The New Life by Andrew

Andrew Murray on The New Life: Words of God for Young Disciples Text
Eph 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
Tit 2:5 To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the
word of God be not blasphemed.
Tit 2:6 Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.
And all this rich blessing which lies in baptism is received by faith. 'He that believeth, and is baptized,
shall be saved.' Baptism was not only a confession on man's part of the faith that he who would be a
disciple already had, but equally on God's part a seal for the confirmation of faith, a covenant token in
which the whole treasury of grace lay open, to be enjoyed throughout life. As often as a baptized
believer sees a baptism administered, or reflects upon it, it is to be to him an encouragement to press
by an over-growing faith into the full life of salvation that the Three-One desires to work in him. The
Holy Spirit is given to appropriate within us all the love of the Father and all the grace of the Son. The
believing candidate for baptism is baptized into the death of Christ, has put on Christ: the Holy Spirit
is in him to give him all this as his daily experience. (Eph. 4:14,15; Col 2:16)
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with
every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait
to deceive;
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head,
even Christ:
Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of
the new moon, or of the sabbath days
Lord God, make Thy holy baptism always operative in my soul as the experience that I am baptized
into the death of Christ. And let Thy people everywhere understand by Thy Spirit what rich blessing
lies thrown open in the baptism of their children. Amen.
And what are we now to think of Infant Baptism? With the assurance that those who cleave only to
God's word, namely, the Baptists, will say to us: You cannot adduce a single passage in Scripture
where the baptism of little children is spoken of.
Our answer is that this is thoroughly taught us in Scripture, not indeed by separate texts, but by its
whole tenor. The reason why the Lord Jesus did not name children specially, was that this was
altogether unnecessary. From the time of Abraham onwards God had engrained it in His people, that
in His covenant He always reckoned parents and children together. He deals, not with separate
individuals alone, but with households: the faith of a father held good for the child, so long as the
child did not violate the covenant.
a. In Abraham, Isaac obtained part; in every father amongst the people of Israel his child obtained part
in the covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, to be a God unto thee, and thy seed
after thee.' (Gen. 17:7.)
Ge 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their
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