God's Covenants and Your Family

John Calvin once wrote that not having your children baptized would mean “we should gradually forget the promise which [God] has made to us on their behalf.” This truth of the inclusion of our children is at the heart of God’s covenants, and therefore at the heart of family worship. 

The biblical covenants are the skeletal structure around which the living flesh of Scripture’s story begins and culminates. We can hardly read the Bible apart from God’s covenants. God always relates to us by way of covenant. God through his covenants condescends to us, appoints a representative head, binds himself to us in love, holds forth promises conditioned on faith and obedience, threatens punishment for disobedience, and appoints a holy warfare against the devil as our testing ground. The goal is for man to learn to trust and obey God as our loving Creator and Father, imitating Him as his vice-kings and joining Him in Sabbath rest. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever (WSC Q&A 1), and He has appointed covenants as the way this will happen. 

All of the covenants of Scripture may be subsumed underneath two headings: The Covenant of Works or Life in Adam, and the Covenant of Grace in Christ (See WLC Q&A 20, 30). Adam miserably failed in his covenant obligations. He listened to the voice of Eve who in turn listened to the deceit of Satan. This is the fall of mankind into sin. Ever since, an inherent distrust of God permeates the heart of every person, the poisonous lie breathed by the Serpent deeply lodged into the psyche of all the unregenerate: “Did God really say? He is a liar who wants to take away what only I can give you.” What to do with this tragic reality? 

The answer, again, is found in God’s covenant of grace, where He graciously gives in Christ that which he required in Adam. There’s a historical progression in this covenant, from the first gospel announcement in Genesis 3:15 through every divine covenant thereafter, culminating in our Lord’s words at the Last Supper: “This […] is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). How does all of this relate to family worship? 

The corollary truth to God’s covenants mentioned at the top by Calvin is that He always includes entire families. Adam’s sin brought curse to the entire human family, along with his own. Noah’s salvation included his household. Abraham is commanded to include sons in the covenant via circumcision. Israelite families came out of Egypt and appeared before God in worship. David’s sons were legitimate heirs of his covenant. The New Covenant operates the same way. There are no less than 8 places in the Old Testament where Yahweh promises to include the children of believers in the New Covenant. The New Testament confirms this, for every time the children of believers are explicitly mentioned they are recognized as visible members of the kingdom, baptized, visible members of the local church, and thus heirs of the vast promises and solemn requirements which the Lord Christ imposes on his people. 

But again, how does this relate to family worship? 

We as individuals must believe and obey, yet this does not happen atomistically. When God saves a man or woman, they bring their children with them into the covenant because of God’s promise and command. Christian parent, consider the magnitude of the covenant promise: God promises to be the God of your children as he is to you. Donald McLeod puts it rather provocatively: 
‘I will be your God.’ What does that mean? It means that God is saying to Abraham, ‘I
will be for you. I will exist for you. I will exercise my God-ness for you. I will be
committed to you.’ There is no way that can be improved upon! There is no more
glorious promise: not in Romans, not in Hebrews, not in Revelation, not in the Gospel of
John, not in the Upper Room: nowhere! These words of the Abrahamic covenant have
never been excelled and never will.

Does this not cause you to “rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8)? Family worship, then, is one of God’s appointed means or instruments through which He fulfills that promise and draws your children to Christ. This is not ‘automatic’ salvation, since visible inclusion in the church doesn’t necessitate that all those baptized are saved. Moses expounded this better than any in Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things,” i.e. election, true regeneration, infallible salvation, “belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed,” i.e. the covenant promise, sacraments, and family worship, “belong to us and to our children.”

How does this play out practically? 

First, it means you submit your children to baptism. It is here that God puts the name of Christ upon them and declares His promises concerning them to you and the church. It is here that you swear an oath to be faithful to your charge and the church affirms her support of you in this endeavor. This event is the gate through which you enter covenant family life, your ‘amen’ to God’s promise concerning your children.

Second, it means that you daily trust and obey. You do not save your children - God does. Yet, you humbly recognize that He intends to use you in their salvation. This has formal and informal dimensions, but the overall goal is for us to train our children to think, feel, and act as becomes a sincere Christian. The goal is not a conversion experience necessarily, but rather the fruits of conversion shown forth in their daily living with a self-discerned faith, eventually professed to the Church and lived by consistently at the Table. 

Third (and finally), it means that you are never alone. The Triune God is with you: the Father has promised, the Son has purchased, the Spirit has pledged. The universal church is with you: we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church (which includes children!). The Kirk Presbyterian is with you: in all her encouragement, prayer, preaching, counsel, and friendships. 

God’s covenants are at the heart of redemption, and therefore at the heart of family worship. John Calvin quoted at the top continued: “For it is no small spur to make us nurture them in true piety and obedience to God when we understand that, from their birth, the Lord has given them a place among his people, that they may be members of his church. Let us not therefore refuse our Lord’s great kindness, but boldly present our children to him.” Amen!