Meditation on the Text of the Week

Here I See My Father and My Mother . . .

And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
Galatians 3: 28

When we were tyros, setting out on the grand march of life, we were amongst those who had conveniently swallowed the great humanist illusion that our day was the high point of human achievement, insight, and wisdom. Our generation was the biggest, the brightest and the best.

Having been converted to the Christian faith relatively early on, we had foolishly brought our humanist arrogance into our understanding of the faith. We were completely unaware of how many unbelieving assumptions were actually shading and blotting our understanding of Christ and His redemption. We were, in a word, Cartesians. We thought that the ultimate reality in our limited world was our own believing heart.

But, thankfully, the Lord was not finished with us. As time passed we came to understand that the world was not about us; that faith was not grounded in our human hearts; and that God and His creation did not turn around us, but that we turn around God. We eventually understood that life was for the glory of God, not for the glory of man.

We came to understand that our personal faith was grounded in God's gracious election in Christ from the foundation of the world. We eventually understood that personal faith was not a function of our rationalisms but was a gift from God. With Augustine, we reached the point where we saw that we first of all believed in order to understand anything properly and correctly. We also came to understand that we had been grafted in to a long line of redemption. Our in-grafting meant that we had inherited the structures and paradigms of redemption which the Lord had first established with our (new) fathers.

It was around about at this point that we came to see and believe one of the most wonderful truths in Scripture—that we had inherited God's promises to Abraham, because in Christ we had been declared to be Abraham's offspring or descendants—and that, therefore, we had inherited the same promises that God had made to our father, Abraham.

Upon us, therefore, rested the great promise, first made to Abraham, but now in Christ, made to us as well—that God promised to be God to our children, even as He had become to us. The great promise of Genesis 17:7—first made to Abraham, but now also to us—dawned refulgently upon us.

And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.

Now time has moved on and our descendants are walking before Him, even as He promised. Their children are now being born to take their place in the vanguard of the long line of redemption. Two of our grandchildren were recently baptised, which gave us cause to reflect upon the promises of God which we have inherited in Christ, our Lord. Unable to be present at the occasion, we wrote the following to one of our sons:

Dear whanau

We have not enjoyed knowing that we would miss the baptism of your wonderful children—but we are sure that it would have been a blessed time.

There are two special aspects of being able to baptise your children that have become more and more important to us as we have thought about them over the years. We hope they will be so for you as well.

The first is that baptism, being God's sign as commanded by Him, says something about God's relationship to each one of your children. It is a great blessing to know that the first and most important relationship which your children enjoy is the one already established by God with them. Before even you knew your children, God knew and loved them. Knowing that your children belong to Him is a great comfort—and when times get difficult, remembering that the sign of God's love and loyalty to them has been placed upon each one of your children can fill us with faith and hope.

The second is that baptism is a great foundation to teach your children just how special and loved they are. To be baptised is a sign that your children are special in God's eyes and that they belong to Him. As kids grow, wise parents will often remind them of just how special they are, and will use the fact of their baptism as a proof and evidence. This may not be so vital now, but when they enter the pre-teen years and begin to wonder who they are, and what they are, and where they fit in the world, you can use the fact of their baptism to remind them of their calling and true significance in this world as honoured servants of the Lord.

Children, and more so pre-teens, and even more so teens need to know they are special and loved people—not just special to you as parents, but more importantly, special and loved in the sight of God. And baptism which is based upon God's promise to be God to you and to your children after you, is His outward sign that this is true.

It is also a great foundation to teach your children their distinct responsibilities and duties to love God and live for Him. Privilege brings responsibility of course, so baptism—reflecting such great privilege—brings great responsibilities. You probably have not faced it yet, but as your children grow and begin to become more conscious of themselves and of you as their parents, they will contrast and compare your family with others that they have come to know—as you once did so many years ago. They will see differences. “Why do we do this, when so-and-so's family don't? Why are we different?”

Such questions are great questions—and it is wonderful to be able to tell our children that our family is different because each one of us belongs to God, and we know this because He has made promises to us and has put His sign of baptism upon each one of us.

Sorry, once again, to miss this special day—but it brings us great joy—and we know that it will to you as well.

We love you so much—and with the Apostle John we declare that we have no greater joy than this but to hear that our children are walking in the truth.