The Promises in Baptism For You!

I awoke from a very interesting dream this morning. Not a bad dream at all. Rather it was regarding the generations that will come after me. It has been a long practice of mine, dating back to High School, to pray for my children, grandchildren etc. This was started by my Christian grandparents explaining to me they prayed for me, my siblings and cousins long before we were born.

No why on earth would one do that?

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
(Acts 2:38-39 ESV)

One sees in this section that Baptism is not all about the person Baptized. The strong and precious promises of Our Lord is contained therein. This is glorious for the responsibility for the salvation of us, our spouse, children, grandchildren, etc. belongs to Our Lord. This is good news because we are unable to save them. Who else has this ability? Us? Surely not.

Some will object to this due to the fact that some of their children may reject the Gospel. My answer to this is we do not doubt a promise from God due to the unbelief of others. How is it that we will see a child forsake the church and wander off will never be granted true repentance and the forgiveness of sin in the name of Jesus? Certainly we train our children in the faith in order to keep this from happening but sometimes our hearts will break along with our child's break with the church.

As demonstrated by the innocent sufferings and death of Our Lord on the cross we know he takes the salvation of the sinner quite seriously. It is of great difficulty for a person, upon whom Our Lord has placed his name, to apostatize eternally. It has happened recorded in the letters of the Apostles but it is of heroic effort to accomplish this leaving.

Rather than spend hours and days examining others and whether we can see if they are in Christ we cling to the promises we have in Jesus and live in the peace they give us. Amen. †