He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.
Deuteronomy 32:4
It’s interesting to me where our conversation goes at times as we meet from week to week. The question of infant salvation was not a topic I planned to discuss in our Bible study a couple of weeks ago. I’m not even sure how we arrived at the question! And yet, the question came up: does God save babies? We want to deal with every question faithfully and base our answer not on opinion or feeling but upon the word of God. Please pray with me as we meet weekly that God would grant wisdom and reveal His truth to us!
Before we can deal with this question of infant salvation, we must first consider whether or not babies even need to be saved. Humanly speaking, do we have a better picture of innocence? When the Lord teaches what we must be to enter His kingdom, doesn’t He say we must become as little children? (Mt 18:3) But as much as we would like to have an “age of accountability” defined by the word of God, the truth is that the Scripture is silent concerning such a thing. In fact, the word of God is clear that, from the beginning, even babies are sinners!
In Rom 3:23 we read, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” The word “all” in that verse is a pretty broad term! It means just what it appears to mean. Every single descendent of Adam is a transgressor regardless of his age. Rom 5:12 explains that when Adam fell in sin, more was affected than simply his residency in the garden of Eden: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…” The entire human race was cast into sin from that point, and with that sin came death for “the wages of sin is death”. (Rom 6:23) The reason man dies is because he’s a sinner. The reason the Lord Jesus rose again and death could not hold Him was because He was the only sinless man! He was an unlawful captive of death! If babies weren’t guilty sinners, then every child that died at birth would have to be resurrected even as Christ was!
David, an individual described as a man after God’s own heart (Ac 13:22), makes an amazing statement in Ps 51:5: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.” Is David saying the circumstances of his conception were sinful? Absolutely not! He describes his mother as God’s maidservant in Ps 86:16. No, David was talking about the state of his own heart, not simply at birth, but at the very point of conception! In Ps 58:3, listen to how he describes man at birth: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” Men don’t grow up to be wicked. They are born that way!
So, if a child is spiritually dead as soon as he has physical life, what hope does that child have of salvation prior to being able to confess with his mouth and believe in his heart on the Lord? (Rom 10:9) That child has the same hope the rest of us have–a God who is “mighty to save”! (Is 63:1) If salvation is solely a work of man, we have great reason to be in distress concerning the souls of children that die in the womb or early in life. But if salvation is a work of a sovereign God, that unborn child has great hope!! Thank God that those that are saved are described as having been “born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (Jn 1:13) “Salvation is of the LORD”! (Jon 2:9) God can give a child spiritual life before he is ever born for it was said of John the Baptist that he was filled with the Holy Ghost while in the womb and leapt within his mother when the name of Christ was spoken! (Jn 1:15, 41)
I have a great hope for babies that are ushered into eternity because I have a great God! When David sinned with Bathsheba, one of the consequences of that sin was that their newborn child died. David grieved and fasted, crying out to the Lord as the child lay sick, but when the child died, he got up, washed his face, and ate. Why? Because David had the hope of being united with that child in heaven! “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” (2 Sam 12:23) The bottom line is that God will do right with all men. As our original text states, “He is the Rock, His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without injustice; Righteous and upright is He.” (Deut 32:4) I don’t have to worry about the eternal fate of babies because I know that God will do right! David knew the goodness and the greatness of God. He knew God could save anyone, anywhere, at any time. Let’s tell the world about our mighty Savior! “…there is no other God besides Me, A just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me. Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” (Is 45:21-22)
Jamie