I revisited James 1:13 as part of my discussion on desire today. It struck me that in that debate, we need to pay attention to what James says about how desire conceives and gives birth to sin which grows into death. That statement should make us sit up and think carefully about what is going on. Would James be saying, and would the reformers be understanding him to be saying that a believer’s sin would put them back in the place of death again. If so, how? I start to think that through in this video.
But a little bit of a spin off from that is the question I then raise and it’s one I think that needs picking up and discussing more (so comments are open).
In the video I suggest that there has been an increasing confusion about what baptism does among paedobaptists with the view pushed increasingly that the baby is baptized because they really do have faith and do belong to the covenant people fully. It’s not that they are potentially in, they are in
This opens up questions, big questions about the basis for their inclusion in God’s people and from there raises further questions about regeneration and do we fully grasp what it is. This seems to me to link to some of the confusion around distinctions between regenerate and unregenerate when it comes to indwelling sin. It also raises the questions to whether those growing up under such a belief system will ever be called to repentance and to truly encounter the Gospel.
It is worth saying that baptists are not free from concern here. I wonder if pushing people to a profession event can lead to us seeing external professions that don’t reflect the inner reality. We can also baptise unregenerate people and fail to offer them the true grace of the Gospel.
What are your thoughts?
Faithroots 