Jesus: The Elect Infant(s)
Luke-Acts, vol. I: The King of Jubilee
Jesus: The Elect Infant(s)
Scripture Readings
OT: Isaiah 65:17–23
Ps: 25
NT: Revelation 20:11–21:7
Gospel: Luke 1:5-45 (selected verses)
Communion: 2 Samuel 12:15-23
OT Lesson - Isaiah 65:17–23
[17] “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth,
and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.
[18] But be glad and rejoice forever
in that which I create;
for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,
and her people to be a gladness.
[19] I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and be glad in my people;
no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping
and the cry of distress.
[20] No more shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not fill out his days,
for the young man shall die a hundred years old...
[21] They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
[22] They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
[23] They shall not labor in vain
or bear children for calamity,
for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD,
and their descendants with them.
Psalm 25 - Chanted
NT Lesson - Revelation 20:11–21:7
[11] Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. [12] And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. [13] And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. [14] Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. [15] And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
…
[1] Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. [2] And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. [3] And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. [4] He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
[5] And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Gospel Lesson - Luke 1:5–45 (select verses)
[5] In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. [6] They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord, [7] but they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
[8] While Zechariah was serving as priest before God…there appeared to him an angel of the Lord [who] said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. [14] And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, [15] for he will be great before the Lord.
[24] [When Zechariah’s time of service ended, he went to his home, and] his wife Elizabeth conceived, [but] for five months she kept herself hidden.
[26] In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, [27] to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. [28] And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” … behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus…And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. [37] For nothing will be impossible with God.”
[39] In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, [40] and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. [41] And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, [42] and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! [43] And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? [44] For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray with me.
Prayer for Illumination
Guide us, O God, by your Word and Spirit, so that in your light we may see light, in your truth find wisdom, and in your will discover peace. Add Your blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the preaching of Your Word, and grant us all the grace to trust and obey You, and all God’s people said, “Amen.”
For the Kids
Well, as you can tell, today’s service is a little different than normal, as we gather with our brothers and sisters across the country to worship God and intercede for the life of the world on what has come to be called Sanctity of Life Sunday or Anti-abortion day of the Lord.
One of the many blessings you kids receive by being in worship with us is that you get to grow up hearing and learning to think like grownups, which means that sometimes you hear words and ideas at church that you normally wouldn’t hear or talk about any other time were it not for your pastors making you ask questions that make your parents nervous to answer.
Now, we try to be careful how we talk about these things and the words we use so that if something is too mature for someone, it’s able to go in one ear and out the other, but one of the principles we’ve used in parenting our kids is that if they’re old enough to ask questions about it, they’re old enough to talk about it with us.
We know some parents take a different approach and think they’re protecting their kids by not talking about scary, sad, or even scandalous things until they’re in the mid to late teens, but I tend to think that’s an approach that is more psychology based than Scripture-based.
We live in such a different world now than has been true for most of history, and things that would have been normal to see and experience in everyday life are now considered too traumatizing to even talk about. But rather than make better, stronger, more emotionally healthy people, we’re more fragile and more unstable than ever.
This morning we are going to be talking about something very heavy, very sad, and very real for many people, but the hope is that by talking about these things in public, some of you will be more willing to at least talk in private and therefore not have to suffer in silence.
I already have one appointment setup to help a family talk to their children about these very things, so if you’d like help yourself or for one of them, please let me or one of the other officers know.
I understand that if you haven’t talked about these kinds of things, it might be a bit intimidating at first, but if we weren’t living such a historical anomaly, you would have already been forced through this topic literally dozens of times in the last ten years or so.
I had Ruth run the numbers, and we have 111 kids under 12 years old.
That means that 200 years ago, before widespread vaccinations (1950s - 1980), before antibiotics (1928) and fever reducing medications (1899), before pasteurized milk (1880s), and before the germ theory of disease was finally embraced (1860s), we would only have about 55 of our 111 kids still with us.
Try to imagine that.
If I did our normal routine and asked every kid under 12 to raise their hand, that means half of those palms, half of those knobby knees, half of those twinkling eyes would be in a coffin rather than sitting with us this morning.
Now, I don't necessarily say all of that because of how nauseous the growing movement of people wanting to go back to how things used to be makes me - I would be child and likely wifeless were that our philosophy, but that’s not my point.
I am simply pointing that of the 97 infant baptisms we’ve had in the past six years, we would have already had to bury over 40 of them, because I want to point out that we are in a highly convenient time period to be able to avoid dealing with such immense grief that was normal to most of our forefathers.
Instead of talking about this topic when it comes up in the Scriptures, which is relatively rare, or every once in a while on anti–abortion day of the Lord, our little church would have to ask and answer the question, 6-7 times every year, “Where is my baby?”
Now, I know many of you have asked that question of me in private, and probably many more of you have had to wrestle through it all alone, so this morning, I want to try and help give an answer to that question for you all by first, taking a little walk through history to see how pastors from various traditions have tried to provide comfort to their people, albeit with extra biblical answers to avoid contradicting their systems, and then I want to walk through the Scriptures to see that God’s Word and character gives us far more comfort than any man-made system could, ultimately seeing that in God’s election of His Son, particularly in His conception, life, death, resurrection, and ascension, those who have had to, are having to right now, and will have to say goodby to one of their beloved children too soon can know they’ll be with their babies again.
Introduction
So, first, I want to take a little walk through history to examine a few different traditions’ attempts to answer this very real question in way they think is consistent with their theological system and yet still able to give comfort to their people.
There have been basically 3-4 approaches that Christians have taken to try and help answer this question.
The Eastern Church has by and large not even attempted to provide an answer, as they simply leave all mysterious things, particularly things the Church Fathers disagree about, up to the grace and mercy of God, which to a degree I can appreciate, but as far as the Western Church has been concerned, the historical flow has gone roughly along the lines of 1) the doctrine of limbo; 2) the idea of an age of reason or age of accountability, 3) certainty that all Christian babies are with Jesus, and 4) tentative hope in God’s sovereign grace in the election of some babies.
One of the first attempts to try and answer this difficult question was the doctrine of limbo, which is different from purgatory.
You see the idea of purgatory coming up relatively early in the Church.
Remember, for most of Church history everything we said about baptism last week, all that stuff about believing that something actually happens at the moment of baptism, that baptism saves and unites the recipient to Christ and cleanses them of their sins was simply accepted as true because of all the bible verses that plainly say as much.
Now, the formulations around the efficacy of baptism have been modified and tightened up in various traditions over time, but for the ancient church, it was no problem to echo the Bible’s language and confess what we sing almost every week, “We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins.”
So, for a Church who believes there is no such thing as an unbaptized Christian, the answer to the question of what happens when baptized people, including babies, die is simple - they all go to heaven, eventually.
They may have to be further purified in purgatory to cleanse them from the sins they committed after their original cleansing, but if you’ve been baptized, if you’ve been born of water and of the Spirit, you eventually get to be in the full presence of Christ in glory everlasting.
But I’m sure you can already hear the dilemma that arises when you restrict God’s means of saving grace to the moment of baptism, particularly in a world where there aren’t enough priests to go around and so many infants die before being baptized.
Sure, all baptized Christians, even baptized babies go to heaven because they’ve been saved and cleansed and made ready to enter God’s presence, but what do you tell parents whose baby dies before they’re able to get them baptized?
Well, if you’re Augustine, God is just and He is sovereign and in control over everything, including them not getting baptized, so for him it’s relatively simple: the baby hasn’t been cleansed from the original sin we all inherited from Adam, and therefore unbaptized infants are definitely not in heaven.
And while they may not be undergoing excruciating torment, they are still experiencing the mildest sufferings of Hell.
Now, again, if you restrict God’s saving grace to the ordinary means of grace in baptism, you can see how you might feel required to believe something like that if you want to stay consistent to what you believe to be the teaching of Scripture that is consistent with your theological system.
Understandably though, even for the most hardcore sacramentalist, the thought of infants suffering for eternity, no matter how mild, isn’t merely impalpable, it doesn’t seem to fit with the Bible’s overarching teaching that our God is a God who extends His grace and mercy and love not only to parents but also to their children.
But, to them it was also clear that baptism is effectual, and the babies weren’t baptized, and nothing unclean can enter into the presence of God, so….enter the doctrine of limbo.
You can imagine a pastoral visit in the 12th and 13th centuries going something like, “Don’t worry, mother, father; we know your baby isn’t in heaven because you couldn’t get him to a priest in time, and yes, I know what St. Augustine said, but Mr. Abelard and St. Aquinas are here to comfort you that your baby isn’t in Hell but rather is in limbo - oh, we know you’ve never heard of that, but God would never send the infants of one of his children to Hell. They won’t be in the full presence of God because they do still have original sin and weren’t cleansed, but they are in a state of blessed happiness as close as you can get to the edges of heaven w/o being fully in.”
Now, we may think that’s crazy because we’re almost a thousand years removed from the historical moment, and we’re all Protestants, but that was the attempt of guys with a high view of the sacraments and the holiness of God doing their best to comfort parents who were experiencing such terrible grief at a rate unknown to most, if not all, of us.
Thankfully, limbo never became an official teaching of the Church, but the Church really was in a tough spot because they had so rigidly embraced some bible verses to the exclusion of others.
But any time you embrace some Scripture but not all of it, you have to come up with answers that aren't in Scripture if you want to keep your system intact, so their unbiblical answer to this very hard question was limbo, but if you reject limbo, the question still needs answering.
Well, after some guys in the Church started spreading the idea that grace was a kind of substance and the sacraments were God’s means of infusing grace into worthy recipients, the question remained, now not just of babies before infancy but for all children dying w/o being able to receive God’s grace in the Lord’s Supper.
You see, the modern practice of denying communion to baptized children is more akin to the Church of the late middle ages who believed that children weren’t capable of comprehending the mystery of the Eucharist, and therefore they ought not to partake of the bread and wine.
But if baptism is the means of initial grace and if the Lord’s Supper is God’s means of nourishing grace, then now you don’t just have a problem w/unbaptized babies - now you have kids getting grace but not continuing in it, so what about them?
Well, if the Lord’s Supper is about rightly comprehending your sin and the mysteries of the gospel, then the priest has to make a call as to when he thinks a child is old enough to do that.
So, in the Western Church, during the 14th century or so you get something called an “Age of Reason,” which in American Revivalism would become the “Age of Accountability.”
It’s a little complicated, but essentially, infants were baptized to wash away their original sin, and until they reached the “Age of Reason,” a child could not be guilty of committing high-handed, mortal sins, or sins that separate a person from God and lead to damnation if unrepented of.
So, the reasoning went, we don’t know what happens to babies exactly, but we do know that a child is incapable of true and right belief sometime between the ages of 7-12, so, don’t worry mom and dad, you can take comfort that you might see you little one again, but you should probably pray for them just to be sure.
A bad answer, sure, but an answer attempting to bring comfort to parents while keeping their theological system intact.
Related to, but very different from, the “Age of Reason” explanation is probably what most of us are more familiar with, and that’s the “Age of Accountability.”
This idea developed in more revivalist and baptistic traditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, not so much to comfort parents who have lost children but because of a systematic shift in belief about how people get saved.
While the first 1500 years of the Church tied salvation to receiving grace in the act of receiving the sacraments, the Church had become so corrupt that the anabaptists wanted nothing to do with that system.
For them the Church should only be filled with believers, so they rejected infant baptism, rebaptized adults that professed faith, and then waited until unbaptized children could prove they believed before baptizing them into the Church.
Now, again, perhaps you can already tell where this theological system creates problems when trying to answer the question of what happens to my children who die before being baptized.
Just like restricting God’s saving grace to the sacraments creates problems, so too does restricting God’s saving grace to those who are able to prove they have repented and believed.
If there is no such thing as an unbaptized Christian and now my kids are having to wait until they’re teenagers, and 50-60% of kids die before 12, now what?
Well, if you were totally off the rails, the answer was pretty easy - all kids are still innocent until they reach the age, not of reason bc we’re not Catholic, but the age of…uh…the age of accountability, yeah, that’s it.
So, to comfort anabaptist parents whose kids died before being able to make a credible profession of faith, pastors reassured them that they needn’t worry because they hadn’t reached the age of accountability.
And that’s fine and good comfort if you reject the idea of original sin and prevenient grace, but if you were a more Calvinistic anabaptist, now you were in a real pickle because you rightly believed that all children are born in sin, but you don’t believe that the children of believers are to be numbered with the holy people of God, so what do you do?
If you’re a medieval church heretic, you’ve got limbo.
If you’re a Roman Catholic heretic, you’ve got the Age of Reason and purgatory.
And if you’re a pelagian heretic, you’ve got child innocence child, not great options, obviously but genuine attempts to offer comfort to grieving parents.
But what do you do if you’ve stolen the bits of Luther and Calvin who stole from Augustine who all stole from Paul who taught that no one is righteous, no not one, all are born in sin, none is righteous no not one, and that God predestines and elects some people unto salvation from eternity past, but you’ve also stolen from the anabaptist tradition who taught that you couldn’t possibly be regenerated without confessing and believing the gospel in your own individual heart?
Well, to keep that system intact, the best theologically consistent hope your system can offer is God’s mysterious and sovereign election for at least some though perhaps not all infants and children of believing parents.
If you’re in that tradition, the best pastoral comfort you can offer your people and remain consistent is, “God is just; your child was born in sin; and if your child is elect, then we can trust they are with Jesus.”
Now, is that technically correct? Sure.
God is just and whatever He does is right. Full stop.
If they’re correct, and if some babies and preteens who die before being baptized or making a credible profession of faith are elect and others aren’t, and that’s what God’s word teaches, then we would be remiss to teach anything else.
And the same would be true for limbo and the age of reason and age of accountability - if that’s what God revealed about Himself and the nature of salvation in His Word, then we’d side with God and not men.
But what if those systems are wrong and the Bible teaches something else?
What if God’s grace isn’t restricted to the sacraments, and what if God chooses to save people apart from their making and maintaining a credible profession of faith?
Well, our tradition says that if that’s the case, then we have to reject any and every theological system that would teach something different and stick to God’s revelation to us in His Word and supremely in His Word as He is perfectly revealed to us in His Son.
Our contention is that Christian parents need not worry whether they’ll be reunited with they’re unbaptized babies or children dying in childhood because God has always loved, not just His children but His children’s children, and His promise to extend His saving grace to those children is something He proves over and over again.
Let me read from one of our confessions, Article 17 of the Canons of Dordt, which were written in 1618, about 100 years after the Reformation.
“Since we must make judgments about God’s will from his Word, which testifies that the children of believers are holy, not by nature but by virtue of the gracious covenant in which they together with their parents are included, godly parents ought not to doubt the election and salvation of their children whom God calls out of this life in infancy.”
What’s more, one of our other confessions, the Westminster Confession of Faith reiterates this and expands the salvation of the children of believers not only to their children who die in infancy but to what they called incapables - children of believers who are incapable of hearing and receiving and responding to the gospel in a supposedly credible way, whatever that means.
From chapter 10 of the Confession:
Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit, who works when, and where, and how He pleases: so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. - WCF 10.3
Now, we hear that phrase elect infants and elect incapables and wonder how that’s any different from the Calvinistic anabaptists, but it’s different because it assumes, along with Dort, that the children of believers are all elect, all made holy, not because of anything in them but because God has always included the children of believers in the covenant of grace.
We do not believe the covenant of grace started with Jesus, but even if it did, why would that covenant of grace be less gracious than any of the covenants that came before Jesus?
Bible Instruction
All the way back to the first covenant God made with Adam and Eve, the children of believers were included with their parents.
You know the story, God created Adam and Eve in a state of innocence, and told them to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, you know, with babies.
After their fall into sin, we don’t only see their children inheriting Adam’s sin nature; we see their children being included in God’s promises of salvation.
It was through the offspring of Adam and Eve that God would crush the head of that old serpent, Satan.
Sure, Cain rejected that grace, and killed his brother Abel, but Seth was saved, and God’s means of keeping His promises to Adam and Eve continued to and through every generation up to Christ.
Noah and his family were included in God’s plan of salvation, and God said to Noah and his sons:
Genesis 9:9
“Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you,”
And that covenant with Noah and his children and his children’s children extended all the way to and through Abraham.
For likewise, God made a covenant with Abraham and his offspring:
Genesis 17:7–8
[7] And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. [8] And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings…and I will be their God.”
God made this promise to Abraham before his son Isaac was born, and from the moment Isaac was conceived, Abraham and Sarah knew God had chosen their pre-born son to be the one through whom He would keep His promises.
So confident was Abraham in God’s promise that even in the face of his son’s impending death, he knew God would provide a sacrifice for him.
To the wilderness generation, God declared:
Deuteronomy 7:9
“Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations.”
In every covenantal dispensation, God’s covenant, personal love extended not just to adult believers but also to their children.
David sang of God’s love toward him, not just as a grown man who by faith slayed God’s enemies or even as a young boy who by faith killed that old serpent Goliath but even as an infant.
David sang of this covenantal love in Psalm 22:
[9] Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
[10] On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
And in another Psalm, 139, David described the same kind of intimate relationship with God as God Himself described as having with another chosen servant, Jeremiah, whom he’d known even from the womb:
Jeremiah 1:5
[5] “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
That phrase consecrated you that sounds so Old Covenant could be translated as sanctified you or set you apart or made you holy, is the same word in the New Covenant that Paul uses to describe the covenantal status of children of even one believing parent.
You’ve heard it 97 times in the past 6 years:
“just as the Apostle Paul wrote that all of God’s children were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea and were baptized into Moses, so too did he declare that the children of believers are to be numbered with the holy people of God, calling them, here it is: “saints.”
Exhortation
So, Beloved, when we tell you that you can be confident, you can know that God loves you and extends His love to your children, even the children in your womb, we aren’t telling you that merely to give you comfort or to keep some theological framework intact.
We are giving you that comfort because that wonderful, covenantal comfort is the comfort that God’s faithful have always had.
New Covenant parents should have no less comfort for their children than Old Covenant parents.
Sure, God’s grace is and should be bestowed on your children in baptism, but His grace is not restricted to that moment.
And sure, God’s grace is for those who repent and believe and make credible professions of faith, but His grace isn’t held back until that moment either.
God’s covenantal grace is for you and your children, before their profession, before their baptism, and before they ever even make it out of your womb, and we need look no further than God’s election of His own son in His mother’s womb for you to know that He chose to save your child in yours.
I couldn’t say it better than Saint Irenaeus, who wrote in the late second century:
Against Heresies 2:22:4 [189 AD]
“Jesus came to save all through himself;
all, I say, who through him are reborn in God:
infants, and children,
and youths, and old men.
Therefore he passed through every age,
becoming an infant for infants,
sanctifying infants;
a child for children,
sanctifying those who are of that age…
a youth for youths,
becoming an example to the youths,
and thus sanctifying them for the Lord.
So likewise he became an older man for old men,
that he might sanctify the aged also...
Then, at last, Jesus came on to death itself,
so that He might be the first-born from the dead,
so that in all things
He might have the preeminence.”
Beloved, the omnipresent grace of God literally penetrated the tiniest, most intimate places of creation so that He might redeem all of creation, and this includes redeeming your little loved ones who died before they even developed lungs.
You do not have to cling to the unbiblical hope that they might be just on the outskirts of paradise to assuage the dreadful fear of where your baby might be.
If you believe God’s grace is conferred in baptism, you don’t have to worry about what if your baby wasn’t baptized, and if you’re a Reformed baptist, you don’t have to just hope that God may potentially possibly have elected your child even though they never made a credible profession of faith.
Christian, you can take comfort in the very character of our God, not only by promise and shadow in the Old Testament, but in the revelation of Himself in the person and work of Jesus in the New, and you can know without a shadow of a doubt that you will see your little one again.
God loves you and your children, and your children’s children, and He is a God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with all those who love him and keep his commandments a thousand generations.
If and when you have doubts as to whether God loves you and considers you as His beloved child, look to that great love with which He loved you in sending His own Son into the world to live, die, and rise again to be reminded that you are His child.
And if and when you have any doubts as to whether He loves your children, even the children in your womb, look to the lengths He was willing to go to save even them - to the womb, through the tomb, and into glory for His glory and the life of the world. Amen?
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Let’s pray.
Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in the OT and for revealing Him as the fulfillment of all of these things in the New. Give us your Spirit that we might understand these words and the fulness of your truth as you have revealed Him to us in the person and work of Jesus, who with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. Amen.
O Almighty God,
who out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings hast ordained strength,
and madest infants
to glorify thee by their deaths:
Mortify and kill all vices in us,
and so strengthen us by thy grace,
that by the innocency of our lives,
and constancy of our faith
even unto death,
we may glorify thy holy Name
and be reunited with all your and our children again;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Communion
Our communion meditation is from 2 Samuel, chapter 12, verses 13-23, where we see and hear not just God’s promise to save infants of believers who didn’t do anything to contribute to the deaths of their children but of David’s assurance that God can and does save even the infants who die because of the sins of their parents.
Hear God’s Word:
2 Samuel 12:13–23
[13] David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” And Nathan said to David, “The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. [14] Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die.” [15] Then Nathan went to his house.
And the LORD afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. [16] David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. [17] And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. [18] On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” [19] But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.” [20] Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. [21] Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” [22] He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ [23] But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
This is the word of our Lord. Thanks be to God.
As we discussed at the beginning of our time together, good fathers tell their children the truth, and sometimes the truth hurts.
Now, a bad father can hide behind that fact and tell the truth in such a way that only hurts, but nevertheless the truth does hurt.
When Jesus prayed what has come to be known as the High Priestly prayer, He prayed to His Father, “Sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth.”’
As Christians, we are the people Jesus prayed this for - that we would be sanctified, set apart, made holy by the Word of God. And as Christians we must be people of the truth, even if and when it hurts because only in telling the truth can we also be comforted by the truth.
When we don’t tell people the truth about their sin, we can’t offer the only truth that can heal them from it, and that includes the sin of being responsible for the death of your child.
We believe the Bible teaches that life begins at conception, just like the angel told Mary and just like we heard in several of the passages in the sermon.
And that means that any and everyone, whether it be through an irresponsible use of birth control or IVF or someone who had an actual abortion, you are responsible for the death of a child.
I cannot downplay what you’ve done; I’m not going to patronize you and call you a victim if you’re not; and I’m not going to tell you what you did isn’t grievous in God’s sight.
Any and all false gospel messages that would do anything less than tell you the truth that hurts cannot offer you the only thing you know deep down you crave, comfort, forgiveness, peace, and an answer to the nagging question what happened to that baby.
In our sermon today, we discussed the covenant love of God to parents and the children of believing parents, but I saved the question that may come to many of our minds every year on anti-abortion day of the Lord, “What about the babies that die because of the sins of their parents?”
Well, as grievous as that is, if that is you, you too can find comfort, not just in the fact that now that you’re forgiven you belong with body and soul both in life and in death to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ, but you can find the same comfort for your unborn child, the comfort David found in the covenant love of His God whose grace covered all His sins, even the sins that resulted in the death of his child.
You committed sexual immorality?
In Christ, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
Your sins are what led to the death of your child?
In Christ, where that sin abounds, God’s grace abounds all the more.
You took an abortifacient or have dozens of frozen embryos or have knowingly had the life of your child ended?
In Christ, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.
Again, I do not say any of those things to hurt you anymore than you already hurt, and I’m not using God’s grace to downplay sin.
I tell you the truth about these things because you need to hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so that you can receive the help of God; without the truth of your sin and the truth of the gospel, you will be forever miserable, forever anxious and suffering and questioning because you will have no way to reconcile the things you’ve done with ultimate reality.
But with the truth of what we celebrate at this Table, with what we sang just a few moments ago,
“The only-begotten Son of God, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary was born, was made man; was crucified under Pontius Pilate; suffered, was buried, on the third day rose again, and ascended into Heaven”
With those truths echoing in your ears and sitting before you in this bread and wine, you do not have to only weep; because of the forgiveness of sins purchased for you by Christ and extended to you, you, can like David, trust that your God’s sovereign grace covers all your sins.
And even though your child will not come to you, you will go to them.
No doubt, David still thought about his boy and what could have been the rest of his life; no doubt he still felt sad and still had hard days where guilt and shame crept back in; but because of David’s faith in God’s eternal covenant love for him and his son, ultimately David didn’t grieve as one without hope, and neither should you.
Since we believe Jesus died and rose again, and through Jesus God will bring with Him all those who have fallen asleep, including all the children we never knew, we can by walk in God’s grace and mercy and forgiveness and comfort, looking forward to that last day, when Jesus will wipe away every tear from every eye, and you’ll see Him and all your loved ones, even the ones you never knew, face to face in glory everlasting.
Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.
Therefore, let us keep the feast!
1 Corinthians 11:23-24
“For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
"We do not presume to come to your Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in your many and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under your Table. But you are the same Lord, whose character is to have mercy: Thank you, gracious Lord, that our sinful bodies are made clean by his body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, so that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen. (BCP – Prayer of Humble Access)
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat, this is My body, which is for you; do this as my memorial.”
These are the gifts of God for the people of God, receive them by faith as such.
Take, eat, remember, believe and proclaim that Christ the Lord lived, died, and rose again for you.’
1 Corinthians 11:25-26
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
We thank you, Oh God, that you sent your Son to enter into the most humble estate of conception so that His salvation might be extended even into the womb. And we thank you now for this cup of the new covenant which makes glad our hearts, even through tears, as we await the blessed day when we will rise unto glory everlasting. In Jesus’s name, we give you thanks. Amen.
Take, drink, remember, believe and proclaim that the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ was given for a complete remission of all our sins.
Having dined with our God at His Table, let us now rise and give Him thanks.
Almighty God, You gave us the true bread that came down from heaven, Even Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord: Grant that we who have received this sacrament of His Body and Blood May abide in Him, and He in us, That we may be filled with the power of His endless life, And serve Him with gladness and thanksgiving forever. Amen.
As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ is reigning.
And Christ will come again. Amen.
Receive this commission from the Lord.
Colossians 3:1–4
[1] If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. [3] For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
The Benediction
Receive this sure blessing from the Lord.
Hebrews 13:20–21
[20] Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, [21] equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in [you] that which is [beautiful] in his sight, through [this] Jesus Christ, [our Lord], to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.