• Is Adam and Eve a part of the Church?
• What about Noah?
• The Church did not add its first member with or through the Abrahamic Covenant. The Abrahamic Covenant was a promise that the Church would continue to be built up or estabilshed
• The Chuch is composed of all saints from the OT and the NT, those who have faith in Christ. Those before the First Advent and after it.
• What is the requirement of being added to the Church? t has always been by faith. Repentence and faith in Christ.
• Same for Adam, same for the thief on the cross, no water required.
• Water Baptism is a show of obedience to the person with faith. They desire and choose to be baptized because they believe in Christ and want to obey Him.
  

• Wouldn’t it be more consistent to say that circumcision of the heart is the NC circumcision to which the OC circumcision referred?
  • Physical circumcision was a symbol that pointed to spiritual circumcision, that is only done by God, not by human hands
  • Physical blessings vs greater spiritual blessings
    • The physical was temporary, the spiritual is much greater and everlasting
    • No need to shed your own blood for the spiritual circumcision
• Being circumcised on the 8th day, happened due to being in an OC household. Being circumcised of the heart on the first day (of rebirth), is done by God, upon being born into the family of God. One is done by man, to males, due to your natural birth, the other is done by God, to male or female, due to your supernatural rebirth.
  • The circumcision that God performs is greater, given that he doesn't wait eight days, but does it immediately (on the first day)
• Both practically and theologically we know that physical work on our part brings zero merit to the table for effectual grace. Only what God does remains
• The Abrahamic Covenant has two elements to it, a spiritual and a physical element. It has two aspects to it, of law (circumcision of the flesh, covenant of works) and of grace (promise of salvation, covenant of grace).
  • The spiritual elements and the grace aspect is continued and fulfilled in the NC, where it is only spiritual and grace
    • Spiritual does not mean its not material, as the New Universe will be material in nature, but it implies the blessings are received due to the spiritual realities of the promise
  • Those of faith, spiritual offspring, will receive the physical promises with Abraham, forever

• Why does the OT not determine who can baptize someone?
• In the OT women and groups of men circumcised people
• Heads of the household would circumcise their household 
• In the OT, circumcision was done by different people and only done to males

• If the Passover points to the Lord's Supper (communion), why only give communion to believers?
  • Paedocommunion is not biblical, as it could bring judgment/condemnation on the non-believing child
  • The Passover points to the Lord's Supper
• Communion requires self-reflection (self-examination) before partaking. It requires a heart (spiritual) change. The Passover did not.
• For the Presbyterian, if one gets the sign of the covenant, one should get the meal of the covenant
  • I’m grateful they are inconsistent

• What can be said of those in the NC? This passage defines the status of those in the New Covenant

• they all know the Lord
• All who are in the covenant are regenerated believers, so they cannot lose their salvation 
• When this comes to pass, certain things will happen. This is not something that comes in the eternal state, but happens prior to entering into eternity. Each member of the NC experiences this reality in this life
• They will have their sins forgiven
• Each will know the Lord and God will know each of them, in a covenant relationship because of Christ
Every regenerated believer can say they know God and God knows them, in a new covenant way, immediately, not some time in the distant future
• They enter the NC by being united to Christ by His Spirit

• Who is the mediator of those in the NC?
  • Christ perfectly meditates for His people, keeping peace between the two parties (God and man)
  • When Moses interceded, it was for the entire OC community at that time. The same applies for our Mediator, if you are in the NC community, Christ intercedes for you
New Covenant is the unconditional promise to procure and redeem every member by the blood of Christ, which cannot be broken by its participants, because He circumcises the heart of them all.

The author of Hebrews declares that those in the NC are forgiven of all their sins, now

• If Jesus’s baptism is an example for us, then notice how it happened 
  • Jesus is old enough to profess the desire/need for baptism 
  • He is submersed in the water, not sprinkled 
  • Joseph and Mary were not baptized before Jesus

• Should you baptize someone who is not a disciple of Christ?
• No, even John the Baptist required a profession from those he baptized 

• Are children of God in the NC made children by lineage or faith?
• It is by faith
• In the OC you could be a child of God, but be on your way to hell

• What is the continuity for John’s OC baptism in the NC?
• His required repentance 
• This is a direct pointer to the water baptism of Christianity, not an inference
• Direct lines are more consistent and solid than lines drawn via inference or silence
As Baptists, we should never use the argument, “I’m a baptist because John was a baptist.”
• Insinuating that because the name is in the Bible, that validates the position.
• The word Presbytery (for Presbyterian) and a word for Episcopal is also in the Bible (in Greek)
Baptism, by immersion, may also have its roots in the OT, with Naaman and Priests
• 2 Kings 5
• Leviticus 15-16

• Thes Gentiles were saved apart from being in the line of ethnic Israel 
• They were not baptized prior to being saved (or added to God’s family)
• People are made Christians even if their parents were not Christian and were not baptized 
• The right to be a child of God comes by faith, not parental lineage 
• The covenant of grace is for all those whom the Lord call to Himself
• The promise is not made to covenant children, but the elect of God (children of God)

• Who are your children baptized into?

For those who do not affirm paedo communion:

• Why does this text exclude Christian toddlers?
• What sacrament was withheld from an OT child of the covenant?
• They can come to the throne of grace with confidence, but not the Lord’s table?
  • This creates second-class participants of the NC
    

• Are your children born children of wrath first?

• If circumcision is the NT baptism, then this verse proves that all who are baptized are in Christ and already have salvation 
• So, if an infant is baptized, according to these verses, they were raised with Christ and their debt has been canceled
• The you are those in Christ
• These verses teach us that the believer has been baptized (immersed) as a symbol of Christ death on their behalf, because of faith, not parents
• These verses do not mention age, parents, or a household at all
Circumcision of the heart is the new covenant circumcision. The covenant sign and seal is regeneration (having the Holy Spirit)
• Because of John the Baptist, baptism finds continuity in the NC through Christian baptism
  • Both are for those who have repented
The language of sins being forgiven is an echo of the NC promise given in Jeremiah

• For Timothy coming to faith, his baptism is not mentioned as the means, but faith is mentioned 
• Infants can not be wise unto salvation, it is not normative or expected 
• The exceptions are Jesus and perhaps, John the Baptist. Paul says we are born children of wrath, not of God

• Who mediates for those in the NC

• Does the Bible ever speak about children that are not as a result of physical lineage?
• Yes. Child, children, etc can be used to speak of specialized offspring/seed
• We are sons by faith

• How can John say they were not of us, if there is a NC community that people are baptized into?
• This is why we should not show partiality, by only giving “certain” community members the Lord’s Supper
  • I don’t agree with paedo-communion, its dangerous, but it is a more consistent view of NC community membership
• This verse shows us that there is no distinction within the NC for those who are a part of it. The community does not include non-believers.
  • The strongest argument against this is false teachers, who come from within the church. But, even that agrees with the notion that they are not of us, in that they don’t have saving faith, but they are in the presence of the faithful. Being in a local church, does not mean you are in the NC community, faith determines it.
• The New Covenant members are not defined by physical descent, as the old covenant members were, but by God's writing his law on their heart and calling them to himself and bringing them to repentance and faith. — John Piper
  • In accord with this narrowing of the covenant people to those who are truly born of God, the new sign of the covenant is meant to signify that a person is indeed part of that new born covenant community, which is evident by faith.
  • In the same way that a change in the sign came in to allow both men and women to participate in the sign (baptism instead of circumcision), thus making it clearer than before that women and men are equal heirs of salvation (1 Peter 3:7), so also a change in the recipients of the sign came in to make it clearer that under the New Covenant the people of God are not determined at all by physical descent, but by spiritual transformation, evidenced in faith.
• The NC community
  • Has its mediator and intercessor as Christ
  • Will be raised on the last day to be with Jesus
  • Will never fall away from the faith
  • Are not barred from the sacraments (Baptism and Lord’s supper)
    • No second class citizens
  • Are regenerated
  • Are taught by God
  • Inherit the Kingdom of God
  • Are the household of God
  • Are a part of the holy nation

Historical Context

• The NC community was initially created when Christ ascended to His throne in heaven. That community (all those in heavenly Zion) being made known through Christ spiritual posterity on earth, and the glorified spirits in heaven.
  • Heb 12:22-24

• Adam and Eve were in the NC, but they did not enter it until after it was ratified by Jesus, namely when He ascended to the throne

• The NC was promised and being established since the fall. That all those who were sealed by the Spirit would be united to Christ, by grace. That covenant of grace was exposed in the Abrahamic and NC covenants.

• Adam and Eve were spiritual children of Abraham through Christ, who gave them the right to adoption (Gal 3:28). And they will receive all the promises of Abraham's offspring because of Christ.

• The NC promise is fulfilled in every generation (children's children) of the elect of God that builds up the church until Christ returns.
  • The NC is being fulfilled, it is not completely fulfilled until Christ returns (1 Thess. 4:13-18)

• Hebrew Israel vs Christian Israel, the Church is Israel continued
  • God would afflict and bring suffering on Hebrew Israel to punish them (Isa. 10, etc), whereas in the NC, God brings suffering upon Christian Israel for our good, to conform us to Christ (Rom. 8:28, Phil 1:29, etc)