One thing conservative and Christian people do a lot these days is talk about how over several generations evil has progressed. It seems evil is growing stronger in our culture, year by year right now. Darkness is getting darker and covering more ground. Things that were once unthinkable and even illegal are now celebrated in public schools, public libraries, and elsewhere, even with young children. There is no question that evil, left unchecked, can grow across generations.
But what we must not forget is that righteousness can grow and progress across generations as well. In fact, this is God‘s design for his people. God intends for the light to overcome and drive out the darkness. God’s purpose is for the righteous to make greater progress than the wicked over the course of history. God‘s core covenant promise, “I will be a God to you and your children,” is a promise to grow his kingdom across generations throughout history so that the righteous prevail.
We baptize our children into the faith and into the kingdom with the expectation that they will carry on the fight and carry forward the mission of the church. We baptize them with the expectation that they will become a terror to the enemies of Christ. Psalm 144 says covenant sons are like mighty plants, growing strong, and tall; covenant daughters are beautiful, carved pillars, and a palace full of glory. Psalm 127 describes covenant children as arrows in the hand of a warrior as he contends with his enemies at the city gate. The baptism os a covenant child is way of claiming these promises.
G and M bring R baptism today, trusting that he is not a broken stick lying by himself on the ground, but a branch on a great covenant tree, full of life and sure to bear fruit. He comes from a long line of faithful kingdom servants and will continue that line. He is proof that, while evil might grow over generations at times, righteousness does too. Each new generation of covenant children is a sign of hope for the future, a sign that God has not given up on his church.
Our expectation is that R will grow up never knowing a day when he didn’t love and trust the Lord Jesus; that he will grow into a great and mighty warrior for God‘s kingdom; that he will fight manfully under the banner of the cross against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and that he will be part of extending God‘s kingdom and the mission of the church in a new generation. R is a son of the covenant, a strong and mighty plant in the garden of God. G and M, will you now take these vows on his behalf…..
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