I just finished listening to my pastor’s sermon series on Hebrews again and I commend it to you. It can be found here:
http://www.newlifelamesa.org/series/hebrews/
Here’s a good 2 minute snippet from the sermon titled “Consider Jesus” on Hebrews 3:1-6:
An exhortation to a baptized covenant member that they can look to their baptism in faith and be assured of God’s promises made at their baptism is tantamount to teaching baptismal regeneration.First, I have two credible examples of this teaching of baptismal assurance being found within historic reformed orthodoxy; one from Luther, and the other from Calvin.
Second, I have two examples of this teaching being equivocated with the assumption that everyone who is baptized is elect.
The first is in a comment from reformedmusings over at Green Baggins. Upon my stating that we can teach our children to believe the promises of God made at their baptism, reformedmusings responds,
“Since not everyone who is baptized is saved, I wonder how far you can take your assertion. The Confession and Catechisms are clear that not everyone in the covenant of grace broadly considered receives the benefits of regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. How do you explain that to kids who are taught that they should assume they are saved from infancy because of their baptism?”
Note how my use of the word “believe” is translated to “assume”. I would say that teaching a child that they cannot fall away from the faith is teaching them to “assume”, but that is for another post. Let me just add here that teaching a child that they must continue in faith to the end precludes any assumptions about their covenant status, but includes faith in God’s promises about their covenant status.
The second example is from one GeneMBridges commenting on Triablogue. My question was,“Would you agree that every baptized Christian can look to their baptism in faith and be assured of God’s promises?” The response from GeneMBridges was that this rejected the “mixed” nature of the covenant and was tantamount to baptismal regeneration.
Now to the rebuttal. Read carefully. I will try to be as clear as possible.
Encouraging a baptized Christian that they can look to their baptism in faith and be assured of God’s promises is not the same as saying that everyone who is baptized is elect or regenerate. It is only saying that everyone who is baptized and looks to their baptism in faith is elect and regenerate.
If one does not mix Gospel promises with faith, he cannot receive the fruit of those promises. (Hebrews 4:2)
Mark Horne points out that according to Hebrews 11:8-10, Abraham was justified by faith back in Genesis 12:
Is Genesis 15 an attack on forensic justification? « Biblical Horizons
But Genesis 12 says nothing of faith. It just says that God told Abraham to go, and Abraham went obediently. But as James 2:22-23 notes, “doing” is “believing”.
Sola Fidelity 