12. Reformed Baptist Distinctives: Credo Baptism

Credo Baptism as a Reformed Baptist Distinctive

We're going to go to the things that make us Baptist. So we're Hope Reformed Baptist Church. So the next C would be C for Credo, which stands for Credo Baptism or Believer's Baptism. And that's the practice of baptism in which the participant publicly professes faith in Christ as Lord and Savior and as an admission into the local community of faith.

So when somebody is baptized, is it because the elders believe that it's a credible profession of faith? God has moved and changed their minds and hearts, okay, and now they're being admitted into the body of Christ that we have here.

They would become a member of the church and come under the, not discipline of the church, it would be the discipline of the care and concern of the church, of the elders. The word baptizo means to immerse or dip, not pour, not sprinkle, not splash, and it's understood as a sign of obedience and allegiance to Christ, okay?

Our confession, I'll point you right to the confession. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection, of his being grafted into him, of remission of sins and giving up into God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in the newness of life.

Why Infants Are Not Candidates for Baptism

Babies cannot repent, babies cannot believe, babies cannot confess Jesus as Lord, and nowhere does the scripture ever describe an infant being baptized. Now, Presbyterians are going to say, well, that refers to household baptism, but it never says those households had infants in them, okay?

Elsewhere, it says that the whole household served the Lord, and never saw an infant serving.

The Lord.

Credo Baptism, the New Covenant, and the Perseverance of the Saints

Now, I want to know how an infant can be in the new covenant, have all their sins wiped away, okay, have them be born again, and then fall away from the faith. You would have to jettison the P in the perseverance of the saints.

So now your doctrines of grace are going to be incomplete because people can fall away from the faith because they were in the covenant, and now they're not in the covenant anymore. It's real important that we listen to this.

This entrance into the new covenant is done by God alone. In fact, the scripture says it is because of Him, God, that you are in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1 .30. And it's permanent. You cannot be lost, and you are continually kept by God.

So once God puts you into the new covenant, you are a member of that covenant. And like this says, baptism does not replace circumcision in the new covenant as the Holy Spirit circumcises all of God's children and places them in Christ.

So circumcision in the old covenant is likened to circumcision in the new covenant done not by the hands of man, but done by the Holy Spirit. So they want to say baptism replaces circumcision, and I say, well, what about the circumcision of the new covenant?

What does that replace in the old covenant? Circumcision in the old covenant is done by the parents. Circumcision in the new covenant is done by the parents. God, your Father, circumcises you and brings you into the body of Christ.

It is because of Him that you are in Christ. If not, then it's something that mankind can do to put somebody in the new covenant. Why wouldn't we just baptize everybody we saw? They're in the new covenant now.

They can't be lost. Perseverance of the saints is not once saved, always saved. Perseverance of the saints is once a son, always a son. Once a daughter, always a daughter. You'll never be lost by God.

Jude tells us, to Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you before God without spot or blemish. That is a God who begins the work, continues the work, and finishes the work. Not done by the hands of man.