Worry and Guilt

One of the hardest things, as a Christian parent, is the future salvation of our children's souls. Oh and how Satan loves to torment faithful parents.

"Did God REALLY say..."

Satan loves to distort God's promises and cause confusion. We know that when a child is Baptized his sins are forgiven, his guilt removed, and the Holy Spirit granted for faith and strengthening day to day. Baptism now saves you.

"Did God REALLY say..."

But how easy it becomes to doubt GOD rather than man when a child goes astray. How could Baptism REALLY save when your child has now gone astray, left the church, and is living the life of a heathen?

This is why we have many churches today that do not see Baptism as salvific. People are confused. If it really saved then people could not go stray. And if people cannot go astray than we are slaves of a supposedly loving God. So, instead, people must choose salvation for themselves. And once they do they are saved for good. And if they go stray then they were not really saved, they had not REALLY made the choice in the first place. Therefore they have saved the dilemma, they have rescued God.

But the problem is not with God. It is with you.

God really did say that Baptism saves you.  "Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,"
(1 Peter 3:21 ESV)

But God also did say people can be given over to sin even after knowing God.  "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things."
(Romans 1:21-23 ESV)

It's funny. People do not want to be slaves of God, forced into salvation, but it also makes them uncomfortable that they perceive "Baptism now saves you" as a potential lie when it may very well not save you. They wish it would, completely, and without ability for one to fall away.

But we do not serve a dictator who imprisons His people. The problem is not with God and His promises, it is with you. With sin. With the world and with the Devil. And the Devil would LOVE for you to think it is with God. But point the finger where it is due, the master of lies himself, that bastard Satan.

Baptism does save you: completely. And it saves your children too. But what you fear is the devil, the world, and your child's flesh. And rightly so. They are strong to destroy.

And so we pray. We pray and we cling to God's promises given in Baptism, His Holy Word, Confession and Absolution, and the Lord's Supper.

And if a child goes astray, we grieve, we acknowledge with sorrow the power in this life of sin and death, but we rejoice in a Heavenly Father who loves us and our children far more than we ever could  and grieves their loss far more than we do and we wait with all prayers and hope that their hearts may not be hardened for good and that the Holy Spirit given them in their baptisms will indeed turn their wayward hearts back to the Lord Jesus before the wonderful day of Christ's return.

Lord have mercy and Come Soon Lord Jesus!