jews would have known that Adam was in covenant with God.

          Romans 5:12-21 is the real clincher for the covenant of works. There Paul makes a comparison between Adam and Christ as the representative heads of the human race. Adam represents the old humanity, and Christ represents the new humanity. Adam disobeyed and all die in him as a consequence of his disobedience. Christ obeyed and all live in him as a consequence of his obedience. This means that Christ is a Second Adam who obeys where the first Adam disobeyed; he brings life where the first Adam brought death. This only makes sense on covenant grounds. The covenant of works in Adam explains why Adam’s sin and death has been transmitted to all his descendants. The covenant of grace in Christ explains why his righteousness and life is transmitted to all his spiritual descendants (believers). So the covenant of works anticipates for us what Christ had to do in order to secure salvation for the human race lost in Adam.

          Many Christians have objected to the representative role of Adam in the Garden. How can this one man and his one action have impacted so many? One answer is that this highlights the holiness of God. God placed a sentence of death on the entire human race on account of the one sin of one man. Of course, many other actual sins have proceeded from this, but in principle we see it all goes back to the first sin. God is so holy, and sin is that serious. Secondly, we could point out that we understand in our lives how one man’s actions have consequences for others. One football player jumps offside, and his entire team is penalized. Thirdly, although many believers complain about Adam being their representative, few complain about Christ. But we must understand that the principle upon which we are reckoned disobedient in Adam is the same principle upon which we are reckoned righteous in Christ. It is the federal headship principle. God willed the actions of Adam to impact his entire race. God willed the actions of Christ to impact his entire race. So the real question is this: who is your representative?

The Covenant Family as a Means of Blessing

“For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Genesis 18:19

          When God called Abraham into his covenant of grace, he promised to bless all the families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:1-3).  God planned to accomplish this universal blessing by making his covenant with Abraham and his offspring:  “And 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).  Keeping in mind that God’s promises come to fruition in the lives of God’s people through the use of divinely-appointed means, Genesis 18:19 tells us that the means for making Abraham’s family a blessing to all the families of the earth (Genesis 18:18) is his leading his family in the ways of righteousness as a faithful head of his house. 

To put the matter succinctly, God’s choice of Abraham was both for the sake of his family (“that he may command his children and household after him to keep the way of the LORD”—Genesis 18:19) and for the sake of all families (“all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him”—Genesis 18:18). 

Thus we learn that the God-ordained means of blessing both our families and other families is for elect heads of houses to command their families to keep the ways of the Lord.  God chose Abraham and his family to be set apart from cities like Sodom and Gomorrah which were known in those days for their wickedness (Genesis 18:20-21).  Abraham and his family were to be known for righteousness and justice.

God loves making his covenant of grace not merely with isolated individuals but with whole families in successive generations.  And it is worth pointing out that this continues in the New Testament.  One example is the godly heritage of Timothy.  Paul writes, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5).  In this case, Timothy’s faith was the result of successive generations of faithful mothers (Timothy’s father was a Greek, but his mother was a Jewish believer—Acts 16:1).  Timothy had been trained in the Scriptures even from his infancy (2 Timothy 3:15).  

It is without question that God has saved many individuals apart from any connection to a covenant family, but God’s ordinary way of working is through the covenant family where heads of houses deliver the faith from one generation to another.  Many Christian men bewail the sin in society today, especially among our rebellious youth.  But if Christian husbands and fathers abandon their role to lead their families in righteousness, then what right do they have to deplore the wickedness of the surrounding society?  God’s plan for reaching our youth for Christ is not a youth group but a holy father.    

Although God’s dealings with Abraham were unique in many ways, as the father of the faith, his leadership in the home is instructive for Christian husbands and fathers today.  God has chosen men to lead their families in the ways of righteousness and justice.  Christian husbands must love and lead their wives in order to sanctify them as Christ loves and leads the Church in order to sanctify her (Ephesians 5:25ff).  Christian fathers must assume responsibility for the covenant nurture of their children.  “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). 

God has told us plainly how he plans to bless our families and all the families of the earth.  He does it through faithful covenant families whose homes are ruled in the ways of God.   

God’s plan to bless all the families of the earth is ultimately realized in Jesus Christ who is the offspring of Abraham (Galatians 3:16).  Thankfully, even if God did not plant you in a covenant family from your earliest days, he is able to plant you in Jesus Christ who is the source of all the blessings of Abraham.  And if God places us into the family of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ (for you are all sons of Abraham through faith in Christ—Galatians 3:7), then let us continue to walk in the footsteps of our forefather and command our households to walk in the ways of righteousness, holiness, and love.  The world and the next generation of believers will be the better for it.