Little babies.
You cuddle them. You make funny faces at them. And you clean them. Regularly. Baths and more baths.
When the washing is over and the infant is dressed, there is nothing that could seem more pure. The world is evil. Babies are innocent.
Not in God’s eyes.
They would have been innocent had their parents been innocent. Just like they would have had lighter skin if their parents had lighter skin. Sin is like something genetic. Sin and guilt are passed down automatically from father and mother to child. Not that we are punished for the sin of someone else. A baby does not have the skin of someone else. It is genetic, but it is his own skin. And it is our own sin.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Flesh gives birth to flesh” (John 3:6). Nothing earth-shattering. Sinful flesh gives birth to sinful flesh. David repeats the truth. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).
To look into the eyes of a newborn is to look into the eyes of a sinner. To look into the eyes of a newborn is to look into the eyes of an enemy of God. “The sinful mind is hostile to God” (Romans 8:7). To be sinful and hostile is to deserve eternal punishment. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). To be sinful and hostile and deserving of eternal death is to be in trouble. Babies are in trouble.
God helps people in trouble. He so loved the sinful world that he sent his Son to die for the sins of all, including babies. It is by grace that people are saved, through faith, including babies. And this faith is not of ourselves. It is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8). Given to adults. Given also to babies.
Babies are in trouble. Yet for a baby to trust in Jesus is for the baby to be saved. Can a baby really trust in Jesus?
If faith was our own human work requiring the ability to express a conscious decision in words, there’s no way a baby could be saved. But if faith is a gift of God, a miracle that God works, there is nothing to prevent God from working faith in an infant.
What interests us is how. How does God work such faith? What tools does God use to save?
One of God’s tools is baptism, “baptism that now saves you also . . . It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21). One of God’s tools is baptism. “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). One of God’s tools is baptism. “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26-27).
Clothed with Christ. Made part of Christ’s body. Saved.
There is help for babies in trouble.
Born guilty. Saved by faith through baptism.