THE BELGIC CONFESSION OF FAITH
– A Commentary – By Dr. Chuck Baynard
The Belgic Confession of Faith,
Article XXXIV
Holy Baptism
We believe and confess that Jesus Christ, who is the end of the law, has
made an end, by the shedding of His blood, of all other sheddings of blood which
men could or would make as a propitiation or satisfaction for sin; and that He,
having abolished circumcision, which was done with blood, has instituted the
sacrament of baptism instead thereof; by which we are received into the Church
of God, and separated from all other people and strange religions, that we may
wholly belong to Him whose mark and ensign we bear; and which serves as a
testimony to us that He will forever be our gracious God and Father.
The exchange of a bloody
sacrament unto death for a spiritual sacrament unto life is a fullfillemnt of
the shadow of the former for the reality of the present. The fulfillment is not
abolishment of the need of the sacrament that marks God’s people on earth and
binds them to God in the covenant. That which pointed to the coming Messiah
fulfilled by the Messiah, once and for all time. The type replaced by the light
of the anti-type. Thus Christ said search the Scriptures for they are that which
speak of me.
Therefore He has commanded all those who are His to be baptized with pure
water, into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
thereby signifying to us, that as water washes away the filth of the body when
poured upon it, and is seen on the body of the baptized when sprinkled upon him,
so does the blood of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit internally sprinkle
the soul, cleanse it from its sins, and regenerate us from children of wrath
unto children of God. Not that this is effected by the external water, but by
the sprinkling of the precious blood of the Son of God; who is our Red Sea,
through which we must pass to escape the tyranny of Pharaoh, that is, the devil,
and to enter into the spiritual land of Canaan.
Read this whole paragraph as one part or you will fall into the error of
baptismal regeneration. Regeneration is not tied to baptism in anyway
whatsoever. It is a truth that the regenerate will be baptized, but not of
necessity as if regeneration depended on the sign. The type was seen in the
crossing of the Red sea by the infant nation of Israel with Moses, whereby all
were under or sprinkled by the water. Peter speaks of this very type and that
baptism is the antitype in almost the same words used in this paragraph.
The ministers, therefore, on their part administer the sacrament and that
which is visible, but our Lord gives that which is signified by the sacrament,
namely, the gifts and invisible grace; washing, cleansing, and purging our souls
of all filth and unrighteousness; renewing our hearts and filling them with all
comfort; giving unto us a true assurance of His fatherly goodness; putting on us
the new man, and putting off the old man with all his deeds.
For the elect and thereby regenerate the baptism will be completely
effacable. As the water marks the outside of the regenerate, so the Holy Spirit
replaces the heart of stone with a heart of flesh and turns the sinner toward
God in sanctification. Use care
these things are not the inner act of God in the Holy Spirit, but point to them.
In other words all these things are present and baptism is after the fact so to
speak in obedience to god’s word. In type he commanded all male Jews to be
circumcised, in anti-type he commands all believers to be baptized as a sign of
the inner seal of the Holy Spirit accomplishing these things.
We believe, therefore, that every man who is earnestly studious of
obtaining life eternal ought to be baptized but once with this only baptism,
without ever repeating the same, since we cannot be born twice. Neither does
this baptism avail us only at the time when the water is poured upon us and
received by us, but also through the whole course of our life.
This should be a clear analogy, as you can only be naturally born one so
you can only be spiritually born once. That spiritual birth being marked by
baptism is not in time, thus baptism by the church in proper form, that is the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is efficacious in God’s time and
needs not be repeated. Indeed, repetition would defame the name of Christ as if
Christ could be offered on the altar again.
Therefore we detest the error of the Anabaptists, who are not content
with the one only baptism they have once received, and moreover condemn the
baptism of the infants of believers, who we believe ought to be baptized and
sealed with the sign of the covenant, as the children in Israel formerly were
circumcised upon the same promises which are made unto our children. And indeed
Christ shed His blood no less for the washing of the children of believers than
for adult persons; and therefore they ought to receive the sign and sacrament of
that which Christ has done for them; as the Lord commanded in the law that they
should be made partakers of the sacrament of Christ's suffering and death
shortly after they were born, by offering for them a lamb, which was a sacrament
of Jesus Christ. Moreover, what circumcision was to the Jews, baptism is to our
children. And for this reason St. Paul calls baptism the circumcision of Christ.
