But if some condemn infants, if they die without baptism, it is a despising of the blood of Christ; for the sin of Adam and of the whole world, is reconciled through the sacrifice of Christ, and no sin from Adam is imputed to children; how then can children be damned?
Who will accuse the children, for whom Christ shed his blood? Who will condemn them, to whom Christ has promised the kingdom of God? Who will deny the holy Scriptures, which declare so emphatically, that the sin of Adam and of the whole world has been taken away; the handwriting of the law, which was against us, blotted out, and nailed to the cross, and that grace has abounded over sin, and the life of Christ conquered death?
Hence, he who says that children are condemned, or accuses them on account of original sin, denies the death and blood of Christ. For, if the children are condemned because of Adam’s death, then Christ died in vain, Adam’s guilt is still upon us, and not reconciled through Christ, and grace has not abounded over sin through Christ. God forbid.
For the grace of God has richly appeared to all men. Tit. 2:11; Rom. 5:18. All malediction, curse, and the sin of the whole world have been taken away through Christ, and as adults are saved through faith, so children are saved through their innocence; but all through grace.
An answer, then, remains yet to be given, why, if they are saved, they should not be baptized.
In the first place, because we have no command from Christ for it. Abraham had received a command from the Lord, to circumcise all males on the eighth day. Now, he had received no command respecting females, nor did he follow his own opinion, but, according to the command of God, caused only the male children to be circumcised; and circumcision was the sign of the covenant which God had established with Abraham; and still, the women were included in the covenant as well as the men.
And afterwards, when Israel was in the wilderness, and had grossly sinned against the Lord, so that God said, they should not enter into the promised land, and this on account of their unbelief, he (the Lord) said: But your children which now know neither good nor evil, they shall possess it.
Now, if the children, whom the Lord had commanded to be circumcised on the eighth day,[210] obtained mercy from him, and he promised to give them the land, and that they should possess it, how much more should now his grace be upon the children for whom Christ died?
In the second place, our opponents say, that the Lord said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5. From this, they say, it follows, that no one can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be baptized with water.
Answer.—These words of Christ must not be understood with reference to children; for the passage which the Lord spake to Nicodemus, namely: Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God, declares differently; for here we hear that Christ presented to Nicodemus regeneration, which takes place only through the word of God, as has above, in my confession, been sufficiently explained; and then Nicodemus said: How can a man, when he is old, enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born again?