In this video, Dr. J.V. Fesko explains the biblical practice of paedobaptism.
Some Christians look upon paedobaptism and they question it, and sometimes they even think that it may be unbiblical. But what is it that we do in the Presbyterian Church when we baptize infants? Well, at least in the West, one of the most common ways that I think Christians look upon baptism is that they chiefly look at it in terms of, what am I saying to God? How is this an act of my commitment to God; my promise to Him? But we have to remember that it’s not us that has instituted the sacrament of baptism, but rather it is God who has instituted the sacrament of baptism. And with His institution of this sacrament through Christ we should ask, what is His intention? What does He mean by this? And I think we can summarize this in a very brief kind of overview of redemptive history.
We can say that it’s the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the seed of David who was cut off in [Christ’s] crucifixion, which the Apostle Paul in Colossians 2:11—12 characterizes as His circumcision. So the seed of the woman was cursed and cut off for the sake of redemption. In the wake of that crucifixion or circumcision, [Christ] has poured out the Spirit upon the church. We see this at Pentecost when the Apostle Peter speaks at Pentecost, and he says that the promise of the gospel is to both you and to your children after you, echoing the promise that God gave to Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 17.
We see that when we baptize our infants, we’re saying that God has given this promise, that He has given it through Christ, the One who was circumcised and cut off in His crucifixion, and that He has poured out the Spirit through baptism, and that this baptism of the Spirit has been poured out upon the entire creation, but not only the entire creation, but especially upon the church unto salvation.
And so we’re saying that adults that make a profession of faith in Christ have received this outpouring of the Spirit, as too have their children. And we eagerly look forward for those children to make those professions of faith. So in that vein, I think we can say that the baptism of infants is an imminently biblical practice.