Something old, something new -

If you benefited from my last entry, hopefully this additional snapshot from the larger debate will be beneficial as well. A very major disagreement between Credobaptists and Paedobaptists relates to the continuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The former see very little continuity and the latter see great continuity. One of the problems for the Credobaptist is that arguing the newness of the New Covenant often causes misrepresentations of the Old Covenant. Here is a brief portion of my recent discussion with a Credobaptist:

CREDO: The New Covenant is a covenant of salvation. To be in the New Covenant means that your sins are forgiven, that you know God, and that the law is written on your hearts. To say that that happens apart from the regenerative work of the Spirit in association with the gospel, working itself out in faith and repentance is another gospel, hence it falls under the condemnation of Galatians 1.

PAEDO: You are saying then that those in the Old Covenant to whom circumcision was given did not receive forgiveness of sins, they did not know God, the law was not written on their hearts. You’re saying that the Old Covenant provided salvation by works or DNA and not by covenant keeping through faith and repentance. You’re saying that those who did keep covenant with God did so apart from the regenerative work of the Spirit in association with the gospel working itself out in faith and repentance. This is the logical conclusion of your assertion that baptism as a replacement for circumcision portrays a “different gospel.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, I provided further comment: Circumcision did not thwart justification by faith in the Old Covenant, and paedobaptism does not betray it in the New Covenant.

The truth that God has promised to include the children of His people in His covenant does not contradict the truth that justification comes by faith alone. This is the hump over which most Credobaptists cannot cross because they cannot see how the Scriptures resolve the covenant promise to the children of believers with justification by faith.

May God help us to contend earnestly for the faith.